Thursday 26 April 2018

Mulberry tree from cuttings the easy way

White Mulberries (Morus alba) are one of the easiest fruiting trees to grow from cuttings.  Anyone can do it and nothing is needed other than access to a white mulberry branch and some water.

White mulberries are incredibly useful plants: they are simple to grow and high yielding, the fruit is delicious easy to pick and often very abundant, they provide great shade, they grow very fast, the leaves are edible, leaves also make a nice 'tea', they can be used as high protein fodder for livestock and silkworms, all things considered they are an amazing tree.

I have grown mulberries from cuttings a few times now, I photographed my latest effort to show how simple it was.
Mulberry tree that I grew from the cutting below

I have been told from some gardeners that to grow white mulberries need all kinds of special techniques and equipment in order to grow them from cuttings.  While this may be the case for other species of mulberry I am happy to say that this isn't true for white mulberries.  I have grown white mulberry trees from cuttings of actively growing trees in summer as well as dormant trees in winter, and both fared equally well.

In early spring (09/09/2017) I found a mulberry tree with a damaged twig, I assume it was damaged as someone brushed past it and broke it.  It was labelled as a white fruited white mulberry.  I have bought one of these before it was mislabeled, so didn't want to risk spending money on another one and having it also mislabeled.

Part of a branch had been damaged, so the tree would be no worse off from me taking that twig, so I put the twig in my pocket and took it home.  As you can see in the pictures, it was a tiny twig.
White mulberry buds opening
White Mulberry twig cutting
When I got home I put the cutting in a jar with a little water and put it on the kitchen window sill where I could top up the water easily.  A few days later the buds started to swell, they then opened.  A few weeks later tiny roots appeared.  Eventually the immature fruits dropped off (I should have removed them as soon as I saw them as they just waste the cutting's energy) and small leaves started to emerge.  Once the roots grew a little longer I planted into a pot of soil (05/11/2017).  It was that simple.

I should have planted it out a lot earlier but I kind of forgot for some time.  It is not great to let cuttings sit in water with such long roots.  Water roots and soil roots are slightly different and the cutting will need to adjust once planted in soil.  Mulberry cuttings are very forgiving and will survive this kind of poor treatment.

Mulberry with tiny roots starting to grow
Mulberry cutting with tiny roots - ready to be planted in soil now
Mulberry cutting grown in water, very easy
You can just as easily grow a mulberry cutting by planting it in soil instead of putting it in a jar of water.  I do it in water because I can see the roots and know it is alive.  Having a cutting in soil may accidentally dry out and kill any developing roots, if it is in water this problem is completely avoided.  Having the cutting in water you may not plant it in soil early enough and the water roots may get too long, so there are benefits to both methods.

When taking mulberry cuttings you don't need rooting hormones, you don't need humidity tents, you don't need bottom heat, you don't need daily misting, you don't need special lighting, you don't need to change the water daily.  All of these things may help, but the cutting will survive and grow without them.  I have never used any of these things with white mulberry cuttings and so far have enjoyed a 100% strike rate.

I simply put the cutting in a jar with some water and topped it up occasionally.  Growing white mulberry from cuttings is that simple.
Mulberry cutting - should have been planted a few weeks ago
Mulberry cutting roots
There is no magic length of mulberry cutting that should be taken.  Larger cuttings work well as they have a lot of stored energy, tiny cuttings like the one I used also survive and grow fast enough.  While my cutting was only 10 to 15 cm long, and I have heard of people having success taking cuttings that were over 6 foot long!  White mulberry trees are pretty hardy and forgiving.

my mulberry tree that grew from a tiny cutting, it is even larger now!

A larger cutting will usually provide a lot more fruit the following spring.  My little tree may fruit this coming spring, or maybe it will not quite be large enough, only time will tell.

I had planned on using this cutting as rootstock to graft my white shahtoot mulberry .  I may grow out this cutting and see if it does have white fruit.  I can always take more cuttings later to use as rootstock if I want to.

I may eventually sell rooted mulberry cuttings, if I do they will be on my for sale page.

7 comments:

  1. If you are wondering how long it takes for a mulberry cutting to fruit, I wrote a post on that here:
    https://living-mudflower.blogspot.com/2018/11/mulberry-tree-time-from-planting.html

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  2. I’ve only seen purple mulberries. Can you propagate new trees from a purple mulberry tree?

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    1. Hi Seamstress,

      It depends on what you mean by 'purple mulberries'? I assume you mean a white mulberry with purple fruit, in which case the answer is yes.

      The term 'white mulberry' has nothing to do with fruit colour, it is the common name of Morus alba. Fruit from 'white mulberry' is often purple or very dark and some are almost black. There are also a lot of hybrids between white mulberry and red mulberry (Morus rubra), they often have purple or very dark fruit.

      White mulberry are very simple to take cuttings from, as are cuttings from white mulberry hybrids. Other species of mulberry, such as Morus nigra, can be more difficult to root but I am told that they are still possible.

      I have never seen a black mulberry (Morus nigra) in Australia. Every tree I have seen that is claimed to be a black mulberry has turned out to be a dark fruited white mulberry (Morus alba, or alba hybrid). That being said, I am told that black mulberry are in this country, and I am keen to grow one some day.

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  3. I’ve got about 10 mulberry cuttings sitting in water on my kitchen window sill. They have been there for about 6 weeks. They all have developed white nodules on the part of the cutting sitting in water and one has a leaf bud starting to unfurl. I also have cuttings I put in pots with potting soil outside in diffused light. The ones out side have developed roots all ready but not the ones in jars with water. How long did it take your cutting to go from nodules to roots is my question. I would appreciate any feedback you can offer. Thank you. 😊

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  4. Hi there. I’ve got about 10 mulberry cuttings sitting in jars of water on my kitchen window sill. I’ve had them there for about 6 weeks. They have white nodules on the portions under water and on has a leaf bud about to unfurl. I also planted a few cuttings in pots with potting soil at the same time and they have been outside in diffused light. Those have sprouted roots. I was wondering how long it took for your cutting to actually sprout roots from the nodules? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. 😊

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    Replies
    1. I have some everbearing purple mulberry cuttings that took off like rockets in some soil from my yard. I am watching the roots in a transparent container, so I can plant them out when they are more established. If you already know that planting them in dirt brings better results, why wouldn't you take the ones in water and plant them in dirt too, since they don't seem to be doing that great. It is possible that the chloring and chloramine as well as fluoride is retarding the roots. I would wash them off gently and get them into dirt. I have found that if I only water with water that has been sitting out, or rain water, I have better results. Plants do not seem to do well with water with a lot of chemicals in it.

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