AusBonsai

About two years ago tried some cuttings off a mulberry tree and had no success. The leaves would grow then die. And repeat a few times till nothing happened and all was lost. Not sure if hard to get going or just me. Anyway one year ago I thought I would air layer a mulberry at my parents house. Parent trees Age is fourty to fifty years old. I didnt get any photos but layed five branches. I heard on the net wait a month or two and can cut off. Mulberry may be slower not sure but After two months no sign of roots so left it and left it and finally one of the layer s had some roots. Then forgot about the layers for a while till the mulberry tree went dorment for the winter. I must add I never had to do anything to the air layer the whole time since putting it on.. Checked it in winter and all of the layers had roots. I waited till a couple of months ago and cut them all off the main tree amd planted them in the ground. Here is some photos.I did 4 with spag moss and 1 with regular potting mix and im sorry to tell those buying expensive spag moss there was no difference at all. In fact cheap potting mix may have been better if anything. I then planted them in the groung to settle with fingers crossed they would shoot.now to my suprise they are all shooting not bad for first attempt at layering. Although nothing hard about it just patience.lol.

I cut branches and stick them in the ground next to the parent tree...they all root.
Job well done! I root all my layers in sand only.

Well done Sammy, they are the start of some nice trees for sure. I have mullberry envy! Please keep updating this thread as they develop. I am not sure why your cuttings didn't work as I understand that they grow from cuttings easily however I have no experience growing them so I will leave advice to the more experienced.

Ent

Will keep you updated ent not sure what my problem was with cuttings but had no success. Having said that I work work at a vinyard nursery and we root and graft all the time no probs. Also done figs fruit trees olives and more no probs. Who knows. Will update in a couple of months. Hopefully with some leaves and not dead

I spent 3 years taking over a dozen cuttings each year, and finally got 2 to root on the third year. So it's not just you sammy, I just think they don't root as easy as other trees have always loved mulberries, my cuttings are a bit smaller than your layers

Update on my layers.my plan now is to let them grow for the summer to strengthen and maybe dig them and put into a nursery pot next year to develop branching ? Plenty of time to think

Hi Sammy D
I took cuttings from a mulberry ( white mulberry )tree my friend was cutting back , i used a mix of 50% coco coir and 50% diatomite fines ( +- 2mm ) from sifting , this was about 20cm deep . i took about 15 cuttings most of about 10 - 15 mm and 4 of about 50mm thick . only one of the thin ones rooted but all 4 of the thick ones rooted and all have grown really strongly the only problem is that they only rooted on one side, could be because i didn't use any rooting hormone. what this means i'm not to sure but was thinking of trying again next year to see the results
regards
peterb

Hi peter at least you had some grow. Beter than me. Maybe they will grow radial roots in the future or you could ground layer once established. Keep us posted on your success with mulberry cuttings

weird . Here by me i just look at a mullberry cutting and it roots ! I use river sand , but also had success with potting soil ! I always take very thin ones though.

Hey all. Dug up one of my five mulberry trees to see how they rooted. Looks like they are doing well since layering. So far haven't done anything at all to this as far as pruning and shaping. This is how it looked on the parent tree. Just layered it for a year. In the ground for another now in a pot
Going to take it slow as its a 40 odd year old branch now being made into a tree.

I dug a couple of my air layers up from the ground today and are happy with how they have grown. On reflection though i would have just put the air layers straight into pots no in the ground. The reason is i do not need to fatten a trunk so there is no reason to put them in the ground. I thought they would recover better and be easier to look after but they needed a lot of water over the summer and were more work than a pot i reckon. Come to the conclusion only plant your trees in the ground to fatten trunks otherwise put the straight into a pot from either air layer or collection. Now after a year in the ground im almost back to square one. Wiring them into a pot for stability and also have to hope they make it and let the tree recover again. If i was to put it in a pot from the start it would be well astablished in the pot and very stable by now. Live and learn ey. Anyway here is a few photos from today

Update on these three. They have been growing ok but finding it a little hard to reduce the lenght of some of the branches. There has been some back budding but not enough. Also i did a trial and cut three branches back to dormant buds with no green foliage left on and the whole branches died back. (Marked with yellow tape). So looks like for now will just take it easy no drastic cutting. Not quite my usual style lol.

Bit of an update. All 3 are still going well.

Autumn colours

Hi Sam,

Great thread, I've only just read it for the first time. What's your routine for trimming the summer growth?

Cheers,
Matt.

In general just use consistent pruning. When a shoot gets to about 5 or 7 nodes I cut it back to 1 or 2.
Unless I'm trying to grow out or thicken a branch.
The top I cut back when shoots reach only 4 nodes to try and slow the top down a little.
I allow it to fruit and they sure are yum.