Description:
The black mulberry (Morus nigra; Moraceae) is a compact vigorous grower with early large elongated deep red/black fruit.
Attractively foliaged medium to eventually large spreading tree which is long living.
Young trees are fast growing and early to fruit.
Mulberries ripen progressively so some immature fruit is coming along while some is ready to eat.
Ripe fruit is black and fall with little effort to remove them. It is a heavy bearer.
A slow growing but very ornamental tree, the mulberry is sometimes cultivated in gardens for its delicious edible fruit.
The tree is not grown on a commercial scale because the fruit is too soft and easily damaged to allow it to be transported to market, and is therefore best eaten straight from the tree.
The mulberry takes many years to settle down and produce good crops of fruit, about 15 years being the norm.
Plants are late coming into leaf and also lose their leaves at the first autumn frosts though the tree in leaf casts quite a dense shade. Mulberries have brittle roots and so need to be handled with care when planting them out. Any pruning should only be carried out in the winter when the plant is fully dormant because mulberries bleed badly when cut.
Ideally prune only badly placed branches and dead wood. Once considered to be a very long-lived tree, doubts are now being cast on this assumption, it is probably fairly short-lived. Plants in this genus are notably resistant to honey fungus.
Propagation
Mulberries can be grown from seed, and this is often advised as seedling-grown trees are generally of better shape and health. But they are most often planted from large cuttings which root readily.
The mulberry plants which are allowed to grow tall with a crown height of 5 - 6 feet from the ground level having stem girth of 4 -5 inches or more is called tree mulberry. They are specially raised with the help of well grown saplings of 8 - 10 months old with any of the varieties recommended for rain fed areas like S-13 (for red loamy soil) or S-34 (black cotton soil) which are tolerant to draught or soil moisture stress conditions. Usually the plantation is raised as block plantation with a spacing of 6 feet x 6 feet or 8 feet x 8 feet as plant to plant and row to row distance.
The plants are usually pruned once in a year at a height of 5 - 6 feet from the ground level and allowed to grow with maximum of 8 - 10 shoots at crown. The leaf is harvested 3-4 times in a year by leaf picking method under rain fed or semi-arid conditions. The tree branches pruned during the (after the leaves have fallen) are cut and used to make very durable baskets which are used in a lot of village jobs related to agriculture and animal husbandry.
The ripe fruit is edible and is widely used in pies, tarts, wines, cordials and tea. The fruit of the black mulberry, native to southwest Asia, and the red mulberry, native to eastern North America, have the strongest flavor. The fruit of the white mulberry, an east Asian species which is extensively naturalized in urban regions of eastern North America, has a different flavor, sometimes characterized as insipid. The mature plant contains significant amounts of resveratol, particularly in stem bark. The fruit and leaves are sold in various forms as nutritional supplements. Unripe fruit and green parts of the plant have a white sap that is intoxicating and mildly hallucinogenic.
Conditions:
Suited to most soils in sunny sites and is tolerant of frost. Not suited to tropical climates nor dry sandy soils.
When planting, for best results enrich soil with well rotted compost and mulch well. Cross pollination is not required.
- Grows within a woodland garden
- Is suited as a canopy tree
- Is suited as a secondary tree
- Grows on a sunny edge
- Works within dappled Shade
