Air-layering (marcotting) mulberries

[rprimbs]

I've been playing around with air-layering various fruit trees, because my wife wants to sell some.  I air-layered some 'Pakistan' mulberries, and they are already fruiting.  

Does anybody know if air-layering is a good way to propagate mulberries?

 

[rprimbs]

Sorry I needed to rotate those pictures.

[rprimbs]

I am wondering if mulberries are propagated this way often because I understand that seedlings have tap roots, which air layers do not.

[amh]

I frequently see mulberries propagated by cuttings and less so by traditional grafting. I would imagine an air layered tree would be better than a smaller cutting derived plant.

[Palmarum]

18 hours ago, amh said:

I frequently see mulberries propagated by cuttings and less so by traditional grafting. I would imagine an air layered tree would be better than a smaller cutting derived plant.

Agreed. Mulberries grown here are so fast growing they root easily via cuttings, but an air-layer would provide a larger starting plant. It would be fun to do if you wanted to create a lot of stock material at a faster pace.

Having the material flower sooner in a pot is always a good selling point with fruit trees (an often side-effect of air-layering or grafting). There is a stigma floating around among newer and inexperienced customers at fruit tree sales. They do not always 'believe' the vendor is selling a plant that will give fruit. Seeing a plant with flowers or fruit tend to put the potential customers at ease.

Ryan