Dwarf Black Mulberry (forum)

Linda starts with ...
I have a dwarf black mulberry that is very healthy and had lots of flowers but they all died off. This happened around September...is this too early for it to flower....we have a little bit of frost.

Time: 13th October 2010 8:08pm

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About the Author Linda11
Albany WA
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Jo says...
Hi! Well I've just had the same thing with my dwarf red shahtoot mulberry. I have googled and googled and not found a definite answer, but from what I can gather it does seem that during this flowering stage if they experience a condition they don't like much they can drop all the flowers/young fruit.

For mine I guess I'll blame sudden pretty hot dry weather for a few weeks... I watered a little but maybe the tree didn't have all the water it would have liked to support all those flowers.

The good news is, apparently if you prune a mulberry shortly after its fruiting time you can get new growth and get another crop of flowers and fruit. I'm going to try this by pruning lots of stems right now, since it's growing like crazy at the moment. And THIS time if new flowers appear I'll molleycoddle the thing and make absolutely sure it's got enough water and nutrients while there are flowers or fruit in the early stages.

I also had a net over it in case of pests so maybe the pollenation wasn't great due to that - but it's pollenated by just the slightest wind movement apparently, so I doubt that was the trouble. But who knows.

Well anywho, I'll update with what happened with mine, and I would love to hear if you find out anything more about this too or if you find a way around this problem! Good luck! :)

Time: 15th October 2010 5:58am

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About the Author Jo19
Perth
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Julie says...
Hi Linda,
I have similar problem with my two black dwarf mulberry trees which presently are laden with flowers that are shriveling up and dropping off. This happened last year also. The trees are fertilized and mulched and fairly sheltered from wind.

I have been researching and noticed all the flowers are female (dioecious form possibly) and may not be getting fertilized. I hope there is a tree with male flowers nearby. Last year I had only a handful mature to fruit in a second flush in late summer out of hundreds of flowers. I'll keep a close eye this year in case the male flowers do pop up at some stage.

I agree with Joe and it may be wise to also keep the water up to them whilst flowering. I have been watering and checking that is does not get too dry when I saw to my horror, that the flowers were dropping off again.

Good luck, because when they do fruit successfully they are very delicious.


Time: 26th October 2010 10:30am

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About the Author Julie19
Melbourne
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Julie says...
To anyone having similar problems, I thought I'd add to my previous comment what I have learnt about flowers/fruit falling off my dwarf Mulberry trees.

Since we had some VERY decent and frequent rain/downpours the flowers/fruit stayed ON the trees till ripe!

I noticed with lack of water the fruit stems shrivelled up, followed by the fruit, till they dropped off or just stayed on tree all black and dried. With copious amounts of water, the stems are strong and thick supporting the fruit.

So I would have to conclude that there was not an issue with fertilising flowers (even though I still can not identify male flowers on tree at all), but lack of water, which has been the norm with the drought these past years. I thought I was watering enough by hand but it was far from it. They need quite a lot of water during the fruiting season even though I had read they were drought hardy. Maybe so, when not fruiting.

I hope this helps.

Time: 26th January 2011 2:49pm

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About the Author Julie19
Melbourne, Brayrook
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J says...
Julie, this does help! I just recently picked up a dwarf black mulberry and was wondering how it would do in melbourne. A few houses down from me there is a large black mulberry tree that had lots of fruit a month ago, so I assumed the dwarf black would be ok. But lots of water come flowering time! Good info.

Time: 27th January 2011 1:36pm

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About the Author J
upwey, Melbourne
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Evo says...
J, mine goes really well in Melbourne! It gave me a small bucket worth of fruit in its second year! Dwarf is a stretch as mine in now well over 3 metres! I love this tree so much. I found it needs a lot of water to keep the fruit really moist and not dry.

Time: 27th January 2011 7:21pm

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About the Author lionfish
 
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J says...
Thanks evo, I decided not to get more than 1 Dwarf black mulberry (even though I had room for 3) because I wasn't sure how well it would do in melbourne. So reading these posts is quite heartening. I'm going to get a dwarf red shahtoot mulberry as well. Hopefully that will do as well as the dwarf black.

Time: 27th January 2011 10:40pm

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About the Author J
upwey, Melbourne
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Jo says...
Thanks for that info, Julie! I just can't believe that lack of water was the problem for me this year, but I guess if I don't try one more time with absolutely tons of water, I'll never know for sure... Uggh, I think the water corporation will come after me for draining the dams!

The other thing that's been different for me, and some of the other people complaining about their dwarf red shahtoots, is that the flowers/fruits don't seem to be actually shrivelling or drying up, or discolouring, or looking sad in any way. A lot of us are having them sitting there, looking lovely and green and healthy as they develop for a couple or a few weeks, and then, bam. They just disconnect neatly at the fruit stem, and fall off as they are. No signs of ill health on the tree either, and no signal at all that something is wrong!! So frustrating!!!

It drives me crazy that all the ordinary mulberry trees around here create a ton of delicious fruit without any problem, even totally neglected ones! But I'm just not really into the idea of having a giant tree with all the mess it will make and space it will take up. I wonder, though, if I could try a common mulberry tree and just keep it cut to a small size? I can imagine that turning into a full-time job, though!

