Tree · Moraceae
Mulberry
Morus rubra
Give it sun and space to stretch out, and come early summer this mulberry will load you up with buckets of berries.
Full sun
Every 7–21 days
USDA 4–9
25–60 ft · 7.6–18.3 m
Overview
A mulberry is a fast, generous shade tree that actually pays you back in fruit. It's a member of the fig family and it gets big, hitting 25 to 60 feet (7.5 to 18 m) tall with a wide, spreading crown. The red mulberry is native to the eastern US, the white and black ones came over from Asia, and every one of them ripens sweet, blackberry-like fruit in early summer.
Here's the funny thing: what makes a mulberry so easy is also what makes it a bit of a handful. It shrugs off cold down to -29°F (-34°C), doesn't mind drought once it's grown, and fruits so hard that birds end up scattering seedlings all over the neighborhood. The dropped fruit stains pavement a deep purple, so honestly, where you plant it matters just as much as how you grow it.
Pick the right spot and a mulberry barely needs a thing from you. Give it sun, deep soil, and space well clear of patios and paths, and it'll settle in for decades. Just keep in mind the white mulberry has gone invasive across much of the US, so the native red mulberry or a named cultivar is the safer way to go.
Care
The short version: it wants full sun, rich deep soil that drains well, and lots of elbow room. Keep the young tree watered, save pruning for the dead of winter, and put it where the messy fruit can't stain anything that matters.
Light
A mulberry fruits best in full sun, though it'll happily take partial sun or light shade too. More sun means more fruit, plus an open canopy that dries fast after rain, which quietly keeps mildew from getting a foothold.
Water
Give a young tree a deep drink about once a week while it's finding its feet. Once it's established, though, a mulberry is quite drought tolerant, so it only really wants water during a long dry spell.
Soil
It likes deep, well-drained loam with plenty of organic matter in it. It'll put up with clay or sand but sulks in thin, poor ground, and it's not picky about pH, anywhere from 5.5 to 7.5 works fine.
Temperature
A mulberry is seriously hardy, taking cold down to -29°F (-34°C) and heat up to 104°F (40°C). That kind of range lets it grow just fine across USDA zones 4 through 9.
Humidity
Regular outdoor humidity, somewhere around 30% to 70%, suits it fine, so there's really nothing to fuss with here. Good airflow through the canopy does way more than any number, since it keeps the leaves nice and dry.
Feeding
Mature mulberries rarely need feeding, and they often fruit better without it, so that's one less job. If a young tree seems a little sluggish, a light balanced fertilizer or compost in early spring is plenty, since overfeeding just pushes weak, floppy growth.
Pruning
Only prune when the tree's fully dormant in late winter, or the cuts will bleed sap all over. Take out any dead, crossing, or crowded branches, shape up young trees, and keep your cuts under about 2 inches across.
Repotting
A mulberry is a landscape tree that lives in the ground, so repotting doesn't really come up. Move a young or container-grown one only while it's dormant, and watch for roots circling the pot or growth that stalls out come spring.
Size & spacing
This gets big, so plan for it: 25 to 60 feet (7.5 to 18 m) tall and a crown that fans out 35 to 40 feet (10.5 to 12 m) wide. Hand it that kind of open space, nicely clear of buildings, walkways, and any other plantings.
When to plant
A mulberry pretty much runs on the seasons. Plant a young one in spring once the frost's gone, or pop it in the ground in fall while it's asleep. The flowers show up in April and May, and the fruit ripens through May and June, stretching into summer on some types.
Northern hemisphere
Southern hemisphere
Typical months for a temperate climate: start earlier in warm zones, later where spring frosts linger.
- Plant: Spring after the last frost, or in fall while the tree is dormant
- Harvest: Blooms April-May; fruit ripens roughly May-June (into summer for some types)
Hardiness
USDA hardiness zones: 4–9
Temperature: down to -34°C
Troubleshooting
A mulberry is a tough tree, so most of what goes wrong is mess and pests rather than actual disease. Keep an eye on the trunk for borers, the leaves for mildew, and the ground for stains and stray seedlings. Find your issue below, then jump on it while it's still an easy fix.
Branches drooping near sawdust and little holes down low
See that sawdust and those little holes low on the trunk? That's a borer grub digging around under the bark, and you'll usually catch it by the round exit holes, the oozing, and the powdery frass it leaves behind. Cut off the affected limbs and burn them, and keep the tree well watered and mulched so it stays strong enough to fight off the next round. And here's the big one: keep mowers and trimmers away from the trunk, because a fresh wound is exactly where the beetle wants to lay her eggs.
Fix:
- Prune out and destroy infested limbs
- Keep the tree vigorous with proper water and mulch
- Avoid bark wounds that invite egg-laying
Whitish dust settling over the leaves come late summer
That dusty white stuff is just powdery mildew, a surface fungus that wipes right off a leaf and turns up on both the top and the bottom. On a tree this big it hardly matters, so don't sweat it. Thin out any crowded growth so the air can move through, then rake up the fallen leaves to get rid of the spores. Keep it in a sunny, open spot with dry leaves and it won't bother coming back.
