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They do grow big! But we hope to control the height and shape by pruning severely and promoting as many leaders as possible in the early summer after harvest. Do you prune your mulberry trees back or just let them grow naturally?

Exactly. It feels strange to create these hot and humid spaces when temperatures in much of the U.S. are already there. Depending on how this goes, we may put up another hoophouse and delay covering it by a couple of weeks to see if we can spread out harvest time. If so, I have a Pawpaw tree in a pot we might sneak in... I think Pawpaws are heat-lovers as well. I hope your heat wave doesn't last much longer. Stay safe! - Mark

Hi. I don't have any direct experience with White Pakistan fruiting (ours didn't make it through the winter here). But it might be one of those mulberries that is shy about fruiting. Sometimes those shy mulberries have no fruit on the trunk, no fruit after rooting, or no fruit after pruning during mid season. Everything varies by climate condition and people might have different experiences but it might take a year or two to fruit. Good luck and I hope this helps! - Mark

@@dingdongsgarden Thanks!

Hi. Yes. We sell cuttings every winter during the dormant season on our store website. Our Shangri La trees took some damage last year but they are recovering so we should have cuttings to sell this winter. Thanks, Mark

Hi. This is a great question. I put together my thoughts on a short here... ruclips.net/user/shortsKYC-zAnGzg8. One thing I didn't mention is that you'll want to coppice (or prune) the willow back to the ground every year so that the foliage or basketry rods are within reach and of higher quality. Hope this helps! - Mark

@@dingdongsgarden thank you..

I apologize but I don't have experience growing in 9b. I always hate to offer advice when I don't have direct experience. For sure it grows in our zone 8A but my understanding is they don't do really well in hot environments. As for taste, I'm still working my way through the black currants but I generally prefer them if they're cooked or processed. They can be pretty tart. However, I was pleasantly surprised with Crandall Black and I remember Boskoop Giant being pretty mild tasting last year. Sorry I can't help more! - Mark

Thanks. Yes. There are some that grow more slowly, but I think you can never eliminate the risk of invasive roots. That said, you can certainly restrain growth of roots by coppicing the willow back every year. And if you want to harvest willow stems for basketry or floral arrangements, or... if you want to have a colorful hedge, you would want to coppice the willow back every year. Its the first year growth of willow that has those special characteristics like color, curls, or weaving ability. Coppicing yearly will certainly restrict root spread. What are you looking for, color, curls, or basketry? Hope this helps! - Mark

Hi. Right. Our willow bed is fenced and protected from deer but my feeling is that deer will sample and forget what they liked or didn't like and go right ahead and sample it again the next day... particularly when everything else is dry from lack of rain. So I don't have any experience with what varieties might be deer resistant. I like the darker rods as well. I've discovered that names of Noire de Villaines and Black Maul build expectation that they will be dark but they are actually a lighter color when dried. However, in our experience, Blackskin willow seems to maintain its dark color even after it is dry. - Mark

Hi. Right. We don't plant anything near the house or septic so I don't have personal experience, but I would assume if you coppice/pollard/heavily prune trees yearly like we do in our willow bed it would limit root growth. Sorry I can't provide anything more definitive. - Mark

Great! I’ll try to take a short video to show progress and share it. They are really starting to grow now with the long days of sunlight. We have some space at our place and our willows are out in the field so we don’t worry too much about roots spreading. While I wouldn’t plant them near a structure, we coppice our willows to the ground every year so the roots won’t be able to spread too far anyway…. Coppicing yearly limits growth somewhat. We harvest all the willow branches every year. We sell cuttings online for other people to grow and keep longer stems that we hope to sell locally for floral arrangements or basketry work. -Mark

@@dingdongsgarden Oh neat! I figured coppicing had some degree of effect. I've been considering doing some rows of my favorite variety of willows and a few other trees with similar characteristics in the back half acre of my property for myself and then selling the extras at a local market. My biggest concern was that I have a septic line running along the edge of the property there, but I'm going to be sure to plant it as far away from that as I can. With the setup, I can easily plant them 50 feet from any structures, but I'd love to plant and coppice some for decorative purposes closer to the house or perhaps a hedgerow along the property line. Glad to find your channel, your videos have been answering a lot of curiosities I've had lately!

