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Gardening

Mulberries great for garden and as food

By JANE WEBER
Published January 15, 2007

Mark your calendar: Arbor Day in Florida is Friday. The red maple has already flowered and is setting seed to feed migrating birds. Leafless red buds are beginning to swell with buds, and the spectacular bracts surrounding tiny flowers on the flowering dogwood foretell a bumper crop of spring boom.

Many health-conscious naturalists come to my garden to ask for fruit trees so they can try their hand at raising organically grown produce. One of my favorite fruits is red mulberry, Morus rubra, a cold, hardy, deciduous tree, native to moist sites of the Southeastern states in zones 3 to 10.

The Moracea family includes four genera that grow in Florida, and about 1,000 species globally. All Moracea have milky sap if stems are broken. Native red mulberry can easily be pruned as a small bush but makes a respectable, deciduous, single-trunked shade tree maturing at 30 to 70 feet and living to 100 years.

Sweet black mulberry, M. nigra, is common in Europe and thought to originate in Asia. Asian white mulberry, M. alba, has sustained the silk trade for millennia.

Red mulberry has simple leaves, 3 to 10 inches long and nearly as wide and alternate along the stem. Oval in outline, pinched to a point at the apex (tip), the upper surfaces are dull green and scabrous (rough or bumpy). The edges are serrate (toothed) and can be deeply lobed on vigorous new shoots.

Because male and female flowers are borne on different trees, female plants are cloned vegetatively, not seed grown. There is usually enough naturally occurring male pollen to set fruit.

I keep my female as a multistemmed bush to more easily harvest the inch-long aggregate fruit.

As people or bird food, red mulberry has no equal in late spring. The juicy, deep-red berries turn dark purple when fully ripe. I harvest more tart, almost-ripe fruit each afternoon and let the birds feast on what I can't reach.

Fresh in a bowl or on morning cereal, extra berries keep well in the fridge or can be laid out and individually frozen for later use.

As red mulberry prefers fertile, moist yet well-drained conditions, I recommend amending our course, sandy soil with organic, vegetable compost. Most nursery plants have been grown on daily irrigation in a soil-less bark medium and either liquid fertigation (the application of nutrients through irrigation systems) or timed-release silicone granules on the soil surface.

Never stamp on the fine feeding roots to eliminate air pockets, but flush amended soil into the planting hole with water. Rake a 3-inch berm of soil just outside the root ball to direct your watering where the tree needs it. Summer rains will flatten this bermed saucer.

Cover this saucer with no more than 2 inches of pine straw or organic mulch no closer than 2 inches from the trunk. The mulch will moderate the soil and roots from heat and cold.

Old pine straw breaks down to release a natural pre-emergent herbicide that kills emerging weed seeds. Just look under a longleaf pine or cedar tree for proof. No, the pine straw will not kill plants that run, such as St. Augustine grass or dollar weed: In growing season, use a little oil surfactant with greater than 4 percent glysophate solution on them.

New plants need watering until established. For a tree, generally a good weaning program is to water daily for a week, every other day for two weeks, then every third day for three weeks.

If it rains heavily, check to see if your tree is wet in the root zone. Always watch new plants for wilt. Irrigate weekly in the summer, 10 to 14 days in dry winter. Soil can be acid or alkaline with part shade to full sun exposure.

A mulched bed or surrounded by lawn is a good site as fallen fruit might stain concrete. Start the year right. Choose a native tree for flowers, summer shade, winter sun and fruit for the birds and yourself.

Editor's note: This weekly article is provided by Jane Weber, professional gardener, grower, consultant, designer and environmentalist. Visit her Certified Florida Yard and Backyard Wildlife Habitat, 5019 W Stargazer Lane, Dunnellon. Call 465-0649.

[Last modified January 15, 2007, 07:07:08]