It is good to have a system
My friend Lucky in Kentucky sent me a care package of mulberry scion to graft. He considers my high regard for Illinois Everbearing Mulberry to be borderline quaint. He admits it is a good mulberry, but there are others that offer more...more flavor...more disease resistance...with the same, prolonged fruiting season.
Here are his descriptions for the scion he sent me:
Regular readers might remember that I transplanted 8 mulberry seedlings into the 60 yard long linear brushpile I made with branches I dragged out of the orchard. From North-to-South I grafted in alphabetic order Corral, Harmony Grove, Kip Parker, Orlinda, Silk Hope, Silk Hope, Stearns, Harmony Grove. Silk Hope and Harmony Grove were doubled up because I had six varieties and 8 trees to graft.
Then, there was a tree near the drive into the property. Starting with the most northerly pointing branch and rotating East, South, West: Corral, Harmony Grove, Kip Parker, Orlinda, Silk Hope.
Then I grafted another scion of Silk Hope into a tree about 75 feet westsouthwest of the tree near the drive.
Having a few more minutes before I had to head back to Eaton Rapids, I depleted the supply of Silk Hope scion that Lucky had go generously gifted me with. I think Lucky likes Silk Hope. He sent me twice as many SH scion as he did of any other mulberry variety.
Why mulberries?
Suppose you lived in a rural area before it was electrified. Maybe it was so rural that you could not even buy a block of ice once a week.
Under those circumstances, you would place a very high premium on any food source that reliably produced a day's worth of food every day, day-after-day with no refrigeration needed.
That is the opposite of what modern economics rewards. They want every honeydew melon to ripen on the same day so they can hire a crew for eight hours and then send them away until the next crop ripens some sixty days in the future. Having to send a crew of pickers through a planting EVERY DAY would be a nightmare, economically.
Those economics stand on their heads when you are hungry and the berry bushes are between your kitchen door and the mail-box. If you are going to walk down the drive to your mailbox six days a week, why wouldn't you wear an apron with pockets and fill them with fruit for your cereal, yogurt or dinner tart? Some fruits come-and-go in a heated-rush. Others, like the better mulberry varieties and figs, pump out fruit for MONTHS on end as long as they get nutrients and moisture.
The problem with "unimproved" mulberries is that they ripen their fruit all within a few days. Since all that fruit is competing for the carbs photosynthesized by not-very-many-leaves, the fruit is insipid, with very little sweetness or tartness. It is just barely good enough to convince birds to eat them...just barely. But in terms of spreading its seeds, it doesn't have to be any better than that.
The "improved" varieties aren't just ten-times better in terms of quality...they are a hundred times better. They are sweet. They are tangy. They have fruity aroma. And if you can beat the birds, you can harvest them by the gallon by shaking the tree. And if you can't beat the birds you can still have your pie..."Four and Twenty blackbirds baked in a pie..."
Pictures of the grafted seedlings in the linear brush-pile
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| You can say it, "That is an ugly baby." You can click on the picture to embiggen it. |
Not my best work, but not my worst, either
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| The memorial plaque. I broke down and bought a Chinesium solar nightlight. |
Here in Houston, most folks don't even realize that humans can eat them! So the berries ferment, and drop. And provide entertainment as hordes of Cedar Waxwings show unfortunately a drunken rave.
ReplyDeleteAte them all my life. One of the very few around here that does. Birds ensure we have seedlings everywhere...EVERYWHERE.
ReplyDeleteI really like what you did with the memorial. It is the "small, unnoticed by many" gestures that often have the most meaning.
ReplyDeleteWell done, ERJ.
ReplyDeleteTrue story - I was mowing the lawn not long after we moved to Stately Wilder Manor, and saw some mulberries growing, popped one in my mouth. Delicious! The Mrs., alarmed, said, "IT WAS RED! YOU CAN'T EAT THAT."
ReplyDeleteI suppose it will be fatal in another few decades.
Is that date May 30 1904?
ReplyDelete2007
DeleteGrafting is something I hope to learn more about! I have fruit trees, and bought a grafting tool (makes male/female funky shaped cuts)... I suppose I'll end up with franken peaches. The next owner of this property will be very confused no doubt.
ReplyDeleteERJ, I do indeed like 'Silk Hope'. A lot.
ReplyDelete'Illinois Everbearing' is still probably the 'gold standard' for non-M.nigra mulberries, with regard to taste, but here in more southerly locations, a fungal infection called Popcorn Disease, will eventually find IE trees, and will decimate at least the first flush of fruits, every year. All the others I sent have been relatively PDz-free...to date.
Any good recipes for robins? Or can I substitute robin for blackbird in that particular recipe?
ReplyDeleteFirst, ensure that they identify as starlings, or at the least believe that species is a social construct.
DeleteThen, if you are satisfied that they identify as starlings or believe that species are an artificial idea, proceed as you suggested.
Joe,
ReplyDeleteI would be very grateful if you could do a posting "Grafting Apple Trees for Dummies" ... I have apple trees but one of them is simply not growing or producing fruit. I'm not sure if it is the root stock that doesn't like the conditions so I'd like to try grafting one or two shoots onto a tree that is producing fruit.
No hurry. I live in New Zealand and it is the equivalent of mid November here though still very mild and I presume that grafting is done in spring (which would be October/November here).
Phil B
My wife has fond memories of sitting up in mulberry trees, scoffing the fruit. This was on bomb sites in London - houses and gardens destroyed but the mulberries soldiered on. Until, presumably, the bulldozers flattened them.
ReplyDelete