USA Tree, fruit trees and edible gardens
Mulberry

Quick care

Mulberry

The most productive plant for the least attention on this list. Plant it where the fruit falling is not a problem.

Free mulberry reminders, four times a year

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Right now: Fall

Growth slows and the leaves start to go. A light late crop is possible on everbearing types.

What to do

  • Tidy the shape if it needs it.
  • Stop feeding.
  • Top up mulch, kept off the trunk.
  • Clear fallen fruit off any paving before it sets in for the winter.

The quick care card

The same three columns as the sign on your plant.

Planting and the first 30 days

Sun
Full sun, 6+ hours daily.
Soil
Well-drained soil; adaptable to many soil types.
Planting
Plant at the same depth as the pot.
Mulch
Add 2 to 4 inches of mulch, but keep it away from the trunk.
Water
Daily for the first week, then 2 to 3 times weekly for the rest of the first month. Water deeply.
Feed
Use a light fertiliser in spring after new growth starts.

Ongoing care

Water
Water during dry spells, especially while young.
Feed
Feed lightly in spring.
Prune
Prune in winter to shape and control size.
Give it room
Mulberries can grow fast and large.

What to expect

Growth after 1 year
Often 3 to 6 feet or more with good care.
Fruiting
Often in 1 to 2 years.
Pollination
Usually self-pollinating.
Key tip
Plant away from patios or driveways; ripe fruit can stain.

Full care

Morus

Where you plant it is the whole decision

A mulberry will fruit for you whatever you do. What it will also do is drop several pounds of dark purple fruit, and the birds that come for it will redistribute the stain over a wider area than you expect. On a lawn or in a bed this is nothing. Over a driveway, a patio, a white fence or where the car goes, it is a ten-year annoyance that one minute of thought at planting time would have avoided.

Put it where the fruit falls on ground you do not mind, and ideally where you walk past it daily, because you will eat most of the crop standing under it.

Dwarf Everbearing, and keeping it small

A full-size mulberry reaches thirty or forty feet, which is a tree for an acre and not for a garden. The Dwarf Everbearing we grow stays at six to twelve feet, takes hard pruning without complaint, and fruits over months rather than in one glut. In a large container it stays smaller still.

Prune it in winter and prune it confidently. A mulberry fruits on new growth, so cutting it back by a third does not cost you fruit, and a tree you can pick standing on the ground is worth far more than a tall one you watch the birds eat.

Picking

A ripe mulberry is almost black, not red, and falls into your hand. The classic method is a sheet spread underneath and a gentle shake, which gets you a bowl in a minute and leaves the unripe fruit on the tree for next week.

They do not keep. A day in the fridge, or straight into the freezer, and that is honestly the right answer: a bag of frozen mulberries is the best thing you will get out of the tree.

Through the year

The four notes we email, all in one place.

Spring

Leaf out and then the main crop. Central Florida mulberries fruit early and heavily, often from March through May.

  • Pick every day or two while it is cropping, or shake the fruit onto a sheet.
  • Feed lightly, once, as growth starts.
  • Water while the fruit is filling, which is also the driest part of our year.
  • Expect bird traffic and expect stains. This is the month the planting position either looks clever or does not.

Summer

Strong growth, and on an everbearing variety a continuing trickle of fruit all through it.

  • Keep picking as fruit comes.
  • Shorten anything running away from the shape you want. A mulberry takes summer pruning without sulking.
  • Water young trees through dry spells. An established one rarely needs it.
  • Do not feed again. It does not need it and will simply get bigger.

Fall

Growth slows and the leaves start to go. A light late crop is possible on everbearing types.

  • Tidy the shape if it needs it.
  • Stop feeding.
  • Top up mulch, kept off the trunk.
  • Clear fallen fruit off any paving before it sets in for the winter.

Winter

Leafless and dormant, and the right time for the one real job of the mulberry year.

  • Prune hard, by up to a third, to hold it to a size you can pick from. It fruits on new wood, so this costs you nothing.
  • Take cuttings if you want more. Mulberry roots easily from dormant wood.
  • Do not feed.
  • Expect it to leaf out startlingly early, often in February.

Mulberry varieties we grow

Grown here in Eustis or bought in from Florida nurseries in our network.

Shop mulberry All care guides

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