Mulberry - male or female?

[Pullinchips]

yes the trees are male and female, you have a male if there is no fruit.

-nate

[Tom]

Mulberry is easy to root.

Find a tree that is bearing fruit and take a cutting.  Root the cutting and you will have a tree just like the one that had the berries on it. 

[ohsoloco]

Tom, what's the best way to get the cutting to root?  Put it in some potting soil, for example?  There's a mulberry tree (bush) at my house, but I didn't notice any berries on it last summer.  That would be nice if I could get a tree started from one at my parent's house   

Wait a minute, I remember what my parent's outdoor furniture looks like when the mulberries are ripe...those birds really like those things 

[Tom]

In the Early spring take a cutting of a hardened (year-0ld) limb, about the size of your little finger and 6-10 inches long, that includes a leaf and several buds.  (Leaf optional)

dampen the butt end a little and dust the bottom inch with a rooting hormone.  Rootone

Put this dusted end into a pot of sandy soil that has been thouroughly wettened.

Place the pot under the edge of the house, under a tree or shrubbery where the sun can't cook it.

Sometimes I cover it with a gallon milk jug to make a little greenhouse.  It'll stay wet.

Keep the soil moist.

In about 2 weeks you will be getting roots.  In about 6 weeks, you can probably put it into the ground.
Some cuttings take 12 or more weeks to root.


When you do this, make up 15 or 20.  One is certainly apt to root.

[IL Bull]

I have a mulberry that makes the regular berry but later it makes a berry that is much larger and is white.  It looks kind of like a mulberry but is much larger and hard.  I have yet to eat one.  It looks to ugly to try.  They appear right after the regular fruit,  sometimes both appear at the same time.  Anyone know what these are?

[Tom]

a "large, hard, white, mulberry, after-fruit?"   

I never heard of that.  You must have a special tree.  Maybe a mutation.  It might be the one bush that will change the worlds mulberry population and a million years from now take over the world.  It might be intelligent.  No telling what would happen if you ate one. 

[SwampDonkey]

There is white mulberry (Morus alba), native to Japan and China.

I can't imagine a mulberry bearing fruit twice a year though. You sure it's not some kind of gull?

'Some white mulberries occasionally suffer from popcorn disease. The disease is caused by a fungus that causes individual fruit carpels to swell until they look like unpopped popcorn kernels. Collect and destroy diseased fruit.'
[source]
http://pubs.caes.uga.edu/caespubs/pubcd/b992-w.htm

There are some ancient tales about mulberries:

Pyramus and Thisbe

The Medes and Babylonians burnt the palace of Assurnasirpal II (Assyrian ruler 884-859 BCE) made of cedar, cypress, juniper, boxwood, mulberry, pistachio wood and tamarisk.

[Tom]

http://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/mulberry.html

This is an interesting site full of info.

It seems that a mulberry can be male or female at whim.

White mulberry's can make white fruits but usually they are red

Propogation is midsummer

Grown from seed, it takes 10 years to develop fruit.

[SwampDonkey]

It seems that a mulberry can be male or female at whim.

Thus, the term polygomous.

[Tom]

I've got a neighbor that must have a Gomous. 

[SwampDonkey]

Tom, mulberry sure are an interesting bunch. Trying to figure out their sex, gender or whatever is like playing 'dodge the farmer'. They can have male, female, or perfect flowers and any combination of the three. I'll stick with the barbless blackberries and raspberries.

[Tom]

I had a customer wanting some to make Bows from.  Did you know that it was a Bow wood?    I didn't.  I told him the ditches were full of the stuff .  He didn't know where to find them.

I think they are mor popular for Native bows (one piece wood) than laminated stuff.   That's all I know about that. 

I do know that the wood makes a pretty good bowl.   I've not sawed any, but I've seen a lot of it turned.

http://www.murraygaskins.com/mulberry.html

[SwampDonkey]

No I didn't know that. I did know that pacific yew was used as bow wood. Our Canadian yew is too small a shrub for bows. When I was a kid we always experimented with making bows and arrows and I found northern white cedar made nice arrows. I tried ash for bows, but they'de collapse. I did get my hands on a home made Indian bow and I beleive it was made from black spruce. My grandfather was given it by a local Indian chief and when I got it the bow string was missing. I don't know where it is now. 

[IL Bull]

I thought that osage orange was bow wood.

[SwampDonkey]

I've read that, but it's original distribution was Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas so many tribes wouldn't have had access to it.

[getoverit]

I'll try rooting some and see if I can get them to grow. I guess I really need cuttings from several different trees just to make sure I have a female in the bunch. Heck, for all I know, I may already have a female and need a male 

Thanks for all the good info on this thread though. I've learned a bunch about mulberries, and if this tree doesnt start producing soon, I may even cut it down and mill it up. I'm almost itching to see the orange wood 

[Max sawdust]

Thanks for all the good info on this thread though. I've learned a bunch about mulberries, and if this tree doesnt start producing soon, I may even cut it down and mill it up. I'm almost itching to see the orange wood 

I always wondered if there was a way to preserve the color of fresh cut mulberry.  That almost flouresent orange green is really pretty stuff, fresh.
Max

[Captain]

We've got just one mulberry here on the side of the house.  It is loaded every year.

Captain

[Tom]

It must have something to do with the side of the house.  Dad used to get that way too. 

[ellmoe]

Question   :How to tell the sex of a mulberry tree?

Answer      : Look in the crotch!