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Old 24-04-2006, 03:05 PM
echinosum echinosum is offline
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First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Feb 2006
Location: Chalfont St Giles
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I understand that it's only the female mulberry bushes that bear fruit.

Since my main interest in mulberries is the fruit
It isn't necessarily possible to sex trees grown from seed, other than by waiting until they flower. This is the dilemma for growers of, for example, Monkey Puzzle trees, who might want seed off them, and may have to wait 30-40 years to find out what they have got. From cutting, you know what you have. But if you want fruit, you do need at least one male if it is a dioecious species (one with separate male and female plants).

You don't say where you live, but this is UK forum, so that is my starting point. The mulberries commonly grown in UK are Morus alba (white mulberry - monoecious), M. rubra (red mulberry - dioecious) and M. nigra (black mulberry - moneocious). But all of these are commonly referred to as mulberry trees, not mulberry bushes, so I wonder if it is something else you have, perhaps paper mulberry (see below). Though the childrens' nursery rhyme "mulberry bush" results in some confusion.

If you are most interested in fruit, then of these I recommend you should grow M. nigra (black mulberry), especially if you are in the UK. It is monoecious, ie, no male/female difference, and you only need one tree to get fruit. M. nigra is mainly propagated from cuttings, and you can get a reasonable size tree and crop after about 5 years with a tree bought from a nursery, might take longer from seed. Said to reach peak cropping at about 15 years.

M. alba is also monoecious, but there is some disagreement about how good the fruit are. Some reckon they are as good as M. nigra, and heavier cropping. But there are specific varieties in order to get good fruit crops. From seed, you are taking a risk of not getting a good fruiter. My mother planted one by mistake, and has not been pleased with the fruit, so I have got her a M. nigra so she can be satisfied with a "proper" mulberry. There is a form of M. alba called M. alba multicaulis, may be a separate species, which is more bush-like, and the fruit are reportedly less tasty.

M. rubra is dioecious, so you would need a male as well as some females to get it to fruit. It is reported to take 10 years to get fruit, and peak cropping from 30 years on. It does not fruit as well in the UK as in its native eastern north America (Florida to Texas to Dakota to Quebec).

It is possible that you are actually referring to the paper mulberry, which is not Morus at all, rather it is Broussonetia papyrifera. This is the one used for feeding silk worms. It is dioecious, so you would need male and female to get fruit. It is hardy to "zone 8", so only suitable for milder parts of the UK. This will provide edible fruit, reportedly very tasty. But it isn't the raspberry-like compound berry of the black mulberry, rather it has a large inedible core with very small berries sticking out.