Fix:
- Improve air circulation by thinning crowded growth
- Rake and remove fallen infected leaves
Purple blotches on the paving and seedlings sprouting all around
Here's the deal with a mulberry: a huge crop is kind of the whole point, so of course the dropped berries stain everything under the tree while the birds fling seed all over the place. Pull up the little volunteers while they're small and easy, and clean up the fallen fruit before it settles in. Really though, the fix is where you put it, so keep a fruiting tree well back from patios, driveways, and walkways, and only reach for a fruitless cultivar where the pollen-allergy rules let you.
Fix:
- Hand-pull volunteer seedlings while young
- Site away from patios, driveways, and walkways
- Choose a fruitless cultivar only where allergy bans do not apply
Toxicity
The ripe fruit is sweet and totally safe for people and pets, which is really the whole point of the tree. The catch is everything else. The unripe green berries and the milky sap in the leaves and stems can irritate skin and upset a stomach, so keep grazing animals and curious kids away from the green parts.
Safe for
People · Cats · Dogs · Horses · Rabbits · Livestock · Birds
Cats Mild
Ripe berries won't do a cat any harm at all. It's the milky sap and the green unripe fruit you want to watch, since those can leave it drooling or throwing up for a bit. Keep the chewing light and you'll keep the upset small.
Dogs Mild
A dog can happily snack on the ripe fruit, no problem. But if it eats a bunch of unripe berries or gnaws on the sappy leaves? You might see soft stools or a bit of vomiting, and it'll pass on its own.
Horses Mild
Ripe windfalls are fine for a horse in moderation. It's the sap-heavy leaves and green fruit that can loosen the gut and take the edge off its appetite for a day or so, so those are the ones to keep an eye on.
Rabbits Mild
A little ripe fruit makes a safe treat for a rabbit. Their gut is a delicate thing, though, so unripe berries and sappy leaves can bring on soft stools. Go easy, and just keep half an eye out for any tummy trouble.
Livestock Mild
Cattle, goats, and sheep can clean up fallen mulberries without any harm. Give them a big pile of green fruit or sap-laden leaves, though, and you might get some passing diarrhea, and in real quantity those unripe berries can act as a mild intoxicant.
Birds Mild
Birds pile onto ripe mulberries and come to no harm whatsoever, which is honestly half the reason the tree spreads so far. The only catch is the green, unripe berries, which might unsettle a stomach.
People Ripe fruit safe
Ripe mulberries are a sweet, safe fruit, great fresh or baked into something. Just skip the unripe green ones and steer clear of the milky sap, which can irritate skin and, in quantity, upset the stomach or even cause hallucinations.
Ripe berries are safe, but unripe green or white berries and the milky sap of leaves and stems can cause mild gastrointestinal upset, and the sap is a mild skin and GI irritant.
Varieties
Three species and a few hybrids cover most of what you'll actually find for sale. Knowing them apart helps you grab the right tree and dodge the invasive one.
Morus rubra (red mulberry)
This one's the eastern US native, easy to spot by its dull, non-glossy leaves and dark red-to-purple fruit.
Morus alba (white mulberry)
Brought over from Asia for silkworms, it's got glossy leaves and has gone invasive across much of the US, where it crosses with the native red mulberry.
Morus nigra (black mulberry)
It gives you the biggest, best-tasting fruit of the three, but it's also the one that handles cold the worst.
Illinois Everbearing
This productive cross of M. alba and M. rubra just keeps fruiting through a long, heavy season.
Companions
A mulberry works best as a decoy for hungry birds and worst as a neighbor to anything that needs sun or clean ground beneath it.
Plant near
Cherries and blueberries: Birds strongly prefer mulberries, so a mulberry can act as a decoy that draws them away from other fruit crops.
Clover or other low groundcover: A living groundcover suppresses weed seedlings and adds organic matter under the canopy.
Keep apart
Vegetable and flower beds: Dense shade, greedy shallow roots, and staining fruit drop make underplanting and nearby beds difficult.
How to propagate
Want more mulberries? You can grow them from a cutting, a graft, or a seed, and which one you pick just depends on whether you want a copy of a certain tree or simply more trees.
Stem cuttingsEasy
Hardwood cuttings in late winter; softwood cuttings in early summer · About 4-8 weeks to root
You've got two easy windows here: hardwood cuttings in late winter or softwood cuttings in early summer, and most will root in about 4 to 8 weeks. White mulberry takes off this way like it's nothing, while red and black mulberry are a bit slower and fussier about rooting.
GraftingModerate
Late winter to early spring (whip or bark graft) · One growing season
Want to keep a specific named fruiting cultivar, or work with a species that hates to root? Grafting's the usual answer, putting it onto tough seedling rootstock. Do the whip or bark graft from late winter into early spring, and the union will knit together over one growing season.
SeedModerate
Sow after 1-3 months of cold stratification · Several years to first fruit
Give the seed 1 to 3 months of cold stratification first, then get comfortable, because a seedling takes several years before it fruits. The young trees come out all over the place, and white mulberry especially self-seeds like crazy wherever birds drop the fruit.
Myths
A fruitless male mulberry gives you a clean, problem-free shade tree.
Not really, since going fruitless just swaps one mess for a different one. Those male trees, usually Morus alba, kick out huge clouds of allergenic pollen, and some cities such as Albuquerque restrict or ban them outright to keep the air breathable.
The entire mulberry plant is poisonous.
Nope, that's not how it works. The ASPCA lists mulberry as non-toxic, and the ripe fruit is great to eat. Only the unripe berries and the milky sap cause any trouble, and even that's just a mild, quick stomach upset.