Please help me save my mulberry

I have a poor ill-fated Illinois Everbearing mulberry growing on a seedling rootstock. The thing is tiny, just about 3' tall even though it's four years old since at year #2, the deer ate it down to just a few inches above the graft. Last summer we finally got fruit and I was so looking forward to getting a lot more this summer but I just examined it and its trunk under the graft has been almost completely girdled, about 80%.

Rather than cross my fingers and hope for a miracle, I was wondering if I could cut off all the branches above the graft and try rooting them. It's mid winter here and it's dormant. Or I could cut off the top and regraft it to the base.

I'd appreciate any tips, trucks, and advice. TIA!

Here's a picture of what I have to work with

have you got a better pic of the girdled section? if the top bit is still green under the skin and not dried out, i’ve had good luck with bridge grafts over girdled regions. at that size you’d probably only need a twig or two from the top to pull it off.

greg mosser wrote:have you got a better pic of the girdled section? if the top bit is still green under the skin and not dried out, i’ve had good luck with bridge grafts over girdled regions. at that size you’d probably only need a twig or two from the top to pull it off.

Here's a picture of the girdled part. There's a tiny strip of bark remaining on the opposite side. Sorry I didn't realize it wasn't focused until I posted it here just now. 😜

Mulberry can definitely be taken from hardwood cuttings. I would do exactly as your describe.

Reducing the top wood will also give it a better chance of recovering in the spring, as the small bit of remaining bark won't have so much plant to support. It is a shame it is grafted, or I would suggest letting it resprout from the rootstock.

I have taken a bunch of mulberry cuttings this winter, and hoping some of them take.

A successful way to propagate lots of mulberry plants is to cut a bundle of pencil sized sticks in winter, tie them together with string or use a rubber band to hold them and bury them at the base of the parent tree.
By late spring they should have sprouted so you can dig them up, plant into pots and grow them on until advanced enough to plant out in your orchard.
An older gardener told me this many years ago. I tried it and it worked as he described.

That’s really a heartbreaking sight!  

I  favor rooting some cuttingsn, though it occurs to me that if you want to try the bridge graft, you could do both.  Take all the top variety EXCEPT two or three buds.  Use that material for your rooted cuttings.  What life makes it up passed the girdle will be concentrated into few sprouts, rather than spread among many increasing the chance of survival for the original.

I've tried cuttings before. Mulberry, Seabury, currants,  Nanking cherry all worked. YouTube videos can teach you more. I like the method of putting about 3 twigs in a bucket of soil, sitting in about half am inch of water til they sprout out. Rooting hormone helps significantly, I think. But even better is heat from under the pot.

Jenny Wright wrote:I have a poor ill-fated Illinois Everbearing mulberry growing on a seedling rootstock. The thing is tiny, just about 3' tall even though it's four years old since at year #2, the deer ate it down to just a few inches above the graft. Last summer we finally got fruit and I was so looking forward to getting a lot more this summer but I just examined it and its trunk under the graft has been almost completely girdled, about 80%.
Rather than cross my fingers and hope for a miracle, I was wondering if I could cut off all the branches above the graft and try rooting them. It's mid winter here and it's dormant. Or I could cut off the top and regraft it to the base.
I'd appreciate any tips, trucks, and advice. TIA!

So it is grafted, which means that the tops, which you are planning to keep would have to grow roots of their own: they would not produce like the original grafted tree, if they survive at all. Normally, the root part is the one that is more sturdy/ winter-hardy. The top is less so.
From the picture, I would say that your enemy was perhaps not a deer, who can just plain snip off these small shoots and gobble the whole thing in one mouthful. Also the attack was quite close to the ground [deer eat brush that is more at nose level]. I may miss my guess, but I'd say that it was attacked by mice/ voles when I see a girdled tree, that is my first thought. You might want to install a metal mesh about 1 foot high around your prized mulberry trees if you can't fence your whole food forest.
If you still have enough of the root stock to graft on, this might be a better idea. You might even want to lift the entire plant and examine the roots. Are they sound? pot bound? If you bought it already grafted, it may have been lingering a long time in a pot. Those specimens look good but once the roots are pot bound, their performance will always be sub par, in which case you might be better off buying a new tree altogether.
Unfortunately, fencing is the only helpful remedy against a hungry deer. [And even that isn't always successful]
Good luck to you. I have 26 mulberry bushes/trees and because they are not fenced in and they are only bushes, they are regularly 'trimmed' by deer.
Trees escape deer predation only after they have reached >2" caliper and the bark is too rough. Bucks will still rub until they are 3-4" in caliper though, and they will eat brush size branches as high as their noses can reach without standing on their hind legs.

cutting off to below the damage and allowing it a couple years to regrow before grafting would be fine, too. there’s no need to rush.

