Mulberry tree help

I have had a mulberry that i cut and potted and covered with plastic.  It had great leaf growth so after a month i removed the plastic cover and within a couple hours the leaves wilted.  What am i doing wrong. How long do i need to leave it covered

Everette, welcome to the forum!

Sometimes plants need a "hardening-off" time.  I feel that is the case with your mulberry.  If I am wrong maybe someone will speak with the right answer.

To me, the environment of the mulberry was drastically changed as the humidity the mulberry was used to plus the plastic may have offered some protection from the sun

Try spraying the leaves gently with water and cover the mulberry back with the plastic.

If the leaves perk back up, then tomorrow remove the plastic for a few minutes several times a day.

Plants need to get used to the sun and wind gradually.

I was thinking what Anne said as well. Although, maybe it could be sunburnt? If it doesn't perk back up I would plant it anyway and see what happens.

that looks like a thick enough piece of mulberry that it’s probably got a fair amount of energy at its disposal - frequently in such cases the cutting can grow leaves without growing roots (especially when kept in a heated space)…so my first concern is that that’s the situation. if so it may be too late to save. a very gentle pull could let you know if it has rooted at all.

Is there a trick to get the roots to grow instead of the leaves

For cuttings that are in water, a airpump and bubbler  help encourage root formation.
For cuttings in a solid medium, heating the bottom ends of the cuttings while leaving the tops cool, is a way to promote root growth.

Some trees like willows and poplar can be cut and a cutting can be stuck in the ground and the cutting will grow.

Other trees might need just sticking a cutting into a glass of water to get it to make roots.

root hormones or root stimulators also help to jump-start the process:

Bruce said, " I never knew adding a little honey to boiling water and soaking cuttings in it will help rooting by killing bacteria but the willow water actually has hormones or something that spurs new growth faster. the google searching turned up 7 or 8 different things to help with rooting cuttings besides the little bottle of white hormone powder I';m so accustomed to.
these I found are
spitting on clipping,
apple cider vinegar , 3 tsp/to 1 gal water
ground cinnamon powder
honey, 1 tbsp to 2 cups boiling water
aspirin 1 aspirin dissolved in gallon warm water
willow tea or willow water
aloe vera, pureed aloe gel in blender with bit of water

https://permies.com/t/165823/Root-Hormone-Trees

I hope you will let us know how the mulberry turned out.