I had no plans to have a mulberry tree but I think that I have one. While cleaning out a neglected area I found this tree. What should I do with it? Should I remove it, keep as is, or graft another variety to it. No experience with mulberries if ideed that is what it is.
It is like an easter egg hut at our place. Spotted this big flower this morning.
Go ahead and let it grow for a season or two. They fruit quickly. Then judge the quality. If it seems happy and you want better fruit graft it.
Kinda out of focus, so I canāt really guess species. Most female M.rubra have acceptable to great fruitsā¦ but fruiting period is much shorter than we see with most of the rubraXalba hybrids, like Illinois Everbearing, Silk Hope, etc.
In my experience, the random exceptional M.alba is pretty doggone rare. Most Iāve sampled are small-fruited and either tart/lacking sweetness, or just sweet with no flavor or a āgrassyā taste. Iād graft a random M.alba without giving it second thought.
Of course, one possibility to consider is that it could turn out to be a non-fruiting male.
I have two hybrids, presumably seedlings of Illinois Everbearing, that popped up in the orchard and were relocated to spots adjacent to the cattle working pens to provide shadeā¦ both are OK. One is as good as Illinois Everbearing, with similar to slightly better flavor profile, and comparable bearing periodā¦ with no Popcorn Disease issues yetā¦ but itās located several hundred feet southeast from the perennially-affected IE trees.
Around here, Iād say about 5-15% of the wild albas have pretty nice to really nice fruit (good sweet/tart balance and depth of flavor), and Iāve found 2 that I like quite a bit. That being said, Iāve never tasted any of the good mulberry cultivars, so my āgoodā trees might not even be in the same league. Iād put them up there with a decent blueberry or raspberry for overall quality, though.
My 3 year old will happily shovel in any and all mulberries in whatever quantity she is permitted.
Regarding male trees, my estimation is that up to 2/3 of the population are males, but that estimation may be skewed by all the trees that keep getting lopped down every year and never get to fruit.
I moved a volunteer mulberry last year. Iām waiting to see if it is a male and, if it is, itāll be my grafting practice tree.
Iām just not sure I want to keep my volunteer. I might move it and graft later. Is mulberrie fruit kind of like blackberries? Are they good fresh or in pies/cobblers?
The fruit Iāve had was much duller than any of the rubus.
They are fine enough as part of mixed pies, cobblers or jams but not super exciting.
Not that Iāve had the top variety berries.
Iām keeping mine because : itās free, we can always use more āfillerā berries and I understand they can sometimes distract the birds from more valued crops.
Morus nigra is super sweet and quite tart at the same time. Better flavor than blackberries.
Morus alba allegedly is often insipid.
Your average alba is sweet, but otherwise bland. Fruit range from white to purple to nearly black at ripeness; the white almost never have much depth of flavor. As Iāve stated above, there are some quite good ones out there. The best two Iāve found are definitely better than a supermarket blackberry. You could use them pretty much anywhere you would use other berries. They are very soft and fragile, though; if you put a bunch in a bowl, youāll have a weepy, juicy mess by the afternoon. They also fill a nice seasonal niche between strawberries and cherries and the other summer berries. Your best odds would be to graft a named variety. Iāll leave it to the experts to make suggestions, as I have no experience there.
Edit: I just noticed on your first picture that it looks like you have female flowers/young berries. Wait till June or so and you should have a pretty good idea whether this tree is worthwhile. Also, from observing what people do to āmanageā the feral trees here, they should respond well to a coppice or pollard type systemāor even trimmed like a hedgeāto manage size, or you can let it grow to a 30-50ā tree. Iām currently seeking out Girardi Dwarf so I can more easily manage it as a bush.
Any updates on this one? Did it end up setting fruit, or is it a male?
I topworked a bland wild white mulberry that showed up in my chicken run to five different cultivars a few weeks ago. Cousinfloyd and I traded and I got Illinois Everbearing, Collier, Shanxi Li, Gerardi, and āa flavorful white mulberry from Burnt Ridge.ā Theyāre all pushing buds now but itās too early to declare victory. Hope I get to try them all!
The flower is Clematis
@jcguarneri . The flower tags dropped of so no fruit was set. While cleaning out another neglected flower bed I found another mulberry tree. It is in a better location for keeping so I will attempt grafting it over to a sweet one that has a tendency not to grow so high.
From your first photo , the out of focus flowers on the mulberry, I believe are male , so a male tree.
Female flowers are generally more compact .
Is there a limit on how big of a tree you can coppice? Iāve got a volunteer on the edge of my property that is about 4-5 inches in diameter at the base, with all branches above my head. Do deer like the taste of mulberry foliage? If so maybe pollarding is the better way to get fruit closer to ground.
I have no idea what the biggest tree you could coppice is (and Iāve never actually done any coppice or pollard), but from what Iāve seen around town a 4-5" tree shouldnāt give you any trouble. Thereās even one tree that I know of where the very large main trunk has died and itās resprouted from the roots. Whatās even more impressive is thereās more than one old trunk. I think deer are mulberry fans. Maybe grow a nice bed of lettuce to distract them?
I think you will like it. We like ours.
I have a few blue and red clematis but not this pink one. I am sure I will like it. Yours is beautiful.
I bet you will find many more pleasant surprises in your yard.
Deer absolutely will browse the heck out of mulberry foliage.
The deer habitat folks are all about coppicing them