Cécile Stelzer Johnson wrote:
So it is grafted, which means that the tops, which you are planning to keep would have to grow roots of their own: they would not produce like the original grafted tree, if they survive at all. Normally, the root part is the one that is more sturdy/ winter-hardy. The top is less so.
From the picture, I would say that your enemy was perhaps not a deer, who can just plain snip off these small shoots and gobble the whole thing in one mouthful. Also the attack was quite close to the ground [deer eat brush that is more at nose level]. I may miss my guess, but I'd say that it was attacked by mice/ voles when I see a girdled tree, that is my first thought. You might want to install a metal mesh about 1 foot high around your prized mulberry trees if you can't fence your whole food forest.
If you still have enough of the root stock to graft on, this might be a better idea. You might even want to lift the entire plant and examine the roots. Are they sound? pot bound? If you bought it already grafted, it may have been lingering a long time in a pot. Those specimens look good but once the roots are pot bound, their performance will always be sub par, in which case you might be better off buying a new tree altogether.
Unfortunately, fencing is the only helpful remedy against a hungry deer. [And even that isn't always successful]
Good luck to you. I have 26 mulberry bushes/trees and because they are not fenced in and they are only bushes, they are regularly 'trimmed' by deer.
Trees escape deer predation only after they have reached >2" caliper and the bark is too rough. Bucks will still rub until they are 3-4" in caliper though, and they will eat brush size branches as high as their noses can reach without standing on their hind legs.

To clarify- the tree is short because it's been eaten from the top by deer every year since it's been planted, except for last summer when it finally got a chance to grow all those lovely little branches.  Then the voles or rabbits decided to girdle it this winter.

It was grafted for no particular reason that I know of- maybe just to get a bigger tree that they could sell faster.  The nursery that propagates them, no longer sells them grafted but only sells this variety growing on their own roots. So I think they will grow well on their own roots as long as I get them to root.

greg mosser wrote:cutting off to below the damage and allowing it a couple years to regrow before grafting would be fine, too. there’s no need to rush.

Except the damage is to the rootstock so my concern is keeping the grafted variety on top alive so that I don't have to buy it again. If I can get cuttings from the top to root and plant them elsewhere, I wouldn't mind letting the rootstock (which is just unnamed seedling) resprout from below the damaged section.

Everyone wish me luck! This will be my first time attempting any of this...
I think I have enough material to try everyone's suggestions.
I'll cut back the top only leaving two or three branches. I'll attempt a bridge graft over the girdled trunk. That's the scariest thing since I've never done any grafting but I've watched some videos about doing the bridge graft and I don't have anything to lose in trying.

The rest of the cuttings, I'll divide into two groups since there were two recommended methods. I'll dip all the cuttings in rooting hormone which I'm going to go order in a second. I do have a giant tub of water with willows rooting in it. Do you think there would be any benefit of watering my cuttings with water from my tub of willows?

Group #1- I'll stick in the soil near the tree with a chicken wire cage around them so they don't get eaten too.

Group #2- I'll bring inside and stick in a pot of potting soil set in a dish of water.

I'm interested to see which group does better... Outside in the cold or inside in the heat.

Thanks for all the advice everyone. I'll come back and update in the spring.

fair enough. i suspect you could get scion from someone here, if you needed to, of that or a handful other varieties. maybe we need to set up a scion exchange here…

greg mosser wrote:fair enough. i suspect you could get scion from someone here, if you needed to, of that or a handful other varieties. maybe we need to set up a scion exchange here…

Yeah a scion exchange would be really neat!

In my experience, root stock can be chosen for many reasons, to dwarf or semi-dwarf, to survive various kinds of soils, heavy wet clay, alkaline or acid soil conditions, resistance to various soil “pathogens”.

Grafting onto seedlings may have been a strategy to get more larger trees faster, like if you had a very limited amount of scion wood, and lots of weedy seedlings … two buds per seedling, and you have a lot more chances for survival.

We never know what characteristics a seedling is going to bring with it, but this one was in the right place at the right time, and did germinate, survive and grow a root system.  It might have fabulous fruit, too😊

Update:
Life got busy and I ended up just pruning my mulberry way back to only two branches and then I stuck the five sticks I pruned off straight into a drip irrigated bed I have (though with all the spring rain I get, I won't be turning the irrigation on until July probably). Anyway, it's been a couple of months and the original tree is full of green bud and the sticks are budded out as well. I'm very tempted to pull one up and see where root development is at but I'm resisting and leaving them be.

I'll post pictures when the leaves appear.

