How to Grow a Mulberry Tree (Morus alba)

The Mulberry Tree (Morus alba) is a handsome, deciduous (looses its leaves in the winter), shade tree. Easily grown, this tree makes an attractive, fast growing landscape tree. Here is some information on how to grow a Mulberry Tree.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. The Mulberry tree has large, palmate leaves of a rich green. It grows from 30’ to 40’ in height with a full, wide head which makes it ideal for shade. All too often it is planted where a smaller tree is preferred and is then regularly topped. Topping is a practice that is unhealthy for the tree and shouldn’t be done since it encourages long, weak, spindly growth. It is much better to grow the Mulberry where it has adequate room to grow unfettered and show off its natural beauty with little maintenance. All this chopping not only hurts the tree, but it is a regular drain on the budget!

2. 
   Reddening Mulberry fruits

   You can find fruiting and non-fruiting Mulberry varieties. Fruiting Mulberries can be very messy dropping dark, juicy fruits and staining pavements. On the other hand, fruits are tasty and nutritious for those who are willing to crop them – assuming you get to them before all the squirrels do!

3. Roots of the Mulberry can become a nuisance as they can travel along the surface of the ground ready to trip up unsuspecting feet. If you plant your Mulberry with a root guard around the root ball, you can encourage the roots to go down before they spread wide and avoid the surface root problem.

4. 
   A young weeping Mulberry tree

   A very ornamental Mulberry is the Weeping Mulberry. This tree will likely grow between 15 and 25 feet tall over time with specially grafted dangling branches that hang down to create an umbrella effect.

5. Mulberries can handle cold from -10’ to -20’ F. This tree tolerates extreme heat and dry air, too. It is drought tolerant and prefers neutral to alkali soil. Easy to grow, the Morus alba will do best if it is trained by careful pruning when it is young so the branches grow strong and there is no need for further pruning when the tree grows large (and pruning becomes difficult and expensive). Grow the Mulberry (Morus alba) as a decorative landscape tree in full sun where its beauty can be appreciated and its dense shade enjoyed.

Resources

• Landscape design and gardening information

[Mitestarossa]

on 5/7/2009 They are so beautiful.