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Mulberry, or mulberry, is a versatile and unpretentious tree. Mulberry seedlings can take root on any land, and mature trees have a very wide purpose – silkworm caterpillars feed on their leaves, seedlings are a valuable food product, and their decorative forms are widely used in garden and park construction. Growing mulberry on a private farm does not require much time and expense, and the return can be very significant, since the mulberry crop, even in the absence of proper care, impresses with its quantity.
Landing
Mulberry, the cultivation of which is widespread in many countries of the world, lives long enough, so it is necessary to choose a place for it where the tree will be comfortable and not cramped. Ideal for planting a southern slope, or an open sunny area in the garden. Mulberry is undemanding to the composition of the soil, but drainage properties are of great importance for it. The fact is that the culture does not tolerate waterlogging at all. It grows better on dry soil, and does not accept swampy areas with a close location of groundwater.
For a tree, it is desirable that there are no other plants or trees within a radius of 3-5 m. Pits for planting are prepared in advance so that the soil stands. The size of the pit should be approximately 70×70 cm, and the depth should be at least 0,5 m. After the pit is dug, the earth from it is mixed with organic and mineral fertilizers (humus or compost 0,5 buckets, superphosphate 50-70 g). Then part of the earth is again poured into the pit, a seedling is placed on it, and the remaining earth is used to fall asleep the tree. You can water the plant before or after planting. After watering, the soil around the trunk is mulched so that the moisture does not evaporate prematurely.
Video “Planting mulberries”
From the video you will learn how to plant mulberries in your area.
Growing in the garden
In private gardens in Europe, mulberry appeared quite a long time ago. It was brought to Our Country by the great Peter I, after which he forbade the felling of these trees by a special decree. In the royal diet, she was present fresh, dried, in the form of jam, drinks. Leaves and bark were used for medicinal purposes, but how many years have passed, and silk production in the country has not been developed.
Now in the home garden, mulberries are planted mainly for fruit production, but ornamental mulberries are also often found, the cultivation and care of which is practically no different from the previous form.
Such a mulberry has the most unusual description – unlike a fruit tree, its crown is compact, the branches can be hanging (weeping form), or golden (golden), the leaves have an original shape and color.
When planting fruit mulberries on a site, you need to know that this culture is dioecious – there is a separate male and female tree. Only a tree with female flowers bears fruit, and with male flowers it serves for pollination, which is why an adult plant sometimes blooms, but does not bear fruit. If the area of uXNUMXbuXNUMXbthe site allows, then trees of both individuals should be planted nearby.
In nature, mulberry trees can grow to a decent size, and although in the home garden the mulberry crown is not very large, and the trunk is rarely higher than 10 m, it should be planted in a sunny, spacious place where other trees will not interfere with it. Mulberry can tolerate severe frosts (down to -30 ° C), but do not forget that this is a southern, heat-loving plant, and not every climate is suitable for it.
In a temperate continental climate, mulberry trees survive winters well. For example, mulberry in Belarus or in central Our Country rarely freezes in winter, but mulberry in Siberia or the Urals needs more careful attention – for the winter, tree trunks should be covered so that the root system does not freeze. You can cover with any organic matter (leaves, sawdust, peat), but rotted manure is best suited for this purpose – when it decomposes, it releases heat that will warm the roots. In spring (in March), mulberry branches should be protected from the bright sun.
Mulberry care is easy. An adult plant does not need anything other than top dressing, but a young seedling in the early years needs to be looked after more carefully: water regularly, loosen the ground around the trunk, and carry out formative pruning. It is necessary to water the tree before reaching the age of 4-5 years – an adult tree has a deep root system, so it independently provides itself with moisture. In the first half of summer, watering should be regular and plentiful; closer to autumn, watering is not necessary so that the young plant can prepare for winter.
In young trees, it is necessary to cut off the tops of the shoots. This measure helps to increase the yield – after pruning, side branches begin to form, and the more branches, the more berries. Pruning also includes the removal of old, diseased and damaged branches. Pruning can be carried out both in spring and at the end of summer. Ornamental tree species are pruned several times a season – they tolerate this procedure perfectly and recover quickly.
Performing the shaping
In general, mulberry is not very susceptible to diseases, but growing in the garden next to other fruit crops, it can become infected from them. Garden pests (insects, caterpillars) will also not bypass tender leaves and sweet fruits, so mulberry trees need preventive, but regular treatment from these misfortunes.
