Edible Leaf Mulberry Cuttings

Edible leaf mulberry was a serious fixation of my (Josh) younger days. Our friend Eric Toensmeier has heavily promoted mulberry greens as a vegetable with high potential for a number of years. In addition to being a very easy to grow long term perennial, mulberry greens are highly nutritious. In fact, when I compiled nutritional data (mostly from animal forage analysis) I discovered that mulberry greens are in the league of moringa, or even surpassing moringa in some nutritional categories.

Not all mulberry greens taste good or have good texture. Some years ago I began collecting mulberry clones to try to select a good tasting edible leaf. I did a lot of feeling tender leaves with my hands to decide which ones were even worth pursuing followed by cooking tests. Ultimately, we found a really nice one which we named “edible leaf”. It came under the name “Everbearing” though it is certainly not that clone. The leaves have a uniquely lobed shape and are quite distinctive from other varieties, especially the real clone “Dwarf Everbearing”. A clone called “Tigrinum” was selected in Mexico for greens. I have grown and tasted that variety. Remarkably, our “Edible Leaf” selection had better quality greens than the Mexican selection when we did side by side comparisons. Just recently I cooked more of these greens up and I continue to be impressed with the quality. When we have fed these greens to groups of taste testers we have received consistently positive reviews. The leaves have full body and taste somewhat like green beans once boiled or steamed.

Only the young leaves are consumed. They are harvested when they’re lime green in color, before reaching the darker color of fully mature foliage. Harvesting greens that are too old will yield a chewy, undesirable plate of greens. Regular pruning encourages new growth that can be harvested.

“Edible Leaf” shows some susceptibility to root knot nematodes. At the HEART Village, a ten year old hedgerow continues to produce lots of vigorous growth despite some degree of infection. Plants in this hedgerow are spaced 18 inches apart, a desirable spacing for intensive harvesting with routine pruning.

We have found that this variety roots with a very high percentages from cuttings. We don’t have rooted plants at the time, so cuttings is the best we can do right now. Cuttings are harvested fresh shortly before mailing to minimize time before they’re placed in rooting media at your own garden.

10 cuttings