The "other" fruits?

[Jordan Selsor]

Dang Native Hunter! You got plenty to live off the land!

I got a couple of fuyu persimmons to put in the ground this spring. I mainly got them for grafting experiments. Heard they taste good. Look forward to trying them

 

[Native Hunter]

Dang Native Hunter! You got plenty to live off the land!

I got a couple of fuyu persimmons to put in the ground this spring. I mainly got them for grafting experiments. Heard they taste good. Look forward to trying them

A country boy can survive Jordan.:D Let us know how those Jap persimmons taste!!

 

[aerospacefarmer]

I planted peach, nectarine, plum and apricot and have had great success. Nothing better than grabbing a peach off the tree as you are riding on the mower and let that sweet juice quench your thirst. Never had a problem with critters eating them but the deer do eat the peaches that fall out of the caged area

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Stu & Native - are mulberries touchy to grow or are they more or less " set it & forget it " ?? I know birds will hammer them. I was thinking of attracting birds for bug-eating and diversity. What's the skinny ??

 

[Native Hunter]

Stu & Native - are mulberries touchy to grow or are they more or less " set it & forget it " ?? I know birds will hammer them. I was thinking of attracting birds for bug-eating and diversity. What's the skinny ??

They are easy to grow with no disease problems. You just need to protect them from rubbing and browsing. They grow really fast and are essentially trouble free in my experience. I think they would be easy to sprout from cuttings, but I've not done it. I would compare them to the ease of growing of an elderberry.

 

[TMIL]

Mulberries are at the top of my list to plant as well. There are many native trees in our county, but none on my property. The kids and I love to eat them. They ripen before blackberries making them the first wild fruit of the year that we get to eat.

 

[wiscwhip]

Mulberries grow readily from cuttings just dipped in a little rooting hormone and pushed into the ground like a willow. I have never personally tried it, but mulberries can be grown from large size cuttings or truncheons. Basically a cutting the size of your arm or larger. They will reportedly produce fruit the first full season?

 

[Rally1148]

I'm gonna have to try some mulberries!!!

 

[wiscwhip]

I just posted a new thread on propagation techniques that explains how to grow them with large cuttings.

 

[wiscwhip]

Are you saying for year one fruiting or actually getting the larger truncheons to take in general?

 

[TMIL]

I'll probably order some from MDC next year (along with some elderberry). How easy will planting them be? That will determine how many I order of each. Am I right in thinking I can dig smaller holes than I did for my apple trees this year?

 

[wiscwhip]

Both...but especially to get one fruiting in year one. I tried cuttings a number of times with poor (zero) results. As I recall, brushpile had similar results. I have seen guys in FL and GA report good results with cuttings and truncheons.

The year one fruit does seem a bit of a stretch given the shorter length of the growing season and the energy those truncheons would have to expend to put down enough roots to survive the winter.
We planted 20 smaller red mulberry cuttings in clusters of 5 in 4 locations on the old place and of those 20 we had 8 survive and now produce yearly fruit. The key for us, was that of the ones that survived, 6 were planted in our river bottom. The 2 that survived on the higher ground were both on the north side of the river and planted at the base of a slight slope that drained towards the river, so I think when it rained, the seepage water may have pooled at the base of the hill, keeping them from drying out as readily in that sand. We had no luck at all on the higher, dryer areas south of the river nearer the house, which is more like your parents old place. Stu, did you get bareroot mulberries to grow on either place? We never tried them. Didn't brushpile lose those during back to back years of terrible drought, IIRC?

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Thanks for all the info on mulberry trees guys. What's the simplest to grow - the red or darker purple kind ?? Is there a named cultivar that stands out ??

 

[wiscwhip]

I would try to find some that occur naturally somewhere near your general area in addition to planting anything you would choose to buy. I would suggest trying to grow the native red mulberries if you can, if not the "white" and hybrid mulberries will be fine as well. Illinois Everbearing is a popular cultivar and is used for both wildlife and personal consumption purposes.

 

[Catscratch]

Lots of mulberries here. Some of the best fishing you can find is under a mulberry tree. I may have to try transplanting a few to better locations or grafting to get a higher density of females.

I'm also going to start planting more of the "other" fruits and shrubs. Lots of great info here guys. Thanks.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

I agree Catscratch. ^^^^^ This forum is the cat's a$$ for good info. Good people with hands-on experience.