Fruitless Mulberry (A Tale of Two Trees)

[@barbbeach6635]

This channel is great to watch my son does lawn care and tree work for his clients one of his clients just approved cutting there cedar tree hedges down half there height to allow sun into there backyard and he still needs to price a 60+ foot cottonwood tree removal before a pool is built

[@arboristBlairGlenn]

Barb Beach I hope your son learns proper tree care with my help in this channel. Thanks

[@barbbeach6635]

My son is already better then a lot of company’s in our town most of the time the big company’s cut the collet off

[@barbbeach6635]

Collar

[@charlesward8196]

I put a fruitless mulberry in my back yard in Las Vegas in 1986. I had to rent a jack hammer to power out a 4’x4’x4’ hole in caliche, and put a $5 tree in a $100 hole. My toddler daughter could wrap her hand around the whole trunk. By the time we moved 15 years later it was 30 feet tall, and 12”DBH with three platforms and a rope swing. It shaded the whole back of the house from the relentless afternoon Nevada sun and save immensely on air conditioning. They can be great trees if treated right.

[@arboristBlairGlenn]

Charles Ward happy to hear a positive story about this species. Did you hard prune that tree?

[@charlesward8196]

arboristBlairGlenn the usual method I used to prune it was to take new growth back to about 18 inches, or so, and leave at least three lateral buds. The next year those three buds would grow 8’ to 12’ feet, with the bud closest to the end of the branch taking over as the dominant leader. At the end of the season the leader would be cut back to three buds, and then the side branches would be taken back to a single bud. It kept the tree proportional without big stubs to invite decay because the biggest cut surface was only an inch or so in diameter, and the subsequent season’s growth calloused over the wound. The back yard was only about 16’ deep, by 44 feet wide. The tree filled the depth and more than half the width by the time I moved, and I was working pretty hard to keep it from becoming a nuisance to the neighbors. I checked Google Earth today, and the tree is still doing the job of creating shade and cutting cooling costs, and street view shows that it has not been pollarded by subsequent owners. They replaced the Modesto ashes with Washingtonia fan palms, the Royal apricot and the Santa Rosa Plum were replaced with a spa, and the Bonanza peach is gone. The front xeriscape that earned me an Honorable Mention from the Las Vegas Valley Water District featuring Gregg’s acacia, screw bean mesquite, and 25 species of cactus, yucca, perennial shrubs and annual flowers has been replaced with more fan palms except for a few yucca bachata and some big prickly pears. But the mulberry still looks good.

[@arboristBlairGlenn]

Charles Ward I understand. The house I owned before had my blood sweat and tears in the landscape. Now, I want to cry when I drove by. All that work for nothing.

[@charlesward8196]

arboristBlairGlenn Nah, not for nothing.There is personal value in planting and nurturing plantings. While I was working on things I was learning, and passing my passion for plants on to others. My kids had the chance to climb the trees and pick fresh ripe apricots and see where food actually comes from. I gathered seeds from the wild from annual flowers and shrubs and learned what did and did not work for propagation. I actually had native birds, black chinned sparrows nest in my teddy bear chollas that I propagated from fallen joints, and a verdin nested in my catclaw acacia. My son just bought a house he had been renting, and I helped him prune the neglected apple tree in the front yard. Another tree succumbed to fire blight, but the root stock is still sending up sprouts. Next spring we will graft some scions from the survivor to the sprouts, and see if we can get another tree going. The present one has great fruit and fire blight resistance. We will experiment and see what works.I have planted 10 fruit trees in the yard since I moved in 19 years ago. Each one has been shaped and directed by my hand in a cooperative dance with nature. The trees may be removed by a subsequent home owner, but I will remember the pleasure of the dance, the blossoms in spring, the anticipation of ripening fruit, the birds that nested in the created habitat and shared the life-giving bounty of fruits, the joy of harvest, the pies and cobblers, jams and juices. Musician Guy Carawan recorded a song, Gone, Gonna Rise Again and also Inch by Inch or the Garden Song. You can probably find them on KZbin. Both are about the joys of working with plants and the passing on of a legacy.

[@mznanbme]

Your way is soooooo much better than what I see. Sad how many Mulberries are butchered.

[@arboristBlairGlenn]

Lots of ignorance in the world. I’m trying hard to help others to see clearly. Many people are blind

[@christopherglover]

Blair another great video of real tree care. It's easy for people to jump in and complain about how a tree is cut but sometimes you can only do what you can do. Keep up the good work my friend...👍👍👍

[@arboristBlairGlenn]

I like to tell the whole story of what happens in our industry. The good, the bad AND the ugly!