Jenny Wright wrote:Update:
Life got busy and I ended up just pruning my mulberry way back to only two branches and then I stuck the five sticks I pruned off straight into a drip irrigated bed I have (though with all the spring rain I get, I won't be turning the irrigation on until July probably). Anyway, it's been a couple of months and the original tree is full of green bud and the sticks are budded out as well. I'm very tempted to pull one up and see where root development is at but I'm resisting and leaving them be.
I'll post pictures when the leaves appear.

Your original tree doesn't seem to be in trouble since it is full of green buds so you are Ok there. You did well.
About the sticks, though, a few buds do not indicate that the sticks have *rooted*. You are still fine since both tree and sticks have proceeded to the bud stage.
A branch normally has enough energy stored that it will bud... But not necessarily root.
You didn't indicate which type of mulberry it is. White are the easiest to root, followed by red, then black. Since you are in the Pacific Northwest, you might be able to grow the big ones, the Pakistani mulberry. In my zone, I can't because it is too cold. If you can, I sincerely envy you as I love mulberries! Here is more on propagating by cuttings: https://www.thesurvivalgardener.com/from-inbox-two-mulberry-questions/#:~:text=Red%20mulberries%20(Morus%20rubra)%20are,you%20lose%20nothing%20by%20attempting.
It will not grow roots until the leaves are completely out. And even then, Jut take out the poorest looking one. If you see roots, the other ones should be fine, but patience!

Cécile Stelzer Johnson wrote:

Your original tree doesn't seem to be in trouble since it is full of green buds so you are Ok there. You did well.
About the sticks, though, a few buds do not indicate that the sticks have *rooted*. You are still fine since both tree and sticks have proceeded to the bud stage.
A branch normally has enough energy stored that it will bud... But not necessarily root.
You didn't indicate which type of mulberry it is. White are the easiest to root, followed by red, then black. Since you are in the Pacific Northwest, you might be able to grow the big ones, the Pakistani mulberry. In my zone, I can't because it is too cold. If you can, I sincerely envy you as I love mulberries! Here is more on propagating by cuttings: https://www.thesurvivalgardener.com/from-inbox-two-mulberry-questions/#:~:text=Red%20mulberries%20(Morus%20rubra)%20are,you%20lose%20nothing%20by%20attempting.
It will not grow roots until the leaves are completely out. And even then, Jut take out the poorest looking one. If you see roots, the other ones should be fine, but patience!

Thanks for the additional advice! It is a black mulberry. I can't remember which exact variety. I got my first berries last year, just a handful all summer long. Oh, I recall (I think) it's Illinois Everbearing. So yummy!

Cécile Stelzer Johnson wrote:
Here is more on propagating by cuttings: https://www.thesurvivalgardener.com/from-inbox-two-mulberry-questions/#:~:text=Red%20mulberries%20(Morus%20rubra)%20are,you%20lose%20nothing%20by%20attempting.
It will not grow roots until the leaves are completely out. And even then, Jut take out the poorest looking one. If you see roots, the other ones should be fine, but patience!

That was a good article. I'll check on the poorest one and maybe I'll give them some water from my bucket of willows to encourage some roots.

Update:
My mulberry is leafed out and seems to be growing just fine. It even has some green berries on it. The trunk still looks like a horrendous mess but I guess it's getting enough nutrients from the roots to grow.

An idea... I don't care to save the rootstock since I think the only reason it was grafted was to get it bigger to sell it faster. I was thinking maybe I should just pile up some dirt around the trunk and bury the graft. Would it (hopefully) start growing some roots from above the graft?

I don't have an update on my little sticks in the ground. I, um... kinda lost them. 😬 I put them between my newly grafted apples and plums in a row where I have drip irrigation set up but the weeds grew shoulder high while I was busy elsewhere in the garden. I beat down the weeds today and uncovered my apples and plums and they are all beautiful but I can't find my little 4" mulberry sticks. Oops!

I don’t know if piling dirt by the trunk would help or harm.  

The developing berries worry me. Oftentimes, a dying plant  will make as many seeds as possible…..

Problem is developing fruit usually takes resources that would otherwise be dedicated to growth.  But mulberries usually set new  fruit  throughout the summer, so maybe if you removed the fruit it would still keep trying to make more seeds.  

Good luck, what ever you decide to do.

Thekla McDaniels wrote:I don’t know if piling dirt by the trunk would help or harm.  

The developing berries worry me. Oftentimes, a dying plant  will make as many seeds as possible…..

Problem is developing fruit usually takes resources that would otherwise be dedicated to growth.  But mulberries usually set new  fruit  throughout the summer, so maybe if you removed the fruit it would still keep trying to make more seeds.  

Good luck, what ever you decide to do.

Oh, ok! I will remove the berries just to be safe. It is everbearing and last year it just made one or two berries every few weeks so maybe it won't make a difference but I can't see that it would hurt it to take them off.