I started 20 mulberry cuttings the other day. They root stupid easy, just rough the bottom half up and stick them in the dirt, rooting hormone is optional. These are from a native red mulberry, which happens to be mostly everbearing. All of these however are going to be grafted to Australian white, likely AKA King Shahtoot mulberry. Most mulberries root easily on their own, but for some reason the Australian tends not to, so we graft instead.
The Austrian/King Shahtoot is awesome, it makes 3″ long fruit that are greenish/white when ripe (therefore non staining), and taste sort of like a cantaloupe mixed with random tropical fruit flavors and are super sweet. I’ll post some pics of mine once I get some ripe fruit.
If you’re wanting to learn grafting, mulberries make a really good practice species. The wood cuts easily enough, and getting successful grafts isn’t all that hard. Here’s a pic of one that’s been grafted a few weeks and is mostly healed up:
Here’s another one of the same grafted one next to the mother plant:
We’ve had a little cold weather lately, and the mother plant isn’t in the greatest spot, so please excuse the less than happy looking leaves. The grafted one looks nice though, right?
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