Time: 16th February 2011 4:33am

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About the Author Jo19
Perth
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bob says...
where did you get the dwarf mulberries.
there doesn't seem to be any advertised in victoria.
any success with fruiting since last posts.

Time: 17th June 2011 6:23pm

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About the Author Bob16
geelong
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Mike says...
My dwarf and red shathoot dwarf turned into whoppers even with hard pruning.After a few years I finally chopped them down and the birds are be disappointed.I still see them for sale at Bunnings and Big W where I initially got mine from.
Some of my dwarfs and small varieties of other species did not dwarf.Apparently if your climate is colder than their ideal they stay smaller and if it is warmer they get bigger.

Time: 17th June 2011 11:31pm

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About the Author
Cairns
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Lee says...
I am having no success with my five trees, a regular black, a red shahtoot, and three white shahtoot. It has been a lovelly wet session and the next door neighbours black mulberry tree is covered in fruit, it happened last year also. It looks like the flower is not being polinated at all, even though we have bees in our yard.

Time: 24th August 2011 4:55pm

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About the Author Lee
Hunter Valley
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Nick says...
I think mulberries are wind pollinated.

Time: 24th August 2011 5:00pm

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About the Author Nick T
Altona, VIC
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J says...
I've mulberried it right up in my garden. Got a Pakistan Mulberry from perrys, have 3 dwarf mulberries from daleys (1 black and 2 red shahtoot) and Just picked up a hicks fancy and White mulberry from pete the permie. I'm using these two as border trees as they can get large, fast apparently. So far the dwarf black mulberry seems to be sprouting leaves and has flowers/tiny green fruit on it! It's like a foot tall. Totally expect those to drop off soon. Either way I'll keep everyone posted on how these guys go this season.

Time: 25th August 2011 6:06pm

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About the Author J
upwey
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Julie says...
Ok everyone, I have to add what has happened since all that rain we have had.

Lots of mulberries, in fact loaded. BUT now to my disappointment they are starting to go 'off' as per the drought years, except this time the fruit going off are full of promise to be larger juicier specimens than before. Not now! See attached photos showing the stages of disappointment. First the green fruit shows a greyishness of the pistils (?)then the fruit stops growing, blackens and then dries up. Some fruit just fall off as soon as it shows greying. With the rain this year I thought I had problem solved. Sorry, if I gave false hope but watering has helped but not solved the problem.

I am guessing now...it may be a seasonal mildew/disease problem since the last 2 seasons have produced small amounts of late summer (Feb) fruit through to maturity. Unfortunately this is not the height of fruiting. I had believed it was due to good rainfall at that time? Coincidence maybe? I will wait and see. Also I have a harlequin beetle problem (comes from vacant block next door, so I battle on, this side of the fence) in the garden but I have not seen them on the Mulberry trees. Having said that, I got it wrong with the lack of water being The culprit so the jury is out.

P.S. My dwarf trees are from Daleys and I have cut them down over winter because they have been quite vigorous for my small area.

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Picture: 4

Time: 3rd October 2011 1:25pm

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Original Post was last edited: 22nd October 2011 10:08am

About the Author Julie19
Melbourne, Brayrook
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J says...
Julie, have you gotten any fruit from any of the dwarf mulberries you have?

Time: 3rd October 2011 1:55pm

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About the Author J
Upwey, Melbourne
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J says...
Does a white shahtoot mulberry have to be planted during winter while its barerooted? I've got one now with leaves and fruit on it and I'm wondering if it's ok to put it in the ground now.

Time: 11th October 2011 10:03am

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About the Author J
Upwey, Melbourne
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Julie says...
Hi J, Yes I am now getting fruit to maturity! See photos showing my bounty. There is still plenty of shrivelled up fruit this year but it is compensated by the healthy fruit. I have 2 trees and one is more successful than the other. My trees are in a chicken pen and maybe due to the fertile soil they are flowering too much and a percent have to drop off. The citrus in the same pen are always full of fruit and flower too.
After a heavy rain the fruit swells and if nice and black you must pick them before they spoil. I am sure the Harlequin beetles spoil a lot of fruit too, so I am picking them off as I see them. Good luck with your trees.
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Time: 22nd October 2011 10:02am

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About the Author Julie19
Melbourne, Brayrook
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J says...
Thanks for the reply Julie, that is really good to hear.

Time: 4th November 2011 9:38am

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About the Author J
Upwey, Melbourne
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BarbaraH says...
I have a 3 yr+ Pakistan mulberry tree--keeping it pruned. Lost all berries last 2 years. They never ripened and just disappeared. This year, I am seeing holes in the new leaves, yellowish mottling and they are curling. Occasional berries are shriveled, black and hard. May have scale as I saw some black nodules on the branches and they scraped off easily. Just cannot figure out how to fix this--any ideas? You folks seem to have the best info on the internet.
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Time: 18th March 2016 12:12pm

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About the Author BarbaraH
Felton CA USA
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mc1 says...
Does anyone know if the daley's Red Shahtoot mulberry is the same as the &quote;Pakistan&quote; variety?

Time: 21st December 2018 8:57pm

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About the Author mc1
Melbourne
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