Grafting Mulberry?

[Catscratch]

I've been interested in grafting for a while but haven't tried it yet. Everything I read about it is on apples, or persimmon, or some other fruit tree that people seem to have a lot growing native around them. I don't have any of those around but I do have a lot of mulberry! Anybody grafting mulberry? Have advice for scions or sources?

 

[Catscratch]

I found nuttrees scion section. Is $6 per 10inches a normal price? I've never bought scion wood before but that seems kind of high to me. Maybe I'm off base with that but I plan to have a lot of failure and that could get expensive.

 

[chickenlittle]

For unusual stuff, I think their price is ok. Apples and pears are usually a little cheaper, $3 to $5. But if you are doing grafting, it is just the start. You make 2 or 3 grafts from that stick. Assuming any of those are successful, you will have plenty of wood to graft more over the next few years.

 

[chickenlittle]

To go with the other post, the price makes sense if you want a particular named variety. For more common named varieties or productive unnamed varieties, trading works good.

 

[Catscratch]

Looks like I have some stuff to learn! Compatibility should probably be confirmed before I start!

I'm tempted to just buy some trees and grow my own scions. If the named varieties grow as fast as my natives I would have an unlimited supply of scions pretty quickly.

Anyone have a nursery they like for named mulberries?

 

[wiscwhip]

I wouldn't even worry about grafting mulberries, they are easy enough to grow from just shoving cuttings in the ground that your grafting time and dollars would be better spent on pears and apples IMO. Find a prolific producing mulberry tree, take some cuttings and shove them in some soil(whether it be in pots to get them started as bare roots or planting them directly into their final resting places) and let nature take it's course. Finding improved rootstocks for mulberry could be a daunting task as well. One other huge consideration that I have read, but have no verification of, is that you must know the "sex" of the rootstock before you graft to it. I have read that if you graft to a male rootstock, you will never get any fruit, as only female mulberry trees produce fruit. Try to get your hands some "Northrop" scions, SLN used to carry them.

 

[Catscratch]

Yep, zone 6 (south Kansas). Natives grow like weeds here. I think it would be fun to get a bunch of different ones growing.

 

[wiscwhip]

Blacks are considered a Zone 7, they will not do well if temps get below zero much at all.

 

[Catscratch]

I'm 6a. Our natives are black/purple. How do you know that the named varieties are black or not? Is it simply based on berry color?

 

[wiscwhip]

Supposedly mulberries are "color coded" based on the color of their buds. I have never looked close enough at multiple budding mulberries to notice a difference myself.

 

[Catscratch]

I looked at Stark Bro's. They rate Illinois Everbearing and Sweet Lavender for zone 6. Their others were borderline or not in my zone. I guess one of each would be good start!