Fruitless Mulberry Tree

A tree that looks pretty on the landscape, the fruitless mulberry tree botanically known as morus, is a genus of 10-16 species of deciduous trees. Sometimes, known as the male trees of the white mulberry, it has been in use in China for over 4,000 years as the primary food source for silkworm larvae that has fueled the Chinese ancient textile industry. It still does, not just for China, but many other Asian countries as well. It was introduced to North America for the very same reason, to provide a natural food source for a potential silkworm industry, however, the silkworm industry never realized its potential, but the tree with its graceful spreading branches became an excellent alternate to fruiting mulberry trees for landscape uses. A fruitless mulberry offers no mess or litter associated with fallen and staining mulberry fruits.

How to Grow a Fruitless Mulberry Tree

The fruitless mulberry shares very similar characteristics to the fruiting one. It can attain a height of 30 to 50 feet under suitable conditions, and has a very dense round crown, while some varieties within this cultivar have a drooping appearance of a gigantic creeper. The tree is deciduous with lustrous dark green, toothed leaves. Some are deeply lobed, while some sparsely. Although a tall tree, the fruitless ones can be shaped to have a central leader with a short, stout trunk and a crown made from lateral branches.

Tree Care: This tree can easily be propagated through cuttings of young wood or even mature wood. They are fast growers and non fussy. They do well in most soil, but prefer a soil pH of 6.1 to 6.5, just avoid heavy clay soils. They need full or partial sun, in shade they do not grow healthily. They like to be watered well, but being drought resistant will tolerate dry spells too.

Tree Roots: These mulberry trees have shallow lateral roots, and not deep ranging. This causes a problem, as roots have a natural tendency to head towards a water source, and lateral roots will definitely try to get into sewage and other water pipes, mostly by breaking into them. So choose a site with care. For established trees, a root prune is generally recommended, but as the tree grows roots to facilitate foliage growth, be ready for foliage loss. Get professional help to cut out undesirable roots, cut incorrectly and the tree could die.

Yellowing of Leaves: To ensure that the lushness of your mulberry tree does not turn yellow, pay attention to the fungus that generally infects the underside of the leaves and the quantity of water given to the tree. Diseases affecting this tree include Mulberry Leaf Spot which affect the leaves, and Cotton Root rot that sets in the roots, will yellow the leaves. Both can be treated, though root rot is a little difficult to contain. Not enough water is another cause for leaves yellowing, roots of this tree are shallow and tend to dry up quickly, hence always water deeply and regularly.

Pruning: Prune the fruitless mulberry after it has shed its leaves. A pollard tree pruning technique is applied to this variety of mulberry tree. As the idea is to maintain a short stout trunk, this method encourages vigorous, leafy lateral branching growth near the trunk of the tree. But this method must be applied when the tree is young, as established trees can get damaged. In this method, most of the branches that are 1 to 2 inches from the main stem (intended trunk) are cut off, resulting in closely spaced shoots to appear laterally. Prune any other branch that may grow out farther down on or from the trunk. If you do not want to follow this method, give your tree an overall prune in fall, cut back all out of shape, damaged, diseased or broken branches.

The only problem with the fruitless mulberry tree is its extremely fast growth, shallow lateral roots and requirement of plenty of water, but if you can get around to them, you sure have a beautiful shaped shade tree in your hands!