Free Time Projects 2

Tom

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In previous years I've planted four mulberry trees on the ranch and managed, so far, to successfully fight off hordes of gophers. I've decided that the world needs more fruitless mulberry trees, so I'm starting a bunch of new trees from cuttings I've taken after watching YT videos on how to do it. I should know in about three weeks if it worked and I start seeing new growth. Once they are started and ready for planting, I'm going to line them up outside the walls of several of my tortoise enclosures that run the length of the ranch. In time, this should give the tortoises good mid day and afternoon shade all summer and then full sun in winter when the trees drop their leaves. Plus good food!
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Markw84

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I'll trade you some pothos for your enclosures for one of those when I see you in a week or so!! Make up an extra one for me!
 

Srmcclure

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In previous years I've planted four mulberry trees on the ranch and managed, so far, to successfully fight off hordes of gophers. I've decided that the world needs more fruitless mulberry trees, so I'm starting a bunch of new trees from cuttings I've taken after watching YT videos on how to do it. I should know in about three weeks if it worked and I start seeing new growth. Once they are started and ready for planting, I'm going to line them up outside the walls of several of my tortoise enclosures that run the length of the ranch. In time, this should give the tortoises good mid day and afternoon shade all summer and then full sun in winter when the trees drop their leaves. Plus good food!
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Good luck!! I hope they all do well!
 

Tom

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No growth on the originals, but I planted a bunch more. My parents had their mulberry trimmed and saved me a truckload of branches, so I fed the leaves to the tortoises and cut some more branches for planting.
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wellington

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I wish I could get my mulberry to grow straight. I have 3 of the fruitless dwarf, grows slow and to about 10 feet. All three growing to a side and the branches are dropped like a weeping willow.
What kind is yours?
 

Tom

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What kind is yours?
I only know of the red and the white. I think I have one of each in this yard, and two more reds in another yard. My Mom's is a red too. The reds make the bigger rounder leaves while the whites make the leaves with the three "fingers". At least that is how they were labeled and that is how I learned it. All of mine are fruitless types.
 

COmtnLady

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What kind of cold can a mulberry withstand? What Zone do they live in?
 

wellington

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I only know of the red and the white. I think I have one of each in this yard, and two more reds in another yard. My Mom's is a red too. The reds make the bigger rounder leaves while the whites make the leaves with the three "fingers". At least that is how they were labeled and that is how I learned it. All of mine are fruitless types.
Mine has the fingers.
 

turtlesteve

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White has shiny smooth leaves and red has leaves that look dull on top and are slightly fuzzy underneath. Also white has smaller leaves - 3-4” inches and red has leaves that are 6-8”. The number of fingers is variable.

Most cultivated varieties are white mulberry, except some of the fruiting varieties can be white/red hybrids.
 

turtlesteve

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F9721C58-A159-4984-AAFF-61BCD93FFAD0.jpegRed on left, white on the right. The railroad tie they are on is 8” wide.
 

Tom

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White has shiny smooth leaves and red has leaves that look dull on top and are slightly fuzzy underneath. Also white has smaller leaves - 3-4” inches and red has leaves that are 6-8”. The number of fingers is variable.

Most cultivated varieties are white mulberry, except some of the fruiting varieties can be white/red hybrids.
I'll take pics today Steve. I'd love to hear your thoughts on what I've got. They were labeled as Morus rubra and Morus alba when I bought them.

The rubra is shown in picture #3 of the first post on this thread. The alba can been seen in the background to the right behind the trampoline. I'll get leaf and trunk close ups.
 

turtlesteve

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Here we also have paper mulberry, the leaves of which look just like red mulberry but feel like sandpaper on both sides. I don’t feed it because I have no idea if it’s edible.

I have one weeping mulberry (alba) that was planted by the prior homeowner. It grows slowly and I moved it over winter because they planted it over the septic leach field. On this tree, which is fruitless, every single leaf has 5 lobes. I have another white mulberry from a wild seedling growing in the yard (they are not native but naturalized in the southeast). That one has a mix of unlobed and 3-lobed leaves.

A lot of nurseries get it mixed up because the fruit of Morus alba can be black, red, or white - but there are also unique species with these names. So occasionally people will represent Morus alba with red fruit as Morus rubra.
 

Relic

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Around my parts, fruitless mulberry trees have been routinely denigrated as "trash trees" and few, if any, nurseries even sell them anymore. People cut them down in droves, grind the stump, and plant oak trees instead. I used to have one at a previous house and had a fellow ask to harvest leaves for his silkworms. I had no idea at the time that tortoises would eat the leaves. Beauty is truly in the eyes of the beholder...or the tortoise/silkworm rancher.
 

MichaelL

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Cool Tom. We have a wild red mulberry in our woods that is about forty feet tall and and pretty big. Provides endless leaves for tortoise food. I remember I found another wild smaller one in a different part of the woods but i can't find it, I guess I just need to look harder lol. But good luck!
 
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Tom

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@Tom interested in selling one of your extras?
Sure, but we'll have to wait and see if they take, or not, and its about a 3 hour drive for you from Huntington Beach to Santa Clarita. You can probably get one from a nursery near you for less than the price of gas to come all the way up to where I am.
 

Yvonne G

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They're considered trash trees here too but nurseries will order you one if you insist. Those folks just don't know good trees. My old mulberry tree is just the best darned shade ever. It's at least ten degrees cooler under my tree than out from under it. It's got a very dense thirty or forty foot 'wingspan'. My favorite tree on the property.
 

yaycolin

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Sure, but we'll have to wait and see if they take, or not, and its about a 3 hour drive for you from Huntington Beach to Santa Clarita. You can probably get one from a nursery near you for less than the price of gas to come all the way up to where I am.
Let me know if they end up taking, and if you'd like to sell one! Should only be about an hour drive, without traffic that is and depending on where in Santa Clarita you are. I wouldn't mind the drive at all. I called a couple Orange County nurseries this morning and none of them carry the fruitless variety.
 

Tom

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They're considered trash trees here too but nurseries will order you one if you insist. Those folks just don't know good trees. My old mulberry tree is just the best darned shade ever. It's at least ten degrees cooler under my tree than out from under it. It's got a very dense thirty or forty foot 'wingspan'. My favorite tree on the property.
I had to special order mine and the people at the nursery kept asking, "Are you suuuurrrrrre you really want a mulberry tree?" I got funny looks the whole time. It was kind of creepy, and then my friend who works at the nursery walked up and told them all, "Its for his tortoises and he's on a big dirt ranch...". That completely changed the tone of the conversation, and from that point on everyone totally understood why I was getting mulberry trees and they all stopped looking at me funny and murmering to each other.
 

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