Mulberry Trees

Question

Hello! I had a young mulberry tree 2 years ago. I didn’t know much about how to care for it. It grew and grew and became extremely tall. It would not grow any branches! I read more about pruning and pruned it down, but it was late fall. The next spring it did not bloom and was completely dried up. I dug it up and bought another young mulberry mid summer. It grew a small amount, again, no additional branches, just a small one that was already there. I read more about caring for it in early spring. I read that to encourage branch growth to pull down the end of the main trunk, curving it down. So when it had started sprouting leaves the following spring, I tied the end with a string to the trunk where the end was point straight down. A few weeks later the leaves started to wilt and then dried up and fell off. The whole tree appeared to have all dried up and died. We had a late bought of cold weather/light frost and I believe it got to the tree, followed by another frost. However now, I have 4 stalks coming up from the very base of the original trunk. These stalks begin at basically the soil. My landscaping person weed eated these :(, but now I have small sprigs coming off of each and they are growing taller and growing well. (I have clear plastic bottle wrapped around them to keep him from hitting the weed eater to them again!) My question is, what do I do with these 4 stalks with small sprigs? The original dried trunk (if still viable) will not grow tall now that I have these 4 taking over, correct? In maturity perhaps could these 4 sort of fuse together because of close space to each other and give me 1 large trunk? Should I cut these and pot them until they get bigger and then plant them? I really only want 1 planted in that spot in my yard, but I could perhaps dig up the original one, plant one of my cuttings in the same spot once big enough and find a place for the other 3 should they all make it. Though, the original one will like sprout more stalks with sprigs once I cut the 4, right? so I do want to dig up the original one, right? Als doo I pluck off the springs or any sprigs of the sprigs to encourage the cuttings to grow tall? I have a lot of questions! Could you help answer these?

Answer 1

First you need to know if the tree was grafted or it has its own root. If it was grafted, you don't want to keep the new growth coming from the base. Here is why:
https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamental/trees/tgen/can-grafted-trees-revert-to-their-root-stock.htm

If the tree was not grafted and produced suckers, you can grow a tree from one of those:
https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamental/trees/tgen/planting-a-tree-shoot.htm