Here's how the willows are doing... ruclips.net/user/shortsyoXft2fM_ok

Thanks! After the first winter of having them in ground at 7ft spacing we decided to double the density. So now they’re at 3.5 ft spacing. Hopefully I can get another orchard video out soon to show where we’re at. What are you growing? -Mark

Thanks Charles. Not sure how good I am at it yet but hopefully some people are finding it useful. -Mark

You bet. Thanks for watching! -Mark

Hi. We coppice all of our willow every winter. As soon as all the leaves have dropped and it is dormant. This is usually December for us. - Mark

Hi! Right, I'm not sure where they got the name... its a cutting we got from NPGS. The berries we have seen are moderate size. Here's the origin website with description and more photos: npgsweb.ars-grin.gov/gringlobal/accessiondetail?id=1705092. - Mark

Hi Michael. I really like how early they ripen too. It would be a nice alternative during strawberry season at the farmer's market. And if it's the right variety, it might even yield a second crop later in the summer. Taste... I've discovered that I'm really not that good at judging taste. I like all mulberries and the black mulberries are more flavorfully tart than the white mulberries which just taste like honey to me. I just can't taste a lot of the flavors I hear people use to describe fruit. Maybe it's genetic? I also think that our trees our still young and we have short growing seasons so the tree may develop better fruit (and flavor) over time. Once we get sufficient quantities, we hope to run taste tests with a third party to try and get some consensus. Rubra/Alba Hybrids vs European varieties... I have been approaching trees individually without regard to their origin. We don't have native mulberries here so it's a (very unscientific) multi-year through-spaghetti-at-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks approach looking at factors like 1) survivability and vigor in our cool maritime climate, 2) taste of fruit, 3) density of fruit, and 4) transportability and handling of fruit. We'll share what we find out but it may not be applicable to other regions with hotter summers and colder winters. Just thinking... you have wild local mulberry trees that ripen larger fruit. Do they taste good? Have you considered propagating cuttings from those trees? Thanks so much for reaching out! - Mark

@@dingdongsgarden Thank you for the reply, I can’t tell aroma differences in different mulberries either, just different amounts of sweet and tart. I think that might just be how mulberries are, and different aromas just *appear* stronger or different depending on the acidity and brix, much like macerating strawberries makes them taste closer to jam or adding lemon juice to blueberry pie makes it fruitier. Do the eastern european black colored albas have that “black mulberry” sweet and tart mix, or do they have the “white mulberry” pure sweetness? That, I think, is one of the main things causing me hesitation to choose between the eastern european varieties or the large fruited hybrids. I think I might accept them if they have that pure honey taste anyway, but I would prefer the flavor more closely mirror the tart sweet mix of the wild mulberries if I had the option. And yes, I have thought about propagating the wild mulberries around here, but in my opinion their size is still not acceptable for something like a backyard tree. They are a wonderful tree in sweetness and season and clearly are adapted for this climate if they’re wild, but I do wish you could pick, say, 5 or 6 to get each handful instead of 12. Do you think I ought to go with galicija or something similar? Or would you recommend something else. Ideally it would be large fruited and sweet/tart and, as I mentioned before, my climate has colder winters than yours so something like worlds best or Thai dwarf is 100% off the table

@@dingdongsgarden oh, it may be important to note that I intend on doing an amateur breeding project with them if I can, so perfect genetics aren’t really necessary as if I were to just plant one tree in my yard and that be the one perfect mulberry tree I ever have for the rest of my life. But, I would still like to start with the best genetics possible if I can, to cut myself some of the work.

