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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] Illinois Everbearing

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  • From: "William C. Garthright" <billg@inebraska.com>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Illinois Everbearing
  • Date: Sat, 06 Oct 2007 11:45:37 -0500


When you summer prune, you are probably pruning off buds in which flowers
that will bloom the following year have already been initiated. ... He says
it takes 50 days for the mulberry tree to initiate floral primordia. I do
not know, however, whether the tree maintains this ability throughout the
growing season.


Thanks for the link, Sam. I see that the pruning there is somewhat like what I had in mind, as far as keeping the tree as a bushy stump (a higher stump, in my case, since the roots are white mulberry). However, the focus of this book is on the production of leaves, not fruit, apparently.

I just planted my tree this spring, but I do have some green mulberries on it. Not too many, and of course it's very late in the year, but they are on this year's growth. That's why I was hoping to be able to prune heavily in the spring and still get berries. I wouldn't have to worry about summer pruning, if I just cut the whole thing back to a stump every spring. However, if the buds are initiated the year before, that won't work.

Well, this is one tree with which I feel I can really experiment. I'm going to plant a Geraldi Dwarf Mulberry next spring, so if I do something really unforgivable with this one (I almost have, already), I can just start over. For some reason, I don't feel that way about the rest of my fruit trees, despite the fact that I'll be buried in fruit if all of them do survive and produce. :-D

Thanks again,

Bill
Lincoln, NE (zone 5)

--
The factory of the future will have only two employees, a man and a dog. The man will be there to feed the dog. The dog will be there to keep the man from touching the equipment. - Warren G. Bennis




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