This winter (now where I live) I'd like to put in a couple of Black Mulberry
trees.

My fruit growing books don't have a lot to say about the soil requireents so
I'm looking for some advice from someone who may have a tree or two. Any
hints out there please.

"Rick" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 5 Jun 2007 16:24:31 +1000, "FarmI" ask@itshall be given wrote:

This winter (now where I live) I'd like to put in a couple of Black
Mulberry
trees.

My fruit growing books don't have a lot to say about the soil requireents
so
I'm looking for some advice from someone who may have a tree or two. Any
hints out there please.



I have several about on my place. They do tend to sucker, and of course
the
birds do a good job of dispersal. One is growing in a heavy clay area
that
stays moist a lot of the time (not sopping wet, but damp 3/4 of the time).
One
is out at the end of the drive growing on a pile of cement rubble mixed
with
extremely poor soil (it very much reminds me of the calichi "soil" in the
deasert SW of USA). It gets rain, but the soil there does not hold it.
All
are voluteers, and he one in poor soil doing the best. Thankfully they
are
quite far from the house (200 M) as they are, of course, quite messy.
The
birds love them, and once every few years we get around to making some
nice
jam.

http://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/mulberry.html

HTH -Rick

Thanks Rick.

I have M. nigra thriving on neutral dry soil full of stones in SE England. My mother has both M nigra and M alba thriving on damp alkaline clay in SW England, where they grow faster. The famous mulberry tree at Merton College Oxford allegedly planted by King Charles I about 1645 is on clay. They are widely grown as a street tree in Mediterranean places, where they are pollarded back to a branchless stick every year. I think you don't get any fruit that way, since the flower buds form on last year's wood. In sum, I don't think they are very fussy about soil. Not heard of them suckering, perhaps that is M. rubra.

They are very late into leaf, not until May even in Crete. A hard frost in April will kill off all the buds and set them back, you'll lose the fruit that year. M nigra and M alba are monoecious, it is M rubra that is dioecious.

M nigra isn't as hardy as M alba and M rubra, and needs sufficient summer heat to harden it off to survive the winter. It is easy to grow in much of England, but uncommon in the north and Scotland.