Dwarf Mulberry Bush Pruning?

Posts

• Joyce Goldenlily Posts: 2,933

  December 2020

  I also have a dwarf mulberry tree. Mine is growing in a large pot at the moment, having been potted on 3 times since I rescued it from a GC hospital corner at the beginning of the year. I have decided to lightly prune mine this winter as it has several crossing branches and quite a few twiggy stems. Mine carried fruit throughout the summer. The flavour is rather like a weak blackberry, mulberries do not produce one flush of fruit, they produce a few berries constantly for most of the summer so I am planning to pick the fruit as it ripens and freeze it until I have enough to make the proverbial mulberry pie. The fruit looks like blackberries turning black when fully ripe and are possibly classified as drupes, like raspberries, loganberries and blackberries but I could be wrong on that one.
  There are two types of mulberries, black and white. No idea if the white ones have white fruit.  

  0
• zimkatz Posts: 2

  December 2020

  Thanks Joyce.  I am originally from Zimbabwe where we had mulberry trees that towered over our garage!  We had a treehouse in one of our mulberry trees which was quite interesting as the fruit stains so easily! I bought the dwarf bush to try and get a taste from home and also have it in a pot. I was very happy to have had fruit in the first year and want to do everything I can to encourage more fruit in the coming season. 

  0
• Joyce Goldenlily Posts: 2,933

  December 2020

  I found my plant in the reduced corner of my local GC and for £5.00, couldn't resist a bargain and also to find out what mulberries tasted like, hopefully.
  I looked up mulberries as someone on here warned me of how big they can grow. I was very relieved to see mine was a dwarf variety, which could still mean a sizeable tree so I have decided to grow mine in as big a pot as possible for as long as possible before committing it to plant heaven. I live in Cornwall so the climate should suit it.
  Hugh Fearnley  Whittingstall? has one in his garden, he has it growing in a circular raised bed with sheets of corrugated iron on edge as the container.  Mulberries are a bit of a pain as the fruit ripens progressively throughout the summer so there is never enough fruit at one time to do anything with. I am planning to pick the berries as they ripen and freeze them until I have enough for a pie.
  There are two kinds of mulberry trees, the Black mulberry and the White mulberry. I think it was King Henry who fell in love with silk, decided to create a British silk industry, bought lots of mulberry trees and silk worms then sat back waiting for the industry to take off. Unfortunately silk worms will only eat the leaves of the White mulberry and Henry had bought Black mulberry trees so the silk worms died, the trees thrived but there was never a silk industry! I am sure there is a moral in that story somewhere.
  Good luck with your mulberry tree, I hope you get plenty of fruit on it and it doesn't grow too huge for your garden.

  0