Mulberry tree, it is mulberry: cultivation and main types

Decorative views for landscaping

The cultivation of mulberry trees takes place on a huge territory suitable for them in terms of climatic conditions, not only for a utilitarian purpose, very often a mulberry tree is used as a decorative one. Trees with beautiful foliage, perfectly tolerating pruning, are often planted in city parks, they are used to decorate flower beds, create green fences, original umbrellas that cover shade-loving flowers or recreation areas from the sun.

There are three main types of mulberry: black, red and white. Black hails from Afghanistan and Iran, it grows up to 15 m, forms a spreading crown, loves warmth more than others and suffers from frost, in a snowless winter, a temperature of -10 degrees can already become destructive for it. Therefore, it is grown only in the southern regions. Red and white mulberries are more common in park culture.

Red mulberry is a hardy and cold-resistant tree, it is undemanding in relation to soil, easily tolerates periods of drought, does not suffer from exhaust gases and other air pollution. She came to us from North America, grows in height up to 10 - 20 m, forms a crown in the form of a large tent, on a trunk with brownish bark. Its long leaves, up to 12 cm, pointed at the ends, look quite original - they are rough on the upper side, and slightly felt on the lower side. Fruits are dark red, almost black in color, ripen at the end of June. There is a very decorative variety of red mulberry - its leaves are covered with white fluff on the underside. It is successfully used in gardening art.

The homeland of the white mulberry is China. This powerful tree of the Mulberry family grows up to 20 m tall, forming a spherical crown. Its bark is covered with a pattern of small cracks, young shoots are painted in greenish-gray or even reddish colors, and the leaves are surprising that on the same tree they can differ in shape and size.

The leaves are dark green in summer, in some varieties are glossy, and in the fall they turn very beautifully yellow, turning the whole tree into a yellow ball. Sweet berries are painted in different colors - they are creamy, pinkish, milky, slightly gray-gray, red, dark-ink, black.

White mulberry is considered the most unpretentious and persistent species, it grows well in a modern city, which may be why there are so many of its decorative forms that are planted on the streets and in parks. Weeping mulberry with thin drooping branches grows no higher than 5 meters, looks beautiful in single and group plantings, it is often planted on the streets. The spherical one perfectly retains the round shape of its crown, and the pyramidal one grows up to 8 m, its dark green candle in the summer turns into a yellow torch in the fall.The large-leaved mulberry surprises with its long, up to 22 cm, leaves, and the narrow-leaved mulberry is grown as a bush with small rough leaves. The main decoration of the split-leaved mulberry is the leaves cut into regular lobes, with the middle and lateral lobes being much longer than the others. And the golden mulberry leaves and young shoots are painted in a joyful golden yellow color.

Mulberry (or mulberry), due to its unpretentiousness, stamina and spectacular appearance, is often planted on city streets, decorative hedges are formed from it, and alleys are formed. In gardens and parks, it can be an accent among flower beds or an excellent design of individual zones or gazebos.

Video "Varieties of mulberry tree"

From the video you will learn what kind of mulberry is.

Cultivation of mulberry species

A tree of the Mulberry family is usually planted in the country in order to enjoy its delicious, usually very sweet or sour-sweet fruits in the summer. Mulberry fruits contain glucose, fructose, sucrose, malic and citric acid, essential oils, fatty acids and lipids. They are easily absorbed by the body, enriching it with vitamins: C, B1, B2, PP, E, K, carotene. Large amounts of potassium, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, iron, copper, manganese, zinc, selenium make them useful for anemia, metabolic disorders, diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, biliary tract and heart. Traditional medicine advises the use of fruits, leaves, bark for the treatment of many diseases. Of course, the most useful thing is to eat fresh berries, but desserts are often prepared from them, they are harvested for the winter in the form of compotes, jams, and wine is made from them.

The dense and heavy wood of the mulberry has long been used at home (in Central Asia) for the manufacture of musical instruments, barrels and souvenirs. It was from it that the first paper was made in ancient China even before our era. And we grow mulberries to eat their fruits or feed the leaves of silkworm caterpillars. Black mulberry is cultivated in regions with a warm climate, it easily tolerates drought, grows on any soil, is not afraid of air pollution, but in a snowless winter, it only needs -10 degrees of frost to freeze out. Popular varieties with delicious fruits are: "Black Prince", "Black Pearl", "Royal", "Hope". A special remontant mulberry has been bred, which can be grown in a container, and the Shelley No. 150 hybrid has berries that are more than 5 cm ripe, but it does not amaze with this, but with huge leaves over 50 cm long.

In the Moscow region, white mulberry is often grown, it is even more unpretentious, and most importantly, frost-resistant. Sweet fruits can differ in color in different varieties, they outwardly resemble raspberries or blackberries in their shape. The most common varieties are: "White Honey", "Smuglyanka", "White Tenderness", "Black Baroness", "Ukrainian-6", "Staromoskovskaya". In the Central lane, "Vladimirskaya", "Korolevskaya", "Staromoskovskaya" and "White Honey" grow well and bear fruit.