[@ElectricityTaster]

Armillaria is not always a death sentence. Sometimes a tree can overcome it, but it needs to be relatively young and growing in optimal conditions to stand a chance. It's a race between how much new wood a tree can put on vs how much wood a fungus can decay. But chances are it is long for this world. In an ideal world we'd perform a pull test to get an idea of how stable the tree is. In my ideal world, we'd cable it up like the dead tree in bladerunner. I like that you did not re-butcher the tree. Trees deserve some dignity.

[@CONCERTMANchicago]

So is that special dog food dish 4:18 with the spiral valleys. To help Hank eat slower?

[@arboristBlairGlenn]

CONCERTMANchicago yes, he inhaled his food too fast. Some of these big dogs get stomach issues.

[@michaeldougfir9807]

Good motif, Blair. And enjoyed the dogs too. I miss my border collie I once had. I am fortunate. One of my regular customers has a good sized fruitless mulberry. It has never been abused and for several years running the owners have had me back for an annual thinning. More recently they have had me care for their four young maples. It is so satisfying to do a good, careful job for a fair price, and to have the growing relationship.

[@johnbrownspiers8242]

It's a shame how many people have the fruitless mulberry pruned back to a knobby stump every winter. They're gorgeous trees when left alone -- something I saw for the first time in another of your videos. In the south, we have the same issue with crepe myrtles: the popular misconception is that you have to cut them back every single year or you won't get flowers in the spring.

[@arboristBlairGlenn]

Manchester Paradiso with the Crepe Myrtle, they do produce more flowers if hard pruned but in my opinion, a Crepe Myrtle left to develop naturally is beautiful!

[@OBS_Ford_Diesels_Inc]

There are two mulberry trees in my yard, however they are the variety that grows delicious berries. One is about 65 years old, it's not doing too good. It used to have two main branches but it cracked between them all the way down the trunk. We bolted it together which worked until one of the large branches died so we had to cut it off. When it does leaf out it's not as full as it was 5 years ago. Then there's the smaller tree. It's about 20 years old. It was growing wild hidden in a row of our many cedar trees. We planted it 10 feet from the house, but we had an addition put on the house so the tree had to move. It was still somewhat small so for the company it was an easy task. It's been living 15 maybe 20 feet from the house since. It has never been pruned and has no defects or decay, it doesn't even have dead branches. It's really becoming a beautiful tree. These two trees are mulberries but they are the fruiting type. We leave the low branches on purpose so we can get the berries.

[@arboristBlairGlenn]

Hard to find fruit bearing mulberries out here but once and a while. They are good but the birds wipe them out quick!

[@The4Crawler]

I had a fruitless Mulberry in front of my house up until a few years ago. It was a city street tree, 60+ yrs. old. I had noticed it was starting to split clear down the trunk from the big crotch about 6 ft. up where the main branches split off to either side. City arborist came by to check it out and decided it had to go. You could see rot clear down into the middle of the stump, so I think that was the right call. It did give great shade, but yes, that tree was a maint. chore. Leaves would start dropping end of Sep. and continue until end of Jan. Then there was a few weeks of flower casings, then a few weeks of flowers then a few weeks of new leaves that would blow off in the spring. All told, there was about 5 months of raking or blowing the sidewalk and lawn free from debris. Those flowers are the worst, especially if people have walked over them on the sidewalk. Interesting to see that that species is no longer listed on the city's list of replacement street trees.

[@arboristBlairGlenn]

Was that tree butchered in the past?

[@The4Crawler]

No, I don't think so, at least where the split occurred. It seemed to just be a case of the top of the tree was too heavy and there was a weak crotch where the main branches separated from the main trunk. Maybe something happened to it back before I owned the house that was the cause of that eventual failure.

[@JF-fx2qv]

I support your decision, you made all the right calls. Never butcher. I'd remove a tree over butchering.

[@arboristBlairGlenn]

J F two schools of thought. A really hard cutting might keep it from self destructing and prolong its life.

[@greggkuzila7513]

I have two very large Live Oaks one of the roots is breaking my driveway up if I cut the driveway to expose the root can they cut that root without killing the tree I have two other routes that are like 50 foot long running other places so well that a cat will that break the tree down

[@arboristBlairGlenn]

Gregg KUZILA I am cautious not to give advice without seeing a situation, sorry

[@jd3497]

"Messy, get rid of it.", something my neighbor would say. Was convinced to remove a health Maple on his property which provided shade to both out houses.

[@arboristBlairGlenn]

JD the value of a messy tree is often short sighted. Then it gets hot

[@karlmurphy3090]

I can tell just by the neighbors yard that would be their reaction. Manicured within an inch of it's life = not very tree friendly.

[@Theinsomniac826]

I had my mulberry tree chopped down a few minutes ago. It had been butchered in the past as well.

