Posts Tagged: mulberry
Mast Seeding
By Susanne von Rosenberg, UC Master Gardener of Napa County If you're like most...
Oak tree mast. (considerable.com)
Mycorhizzal fungi network. (nzgeo.com)
Bamboo trees may communicate via the mycorhizzal fungi network. (allposters.com)
So may American persimmon. (raw-food-health.net)
Western dogwood. Intriguing idea about trees communicating! (flickr.com)
California buckeye. (stevenharper.com)
Mulberry tree. (gardeningknowhow.com)
Fruitless Mulberry Tree
Advice for the Home Gardener from the Help Desk of the
UC Master Gardener Program of Contra Costa County
Client's Request: Just moved into this about 50 year old house. I have a Fruitless Mulberry in my front yard that isn't looking too good. I don't think the prior owners took very good care of it. I"ve already pruned back most of the overgrwon branches and I'm wondering what I should do to get this tree looking healthy again. Please advise.
MGCC Help Desk Respons Thank you for contacting the UC Master Gardener Program Help Desk with your question about your fruitless mulberry tree.
Fruitless mulberries are moderately drought-tolerant, but they can sometimes lose leaves in prolonged dry weather. We suspect this might be the case with yours since our summer and fall have been hotter than normal.
Our recommendation at this point is not to worry unless you notice increased branch die off or the appearance of other unusual symptoms that could indicate disease or pests. It's good that you have already pruned your tree so be sure to give good irrigation until the rains start this fall and give your tree good cultural care as noted above.
The link below gives you additional information about growing fruitless mulberry and pests and diseases that they can suffer from:http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/GARDEN/PLANTS/mulberry.html
Please let us know if you have any additional questions!
Help Desk of the UC Master Gardener Program of Contra Costa County (SLH)
HOrT COCO Editor's Addendum: Having lived with and cared for several Fruitless Mulberries the past 50+ years, I have a few comments to add to the great response above. First, you can almost tell the age of a subdivision by the tree planted in front. My subdivision built in the late 1960s once had a Fruitless Mulberry in the front yard of every house, except for mine. Isaid that I would take the tree. but I wanted to plant it on the east side of the house to block the summer sun. In that the tree is deciduous, I wanted the winter sun, but not the blazing summer sun. The tree is a great shade tree with its big leaves and rapid spring growth, but a lawn tree it isn't. Shallow roots are a pain from this tree of which I have first hand experience when I hand dug the foundation for a kitchen addition. The rock was easy compared to all the roots I encountered and removed. Of the 7 houses on my court, 4 front yard mulberrys still survive and are in good health without much water, but all of us will be raking leaves for the next month or so. Some neighbors prune early to take the leaves down at the same time. Pruning now isn't recommended for the tree's health, but it is a tough tree, and all the survivng trees are healthy and still growing. However, overall most of the front yard mulberrys in the subdivision are now long gone, usually to reduce homeowner (now mostly gardener) maintenance.
Note: The UC Master Gardeners Program of Contra Costa's Help Desk is available year-round to answer your gardening questions. Except for a few holidays, we're open every week, Monday through Thursday for walk-ins from 9:00 am to Noon at 75 Santa Barbara Road, 2d Floor, Pleasant Hill, CA 94523. We can also be reached via telephone: (925)646-6586, email: ccmg@ucanr.edu, or on the web at http://ccmg.ucanr.edu/Ask_Us/ MGCC Blogs can be found at http://ccmg.ucanr.edu/HortCoCo/ You can also subscribe to the Blog (//ucanr.edu/blogs/CCMGBlog/).
/span>Visiting Peter Jacobsen's Orchard.
Peter Jacobsen's renowned Yountville orchard had humble beginnings. “We had no qualifications...
UC IPM--please visit often!
Mystery Tree-Learning about an American Classic
My friends recently moved to a beautiful new country home, which sits on an acre of land with a creek. While walking in their yard, they pointed to a large tree about 25-30 feet tall and full of what looked like blackberries hanging from the tree. I’d never seen a tree full of blackberries. I looked expecting to see thorns and vines twisting among the branches but they were actually growing from the tree. My friend explained that the wild turkeys come and jump up to eat the berries, so they didn’t think the berries were poisonous. I took a few pictures and started my search…
It turns out that my friends have several mulberry trees in their yard. I’d often heard of fruitless mulberry trees, but I had never seen one with fruit. I discovered there are 150 different varieties of mulberry trees (Morus spp.) and many, many hybrids. The Red mulberry or American mulberry (M. rubra) is native in the eastern United States. The White mulberry (Morus alba) trees were originally imported from Asia during early colonial times because they are used to raise silk worms.
The mulberry tree is deciduous and often grown near the edge of open woodlands and near fresh water, which described the location on their property perfectly. The fruit is edible and is used for pies and jams because of its sweet and slightly tart flavor. The color of the actual fruit, does not determine the variety. The fruit can be white, pink, red and black but the fruit is really not a berry. It’s an aggregate fruit, which means it’s composed of lots of little berries stuck together, each with its own seed. The fruit is long and shaped similar to a blackberry, but hangs from a short, slender fruit stalk. The fruit is supposed to be delicious however; the color from the fruit is used as dyes so can easily stains things that the juices seeps into. That also including the droppings from birds when eat the berry, so the tree has a bad reputation among suburban homeowners.
After looking at the shape of the leaves, I believe that my friends have the Black mulberry (Morus nigra ) species that is native to southwestern Asia. It’s a beautiful full size tree in their large backyard. It’s in a great location. I think they will be gathering lots of delicious black mulberries for many years to come.
Here we go round the mulberry bush, the mulberry bush, the mulberry bush…here we go around the mulberry bush so early in the morning…
Sources:
http://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/mulberry.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morus_nigra
http://www.pfaf.org/user/plant.aspx?latinname=Morus+nigra
http://www.ehow.com/how_5637978_make-mulberry-trees-produce-fruit.html
Mulberry fruit. (photos by Esther Blanco)
More fruit and leaves.