One of the most bred and cultivated trees of all time, why this tree is relatively unknown to most Americans today is a mystery to me. Let’s change that!
Mulberry trees grows delicious fruit with ease. The amount of fruit on one tree can be staggering. The fruit ripens in early summer, and it is a great treat for all ages to pick right from the tree! Any fruit you don’t collect will be eaten by birds and squirrels, who will help spread the seeds far and wide. Once you learn to identify mulberries, you will start seeing them everywhere that birds land.
Mulberries grow fairly quickly, and do well in shadier places. Even does well under black walnut!
This tree is also great fodder for animals as the leaves are very high in protein.
Mulberry Types Available This Season:
Seedling Mulberries – Our seedling trees come from great genetics that produce lots of nice fruit.
What Are Seedlings?
Seedlings are plants that have been grown directly from a seed. They are genetic individuals whose traits that are not exactly known. Seedlings are in contrast with plants which have been cloned, as cloned plants are sure to have certain characteristics.
Often seedlings share characteristics with their parents, but exactly how much is shared depends on the species of plant. Having good parents certainly doesn’t hurt!
Sex and Seedlings
This species has seedlings which are either male or female (the botanical term is dioecious, remember di = 2, meaning you need two plants to get male and female).
Dioecious plants are in contrast to seedlings which have both male and female anatomy (the botanical term is monoecious, remember mon = 1, meaning you need one plant to get male and female).
In mulberries, fruit is only borne on female plants. However, a male tree is not required for cross-pollination to get fruit, a male tree is only required if you also want the fruits to contain viable seeds (with just a female tree the seeds in the fruits will not be viable). To be clear, a single female mulberry tree will produce fruit.
Just as with humans, males are a necessary part of life. If you get a male tree, you can certainly leave it as is, as that male plant is helping to further the genetics of the mulberry species. However, another option is to graft female wood onto the male tree, which will result in a fruit bearing tree!
With all these considerations, I generally recommend planting three trees if possible to increase the chance of a getting a female.
Growth Parameters:
Mature trees can be quite large (see images for the largest male tree I’ve ever seen). However the mature size of individual seedlings is variable. Size can also be controlled by coppicing and pollarding. Personally, Id recommend cutting the tree to the ground to generate multiple stems, then make a pruning rotation where there are stems of multiple ages around the tree (now more of a bush!)
Adaptable to shady places, but best growth and fruit production will be in the sun. Doesn’t seems to be picky about soil texture.