Mulberry leaves can infect fungal spores (bacteriosis, powdery mildew, brown spotting). These diseases are first manifested by a kind of plaque on the leaf plate, which eventually leads to the formation of holes, drying out and death of the leaf. To prevent this phenomenon, trees are sprayed with a solution of Bordeaux mixture (universal fungicide), sulfuric or lime mortar. Processing is carried out in the spring, before bud break.
No less damage to the crop can be caused by pests: insects and their caterpillars, for which mulberry leaves are a real delicacy. Caterpillars of the American butterfly, mulberry moth can destroy all the foliage on a tree in a few days, so preventive spraying must be carried out before these pests appear. He likes to feast on the juice of the leaves and the spider mite, which hides in its web under the leaf, so that it can only be detected by holes in the foliage. Insecticides (chlorophos, thiophos) are used to control and prevent pests. From folk methods, you can use a decoction of tobacco, wormwood.
Additional fertilizing
In the year of planting, young seedlings do not need top dressing – fertilizers applied to the planting pit are enough for them. For a young tree, the optimal time for fertilizing will be the beginning of fruiting, as the plant needs more strength and nutrients. If the seedling is grown on its own, then it should be fed starting from the third year of life. For top dressing, mineral and organic fertilizers are used, which are applied (embedded) in the trunk circles. The earth around the tree should be loosened, and after fertilizing, mulch.
As an organic top dressing, you can make liquid solutions and droppings or mullein. Litter is diluted with water in a ratio of 1:15, and manure – 1:10, and the culture is watered with this solution. Top dressings are made in the spring and before fruiting, when the plant finishes flowering. At the end of the season, it is not recommended to feed the trees, as they will give young shoots that will die at the first frost, and, moreover, will weaken the winter hardiness of the fruit-bearing tree. As a mineral top dressing, nitrogen fertilizers (nitroammophoska, saltpeter) can be applied in spring, and potassium and phosphorus in late autumn.
Reproduction
Mulberry is a very hardy tree. It quickly and easily recovers from severe frosts, damage, its shoots can re-grow from a sawn trunk, and then successfully bear fruit. Therefore, the reproduction of mulberry does not present any difficulties – no matter what method you choose, you can be sure that the plant will take root and produce a crop quite quickly.
It can be said about mulberry that this is an unusual and somewhat strange culture. It is characterized by a wide variety of types of sexual organization. Trees can be monoecious, dioecious, self-fertile, or mixed.
On one tree, only female or male flowers may appear, or they may be bisexual. In addition, an infinite number of shoots of other varieties can be grafted onto a tree of one variety – to form the so-called “melange” crop, when white, black, pink and red berries can be harvested from one plant at the same time.
It follows from this that it is not difficult to propagate mulberries, and this can be done in several ways:
- From seed. Often, under adult mulberries, you can see small seedlings obtained from self-sowing. Growing up, they bear fruit well, but there is no guarantee that the berries of such a plant will correspond to the varietal characteristics of the parent specimen. Breeders use this method mainly to obtain a rootstock of a variety, and after a couple of years they graft a cutting of a delicious varietal berry to the seedling. In private gardening, the method is rarely used, because it is troublesome to grow mulberries from seeds, and the first flowering and fruiting occurs only at 5-6 years of age.
- Grafting. Most often, the method is used to grow ornamental varieties or to form a tree with different fruits. To do this, the cuttings of the desired variety are grafted onto the trunk of a two-year-old seedling.
- cuttings. It is easier to propagate mulberries with green cuttings – they give roots faster and take root better, while it is quite difficult to get a seedling from woody cuttings. Rooting cuttings requires special conditions (humidity, temperature), so many gardeners prefer simpler methods.
- layering. When cutting the mother tree, the greatest increase in shoots is formed, which are bent to the ground, fixed in a horizontal position, and sprinkled with earth. You need to spud branches several times during the summer, and in the fall, plant a growing seedling in a permanent place.
- Root growth. An adult plant annually produces young growth, which is not necessary to fight – it can be used to grow new specimens. You can plant an escape in spring or autumn. To do this, you need to carefully dig out the place where the sprout originated, and cut it off, trying to keep the root system of the tree intact.
Of course, growing mulberries, so to speak, from scratch is troublesome. It’s easier to buy an already grown seedling in a nursery in order to know exactly how old the plant is and in what year it will begin to bear fruit? When choosing a seedling, remember that mulberry trees are male and female, and not many seedlings are capable of producing berries. Therefore, it is recommended to purchase 3-4-year-old trees that have already fruited once – so you are guaranteed to buy a fruit-bearing specimen.
Video “Diseases, feeding, reproduction of mulberries”
In this video, experienced gardeners and gardeners will tell you how to care for a mulberry tree in order to get an excellent harvest.