Characteristic features of the plant

The tree of the Mulberry family grows and bears fruit for a very long time, it is believed that it lives up to 200 years, but trees at the age of 300 and even 500 years are known. And in Jericho, a mulberry grows, in the shade of which Jesus Christ rested. Many eastern legends are associated with mulberry; among some peoples, it is considered a sacred tree.

A young tree grows very quickly, and a mature tree seems to stop growing, but continues to actively bear fruit. Among the mulberry trees there are monoecious plants on which male and female flowers develop simultaneously, and there are dioecious plants, which need a tree of the opposite sex for fruiting. Certain inconveniences are associated with this - until a young tree fades, it is impossible to know whether it will bear fruit, therefore it is better to buy seedlings 4 - 5 years old, on which fruits have already appeared.

In fact, it is incorrect to call a false berry, which we eat with pleasure, a fruit.The fact is that mulberry flowers are collected in a brush, in monoecious plants they are perfectly pollinated with the help of the wind, fruits develop from them - drupes, which, ripening on an overgrown stalk, form a brush of drupes, so we eat it, calling it a fruit. In fact, each such false berry consists of many small juicy fruits tightly adjacent to each other.

The types of mulberries (red, white and black) differ not in the color of the berries, but in the color of the trunk bark. In all varieties of white mulberry, regardless of the color of the berries, it is the lightest - light brown, like a cappuccino foam with cinnamon. In red - with a red tint, and in black - dark, covered with cracks at any age.

Planting and caring for plants

This unpretentious tree of the Mulberry family can be planted in a permanent place of growth in the spring before the start of sap flow or in the fall, at the end of the growing season. This usually happens in April or October. The place for it is chosen sunny, but protected from the cold northerly wind, the soil can be any, except frankly sandy, swampy or saline, and the groundwater should not approach the surface closer than 1.5 m. The hole needs to be dug deep and wide - the roots should be located freely, it is impossible for them to crumple or bend, and you also need to leave a place in the fertilizer hole. For spring planting, it is advisable to prepare a hole in the fall, it needs to be dug, several kilograms (5 - 7) of compost or humus put on the bottom, add up to 100 g of superphosphate, and sprinkle with soil on top so that the roots do not come into contact with fertilizers. For spring planting, do the same at least 3 weeks before planting the seedling.

The plant is placed in a prepared hole, straightening all the roots, carefully covered with earth, lightly tamped, watered with two buckets of water, after which the trunk circle is mulched. If the seedling is still weak and fragile, it is better to drive a strong stick into the bottom of the hole, and tie the tree trunk to it. If the soil is clay, a drainage layer is made at the bottom of the pit.

Then the tree is looked after, as usual, it is watered, fed, pruned, saved from weeds, and protected from pests and diseases. Water the tree and apply top dressing only in spring and in the first half of summer - until early July. Too much moisture is not needed, watering is only worthwhile if there is no rain at all. When fertilizing is applied, they are distributed as follows: in the spring the plant needs nitrogen, and later potassium and phosphorus. Since July, no fertilizers have been given to the tree.

Pruning a tree is designed to form the correct crown, free the tree from damaged or frozen branches. Each species requires its own shape, the standard tree must be shaped so that there is always a lush head of hair on the bare trunk - a spherical crown or a falling cascade, the crown should not be too thick so that all branches have enough sunlight and air. In the weeping mulberry, the branches are shortened, the crown is thinned out.

A fruit tree in your garden needs to be pruned, forming a crown convenient for the owner. All shoots must be removed from a young tree so that the trunk remains bare at a height of 1.5 m. If you want to grow a tall tree, then the center conductor should be allowed to grow up to 5 - 6 m, and its competitors should be removed.

If you need a short tree from which it is convenient to harvest, then the central shoot is shortened at a height of approximately 150 - 170 cm, 8 - 10 skeletal branches are preserved, and the rest are removed. Usually, such a formative pruning is done in the spring, and in the fall they do a sanitary one - they remove the broken, dried out branches or branches growing inside the crown.

Mulberries are propagated by cuttings or root suckers. It can be grown from seeds, but such plants do not retain the characteristics of the mother tree. The mulberry tree tolerates vaccinations well.

Mulberry leaves are eaten not only by silkworm caterpillars, other pests also like to feast on them.Caterpillars of the American white butterfly and mulberry moth can damage the tree, as can the spider mite or Comstock worm. "Chlorophos" will get rid of caterpillars, and "Kleschevit" or "Aktellik" - from sucking insects. But it is better to carry out prophylaxis - even in the spring, you can treat the tree and the trunk circle with a 7% urea solution, which will simultaneously become a nitrogen supplement. The tree can be affected by powdery mildew, cylindrosporiasis, bacteriosis or brown leaf spot, there are special remedies for treatment. But mulberry is very rarely sick, it is a very resistant healthy tree.

Video "Planting and caring for mulberry"

From the video you will learn how to properly plant and care for mulberries.