Hi Michael. Right. Now I understand. I would group all the eastern European black colored mulberries with the rubra/alba crosses in terms of general flavor. If it's a dark colored mulberry, it will have some amount of tartness. To say it another way, I've never tasted a dark mulberry that has the white mulberry no tart/all honey taste. Good luck on your project! - Mark

@@dingdongsgarden thank you so much, that is exactly what I wanted to hear, that gives me a lot of hope for the project

I'm terrible with judging taste but I do know the lighter the mulberry, the sweeter and less tart. White mulberries are like honey, all sweet, no tart. Easter Egg is a lavender mulberry but my understanding it remains sweet without much tart. Riviera Mulberry is lavender and continues to turn dark if left on the tree. If I remember correctly it had some tart. There's other lavender varieties as well. Even some white varieties if left on the tree will take on the lightest shade of purple... I've seen Tehama do this. I hope this helps. Sorry I couldn't be more definitive. - Mark

@@dingdongsgarden Thanks Mark. looking through your pictures i also saw that San Martin looks visually like the variety i am looking for. i will order cuttings from these varieties and try them out when you guys start shipping again. Thank you. - Mike

I wish you the best! We had the same plan until our cold snap last winter but have now re-evaluated our dreams. If it's useful, here's what survived and didn't survive under specific conditions at our place here in zone 8a... ruclips.net/video/SXeLLGA72kY/видео.html - Mark

Yes. It should work. I have some dappled willow that is finally doing well and I'm going to try the same and multiply! Only if I get the time of course. It's so busy in the spring. Lately, I've been thinking that people mostly propagate in the winter because there's fewer chores. Let us know how it goes. - Mark

Thanks for sharing your process Nizar! Very detailed. And of course, congratulations. My attempts at Morus nigra didn't go well this winter. I think I've given up on trying dormant cuttings but the optimist in me things there still may be potential in rooting green cuttings. It sounds like your method takes place when the wood is more in it's growth phase "late spring when buds are swelling". I'm going to attempt using green cuttings taken from an active tree this summer. Thanks again and wish me luck! - Mark

Hi. Sorry, I'm horrible at discerning taste so I don't mention it much in my videos. I can't rightly remember if there was a difference between the two. That said, as we grow out our mulberry orchard, I hope to get enough quantity to conduct a formal taste test on as many of our varieties as we can. It may take some time though. Thanks again and sorry I couldn't be more helpful. - Mark

The Australian is Austurkey. Such a fun mulberry, I’m sad it didn’t make it. Even though our cold snap was unusually cold and might not happen again, I’m afraid to try! -Mark

Hi. We actually bought Issai from both Burnt Ridge and Logees. The leaves and berries in this video are likely small because it was indoors. Is that the difference you see? - Mark

Actually I am looking at the more leathery and bumpy leaf. Maybe it was an overlap from another tree 😂? My fruits are also quite different. We’re the trees from logees and burnt ridge the same? Thanks so much!

The leaves on both our Issai are smooth and shiny. Similar to World's Best, Jan's Best, Thai Dwarf. That said, our Issai sadly died off this winter with a crazy cold spell we experienced: ruclips.net/video/SXeLLGA72kY/видео.html. - Mark

@@dingdongsgarden sorry to hear your Issai died. I propagated like 10 of them if you want a replacement once they are ready. Did you find Issais fruit to be decent? I have read mixed accounts on the quality.

Hi. I usually keep them in the dark for at least three weeks. Even if they are budding out. We had greater success if we did this but it may not work in all situations. What varieties are you trying to root? - Mark

@@dingdongsgarden Just Shangri-la

Hi. I would suggest Maui, Worlds Best, Thai Dwarf, or something like that. It will quickly become root bound in a pot but if you water and fertilize regularly, it will produce fruit. And be sure to prune it back heavily after it fruits. - Mark

Hi. Sorry about that. There were so many close together it was hard to get a full view. We should be able to get better video in the future now that they are out in the orchard. Until then, Jan at @FruitTreeAddict has some nice videos of in ground Dwarf Everbearing trees. -Mark

Also I am in Louisiana zone 8a.

Hi. Thanks. We haven’t made willow water before but all our willows have a consistently high (~99%) rooting success rate. So I would guess that all willow varieties possess high levels of rooting hormone that can be used to encourage root growth. Sorry I can’t be more specific. Hope this helps! -Mark

Hi. I'm glad it was useful! I feel much more confident going forward with the remaining mulberry trees. I think that was as low as the temperature is going to get here. - Mark

Thanks so much. I've heard of red twig dogwood and variegated willow, but not both combined! - Mark