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Mulberry Trees

Q.How To Prune/train A Dwarf, 2-yr-old Mulberry

Zone 5b | Anonymous added on January 12, 2025 | Answered

I’m looking for some help with training my young, everbearing mulberry, in Longmont, CO, zone 5b. It’s from ‘Fresh From Florida’, and the tag says “selected for container gardening”, but there is no Latin name on the tag. It came in a pot, with a single trunk. I don’t remember if it was grafted. I planted it in the ground in spring 2022. Spring of 2023 the single trunk had died over the winter, but new shoots came up. Over summer it grew about 7’ tall, with 6 stems/trunks all at the ground level. No fruit yet. Do I need to cut out any of those stems? Do I need to head it back? What kind of pruning in years to come? Thank you.

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GKH_Susan
Certified GKH Gardening Expert
Answered on January 13, 2025

I tried to find the product you purchased to see if it was grafted but it must have come from a partner of Fresh from Florida. I did find a dwarf everbearing mulberry on another site and it was not grafted. If it was grafted, the shoots that regrew were likely from the rootstalk and not the desirable upper variety that died over winter. If that is the case, you may or may not get fruit and it probably will be inferior if it does fruit.

If you want to take a chance it was not grafted and regrew from its own roots, go ahead and prune it to reduce its height and pinch off the thinnest branches. Prune to shape. Once it is mature, you should only need to prune out crossing branches or dead or damaged branches.

If you want just one trunk, you can cut off at the ground all but one. But since it is dwarf, a shrub like tree would produce more berries.

These articles should help:

https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamental/trees/fruitless-mulberry/mulberry-tree-in-a-pot.htm

https://plantvillage.psu.edu/topics/mulberry/infos

https://ccecolumbiagreene.org/resources/an-introduction-to-growing-unusual-fruits

https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamental/trees/fruitless-mulberry/how-to-grow-mulberry-trees.htm

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