[@arboristBlairGlenn]

Friday hopefully you won’t miss the shade

[@Theinsomniac826]

@@arboristBlairGlenn I am standing in the yard thinking about that😂😂😂 I will get used to the sun 🌞

[@PowerTom286]

Seeing trees been butchered like these makes me sad, Blair

[@tymesho]

Mulberry's are my bane, I must have climbed hundreds in Texas. Some easy, some were a real bi&%*! because of the way they sometimes grow back out straight up. Down there everybody tops them as in this video? I've never seen another species take such punishment? I lived there for 5 years. A buddy had a young Mulberry (5 yrs. old?) that was perfectly shaped, and I asked him if I could do an experiment, as he was wanting to cut it back. He allowed me to top/round it 1/8th, instead of the normal 1/4 they do there. I did the whole tree with a pole pruner so, as you know, it was time consuming. Well, after the 5th year, this tree remained well shaped, and grew way less than if it was quarter crowned. Did I stumble onto something? I'm not sure, but he tells me via e-mail he hasn't had to touch it, and it's been years? Any thoughts, my friend?

[@tymesho]

(by the way, it was non bearing)

[@arboristBlairGlenn]

That is how I like to prune them as well. A hard cut causes the tree to push out massive water sprouts that can grow 15 feet in one season as long straight poles. (Good for old world construction projects). Lots of small cuts causes multiples to grow from the ends. Short term (a few years), and it feels like the tree grows slowly. The multiples creat masses that can become too heavy. I like to do it this way because in the springtime, the tree has buds to sprout and it looks good right away.

[@tymesho]

Thanks Blair, I'll ask him about the "multiples".

[@skyrunr]

I'd have liked the part 2 explanation before the cutting on this one. That bird noise matches my calendar reminder on my phone perfectly. I think a video of the "discussion" would have been great too. The technology you should've been able to communicate the issue before starting work. If it was mine I'd have been fine with an sms of the issue to think about it.

[@steviectree3322]

Hi Blair, you might be interested in checking out MycoSolutions, a Swiss company, who have developed a treatment for Armillaria mellea, using a strain of Trichoderma, which aggressively attacks decay causing fungi. I guess there will be a US supplier. All the best.

[@skyrunr]

Just for comparison. My neighbor had some treatments estimates done on different trees. The cost was in the thousands, involved many treatments over time, and it only had a 40/60 success rate.

[@garymccoy2888]

Those burles would make some nice turnings.

[@arboristBlairGlenn]

Not burls, end growth full of decay

[@garymccoy2888]

arboristBlairGlenn ..Ok, thanks. They looked like burls?

[@yellowlabrador]

A tale of 2 cities, Charles Dickens, I love mulberries

[@arboristBlairGlenn]

yellowlabrador and the “tail” of two dogs😳

[@trooperandcooperale3057]

My first every tree being left on my own was a Mulberry tree that dominated and empty block, I was 25. Bought the whole thing down clearing as I went till the very last leveling stump cut got an a nice kickback and the Stihl went into my left knee to the bone. Walked up to the chemist and ask for EDP powder, gauze and tape. The girl behind the counter freaked up and fixed me up and gave me Jelly Beans as she thought I must have been in shock. No blood, was very lucky.

[@88SC]

Left alone, the one in the front would be fairly big, wouldn’t it? Judging by the size of the trunk. Speaking of fruitless, are there varieties of Ash that don’t produce all the “keys”? I have an Ash tree in my back yard, right off my deck. I love the shape of it, the color and texture of the leaves, but boy, do the seeds own me some times.

[@63256325N]

Butchered is just about right. Thanks for the video.

[@whiskeytangofoxtrot9403]

In my area it seems people are of the mindset that they need to top trees back to nothing and it's horrible looking and for the future of the trees.

[@arboristBlairGlenn]

WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot and that is a big part of why I do this channel. That problem stems from centuries of ignorance. Pollarding comes from the hard cutting trees to grow long whips for fencing and construction in days gone by.

[@alabalanutnbolt]

My front garden is the resting place for 90% of my neighbours leaves. I wish the tree gone but she loves it so I tidy the debris up and let her carry on loving the tree . I hope it’s what good neighbours do. My other neighbour is an absolute monster of a human being who endlessly whines about everything. I hope I never end up like him . Good job Blair and carry on the good work.

[@arboristBlairGlenn]

ala montana compost is the answer! Build a big double sided rotation. Use the leaves to improve your yard. One persons problem is another’s win. Perspective is important. Hank can help out😳

[@martinspijker9661]

the dogs must be female.. the don,t listen to you..;P

[@arboristBlairGlenn]

Hank is a Male but good joke.