Fig on Mulberry Graft

[barnhardt9999]

I recently dug and potted several red mulberry saplings in adverse locations with no real plan for what to do with them. I would like to try to graft a fig to the roots.

Has anyone ever tried to graft a fig onto a mulberry rootstock? If so, please share your experience and if you can address any of my following questions, it would be appreciated. Would this end up being a RKN resistant tree? Would it result in a very large fast growing tree? Would it retain some of the cold hardiness of the mulberry?

[!potatoes!]

haven't tried it. I doubt fig limbs on a mulberry rootstock would make the fig parts any more cold-tolerant. just from the way they tend to die back to the roots when hit by a surprising cold....report back.

[Gustav]

I may be wrong, but the way I understand it is theat the rootstock & scion needs to be the same species, but can be different varieties.

I don't think that graft will work, but please correct me if I'm wrong.

[barnhardt9999]

They don't need to be the same species. Most of the more common grafts are the same genus although I am fairly certain that there are some examples of grafts that are only in the same family. Fig and mulberry make up the Moraceae family.

I found a couple references to the Mulberry/Fig graft but nothing seemed modern, detailed or very hands on. I am also skeptical but its worth a try if no one seems to have tried it. So crazy it just may work.

[!potatoes!]

there's a couple within-family inter-generic grafts that are relatively common, you're right. this one's not very common, though, which might speak to its success rate...but worth a try anyway. I know (also within the same family) that che fruit grafts decently well on osage orange rootstock.

[Gustav]

Ok, This pricked my interrest & since we havealot of mullberry trees on the farm, I grafted a fig scion to it to see what happens since I have nothing to lose. I will update this propably within 3-4 months when spring starts to see if the bud's popped open or not. lol