The Perfect Backyard Fruit Tree | The Ultra Productive and Dwarf Girardi Mulberry

All right, you guys, today we're gonna look at my Girardi mulberry trees. And right now I actually have a number of them on the property. I have a total of four grafted trees now because the birds keep eating some of the mulberries and pooping out seeds. And then the seedlings pop up and they're all over the yard. And I just say, you know what, I'll let the seedling grow. And then I come in there, as soon as the seedling is at the right stage, it's developed enough, I'll graft right onto it. And I take some wood right from this mother Girardi tree. And now I have four trees of it. So it's just such a beautiful variety I find. It's just really for any home gardener, it is really the perfect variety. Now I know that there's some other dwarf and even everbearing mulberries, but I don't know if those, I don't think they do well here in this climate. Because typically what happens with some mulberries that I've tried in the past, is that they wake up too soon, too early in the season. And they think that they're in a Southern location or they need less chill hours than most mulberries. So this mulberry I think is really well-designed for like zones four, five, six, seven, eight. Maybe not so well-designed for someone in a super high, low chill hour place, excuse me. Cause I don't know how that wake up process is gonna happen. But it seems like certain mulberries, a lot of those Thai dwarf mulberries are the ones that are dwarf and everbearing. I think you would really struggle with them in this colder place that we're in. And I have in the past because the mulberries would wake up too soon and then a late frost kills all that new growth and then you lose the fruits. So for me though, this thing has just been absolutely wonderful. It stays really compact. This thing right now is only about four foot by four foot, maybe a little bit less than that. And it's probably gonna top itself out at six by six. And I can easily maintain this thing, easily prune this. There's a lot of room here in the center that has yet to, the tree has yet to fill that in. But for me, obviously I highly value the fruits as well in that they taste pretty darn good. This is one of the fruit trees and fruiting plants I go for the most. I'm dropping the fruits here on the ground. But this is the one I go for the most early in the season. We're still in early June and I pick about a couple handfuls of these every day as they've just kind of beginning, they're beginning now to ripen their crop. Now I would say that the mulberries here are of a decent size. They're obviously not huge. I've had some of them that are a lot larger than others. And here's, I guess, a good variation actually of the size that you might expect. So you can kind of see exactly what I mean. There's one right there that's a bit smaller up by my pointer finger. And the other ones are about, really about the size of an Illinois everbearing. And they have a very similar flavor in my mind to the Illinois everbearing. It's just a very different plant in the way that it behaves. So if you like Illinois everbearing, you're gonna like this mulberry. But my Illinois everbearing in three years got to 20 feet tall. In three years, which is the third season right here, it's only four foot by four foot. So I just think it obviously produces a lot more fruit in a much smaller space. And for that, I can't give it up. So let me show you some of the production on this thing. I've already picked handfuls and handfuls of this, but it's still worth looking at the production. Very, very good tasting fruit, in my mind anyway. I'm sure there is better tasting, there is better tasting mulberries. I don't wanna mislead you guys. I have tasted and grown personally here better tasting mulberries. But those are very difficult varieties to grow. Like a Morris Niagara mulberry, it's just not something you could do feasibly. Look at that. You know, that's just crazy. And it's all up and down these new branches that came in last year. So what's really gonna be amazing, because this young tree only has six branches that it's fruiting on right now. But now we're gonna multiply that six by all these new branches here that exist that the branches put out. So every single branch here of the six has about four or five new branches, and they're then going to fruit next year at a super high degree. So I'm gonna basically be able to multiply my production from only six fruiting branches to probably at least 40. So for me, I'm like, wow, that's exciting. Well, actually not 40. I think 40 is a little too much. About six times four. So about 25 new fruiting branches. But that's a lot of fruit here, guys. And the same thing's gonna happen over here with this younger Girardi dwarf. And even the younger ones produce a crazy amount of fruit as well. Again, I've already picked so many handfuls of these that they'll probably keep going all the way till the middle of July. We have about a month left, maybe at least two weeks, but I estimate probably another three weeks, probably is probably about right. So anyway, guys, that is the Girardi mulberry. I know it's probably a little bit difficult to find plants of this, but this winter I will take cuttings again, and I probably will sell a few packs of cuttings here and there on FigBid. It's very simple. Just get yourself a rootstock. I wouldn't try to root them. You can, obviously, if you got rooting hormone, you really know what you're doing. Mulberries will root from cutting, but it's so easy to graft this. And of course, if you can get yourself a somewhat already established tree in the ground, it's a no-brainer to me. So anyway, that's the Girardi dwarf. If anyone has a recommendation on a mulberry you think I should grow for flavor, this part of the country, and maybe it gets a little bit larger, but still stays a bit small and you can control it, let me know down in the comments. I appreciate you guys for watching this one. We'll see you soon. I'll take you, I'll take, catch you guys for the next video. Take care, all right? All right, buh-bye.