Planting Mulberry. Gaston County, North Carolina

[@johnnysworld-backyardorchard]

Great video, I really need to look into getting some mulberry trees. Thanks for sharing! You have a nice yard.

[@Avo7bProject]

When you scout through KZbin videos - I get the impression there are some Mulberry addicts who have to collect every variety. (Sound familiar? 😂) I planted that "World's Best" at the end of the video in one of my wildflower plots yesterday.

[@stanclayton221]

Greetings again from next door in Lincoln Co. Here are my latest mulberry adventures. Last month I discovered a white mulberry in the established landscaping at our house in town. I was getting ready to prune the roughly 20' tall tree when I noticed it's fruit, so decided to prune the neighboring redbud instead. The mulberry is heavily laden with fruit, and we'll be sure to pick and preserve some while leaving plenty for the birds and squirrels. I don't know the age of the tree, as we have lived here just three years. Anyway, after our storm of recent days a long branch was left hanging over the driveway from a crape myrtle tree. Yesterday I took my lopper down to remove it, only to discover it was a 12+ foot tall whip-like tree with a mix of ovate and lobed leaves, clearly NOT a crape myrtle volunteer. The leaves have serrated edges and a satin finish rather than the glossy leaves of white mulberry. The leaf undersides are grayish with pronounced veins. The ovate leaves have long, pointed tips. It does have one small berry up near the top, which is clearly a mulberry berry. All in all, I'm fairly confident this is a red mulberry. The trunk is only 1" diameter just above ground level, and there are only a few, small branches. The tree clearly has put its effort into growing up through the overhead crape myrtle canopy to reach the light rather than mulberries' preferred short trunk, broad crown strategy. This tree's extreme version of the strategy has produced a very tall, weak tree that would have killed it had I not come along. I coped the myrtle growing next to it and loosely tied the mulberry to the bare trunk to stabilize it.

[@Avo7bProject]

I kind of view Crepe Myrtles as "weed trees" - they're invasive and very hard to remove once established. Lots of flowers, that's why people plant them - but nothing to eat from them!

[@Youdontknowmeson1324]

There a lot of cool mulberries kokuso Korean mulberry are quite cool there a different species then normal mulberry and make huge leaves the fruit is very cool and there extremely cold hardy.

[@BrisLS1]

I have one in my backyard that I just learned was edible after looking at it for 10 years. It's about 40 feet tall. And just taking out the trash to the curb, I literally ran into another one, that was only 10 feet, but making massive fruit. It's where my neighbor likes to park, so I have been whacking it down for 10 years. I guess they just grow like weeds here in VA. Not sure I would use the space and sun for mulberry over something like blueberry, if I was doing the planting. Best wishes. I am sure you too, will have more mulberry tree than you want to trim soon.

[@Avo7bProject]

Yes, it is true that some people *don't* want Mulberry. It has a reputation for spreading wide roots and robbing other plants of water. (Although I don't see any problem putting them in my wildflower plots.) Birds like the fruit, and can spread mulberry-colored droppings nearby. As for where it grows, marketed varieties are slanted toward warm climates. I suppose what sells in a nursery are trees that can form very long or photogenic fruits, and that is a warm-climate trait. However, I have seen northern varieties in Europe growing fruitfully in the parks and along the roadsides in zone 6.