Mulberry or mulberry tree, mulberry, is a child of the south.
Her homeland is warm countries. There are different types of mulberries - black, white, red.
The birthplace of white is China, black is Iran, Afghanistan, and red is North America.
Moreover, the types of mulberry are called by the color of the bark, and not the berries.
Mulberry cultivation in Russia
It would seem that this southerner is a heat-loving sissy, unable to endure the harsh winters of Russia. But it turned out that this is not so. In recent decades, thanks to the efforts of amateur gardeners, mulberry has dramatically advanced north. Surprisingly, it turned out to be a very flexible culture, able to adapt to different climatic conditions.
This interesting tree is successfully grown in the suburbs and near St. Petersburg, in the Pskov region and Nizhny Novgorod. Enthusiasts breed it in the Urals and southern Siberia.
But all of the above applies to white mulberry. Black is thermophilic and will not be able to grow in central Russia. Red mulberry in our country is practically not found.
In the middle lane, white mulberry does not grow above six meters. In cold winters, annual branches freeze, but the plant is quickly restored due to its high ability to shoot.
At the end of May, simultaneously with the unfolding of leaves, flowering begins. True, it does not fascinate with beauty, everything looks quite modest: the flowers are small, collected in inflorescences-earrings. Mulberry harvest gives annually. The growth of shoots continues until frost.
Features of growing mulberries
Mulberry - a dioecious plant, that is, one tree is a female plant, and the other is male. This feature must be taken into account when choosing a seedling for planting, because you can’t wait for a male crop. You need to buy seedlings propagated vegetatively - vaccination or cuttings.
Mulberry seedlings can be both female and male specimens. It is impossible to determine their gender before the tree comes into bearing.
True, there are trees blooming with flowers of both sexes. Such plants are able to tie fruits from selfing. Mulberry is pollinated by the wind.
Interestingly, debris and pruning of branches, leaf tearing can provoke a floor change by a tree.
Mulberry planting
Seat selection
For mulberries, they select the warmest, brightest place in the garden, inaccessible to cold winds.
It is better to plant a mulberry tree on the site from the south side. He needs sunlight and protection from the north and east winds. Almost any land composition is suitable for planting mulberries. But good fruiting can be expected on fertile, nutrient-rich soils. The mulberry of wetlands, damp lowlands with long stagnation of water does not tolerate. This crop is best suited for well-drained crops with high soil moisture retention capabilities.
When planting, it must be borne in mind that mulberry is a large tree, so between the trees leave from five to six meters.
Landing
Seedlings are planted early in the spring or after fall in the fall. Planting pits are prepared with a size of 80 x 80 x 60 cm. The roots of the mulberry are fragile, juice is secreted when wounded, therefore they are not recommended to be cut.
Mulberry sapling
Fertile soil is added to the planting pits. The mixture is prepared from sheet soil, humus, sand (2: 1: 2). Add
• superphosphate - 60-80 g,
• potassium chloride - 40-50 g.
Instead, you can take complex fertilizer - 150 g.
Fertilizers are mixed with the soil mixture. Abundantly watered and mulched with sawdust or wood bark. Transplanting seedlings are well tolerated, two-year-olds are especially easy to take root.
The first two years after planting, mulberry seedlings are sheltered for the winter, adult specimens do not require preparation for winter.
Mulberry Care
Watering
Watering is required only in dry weather: on an adult tree 10 liters of water once a week.
Top dressing
When the tree enters the fruiting season, the time comes for regular feeding. Usually enough for one season.
• Early in spring, nitroammophoska (50 g per 10 l of water) is introduced into the phase of budding of the kidneys,
• If necessary, top dressing is carried out in early June. In the summer, complex fertilizers with microelements are applied (for example, Kemiru-Universal 20 g per 1 sq. M).
• In the autumn, when digging, it is useful to add wood ash 200 g per 1 sq. Km. m. When compaction of the soil under young plantings, the earth is loosened.
Together with watering, you can fertilize the trees with fermented diluted manure. Slurry is diluted with water about five to six times. Use instead of manure and bird droppings. It is diluted ten to twelve times. Since the middle of summer, nitrogen is not used during feeding, so as not to cause the growth of young shoots that do not have time to mature before frost.
Trimming and Shaping
Bush
It is better to form a plant in the form of a bush up to three meters high. This size of mulberry greatly facilitates the care and harvest.
Mulberry bush
Withdrawing such a crown is similar to the formation of a stunted apple tree. The conductor is cut over the third or fourth strong shoot at a height of about one and a half meters from the ground, forming a low stem. Lay the skeleton of eight to ten branches. Krone is allowed to grow freely, naturally. Unnecessary shoots pluck in the summer in a grassy state.
Fruiting trees usually only thin out, trying to keep the size of the crown within the given limits.
Stamping
More natural for a tree is a single-barrel standard formation. For its removal form a standard. Annual shoots regularly pinch (pincer). This technique limits the rapid growth of the tree. Pincing is carried out in the summer, trying to complete it in early August.
In the first years of life, mulberries grow very dynamically. By five years, their growth reaches three meters. In the middle lane, freely growing mulberry trees are comparable in size to an apple tree. With regular pruning, the height of the standard mulberry does not exceed 4-5 m.
The ends of young shoots that do not have time to wood up to the cold usually freeze in winter. However, this does not affect the crop, since mulberries bear fruit on perennial branches. In the middle zone periodically, severe freezing of the tree is observed. About once a decade, frost damages even skeletal branches. Thanks to powerful frost-resistant roots, the tree is quickly restored, giving powerful young shoots. During the season, they can grow up to two or more meters.
Mulberry crown reduction
Flexible mulberry branches often wilt. If you additionally fix them with stretch marks, this will help to reduce the crown and give the tree a picturesque look.
Harvesting
Signal berries on a vegetatively propagated tree can be seen already in the second or third year after planting. Regular fruiting begins around the fifth year. In the early years, even in large-fruited forms of mulberry, the berries are small. From year to year, the size of the berries increases with the growth of the tree, reaching maximum parameters by eight to nine years.
Mulberry picking
In an ordinary mulberry tree, the berries are easily separated from the stalks, crumbling from the branches and covering the ground under the tree. Harvesting is not difficult. Under the branches, spread the fabric and shake off the fruits on it. For processing, they are removed slightly immature.
The royal mulberry mines are more difficult to collect. Berries are firmly held on a tree and break off with difficulty.
