ANY SPECIES OF MULBERRY TREE?

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wellington

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I may be ordering a Black Beauty Mulberry Tree. It is the smallest species of the tree. Is that species okay and do I need to plant it where he (leopard) can't get to the berries that fall?
 

Tom

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I'm familiar with the white and the red varieties. I don't know this one. I would not plant it where Tatum could get to the fruit. Other mulberry species (the fruiting varieties) can drop a substantial amount of fruit on the ground. This would not be good for a young leopard to be gorging on day after day.
 

wellington

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Thanks Tom, I will look into the red. I just seen that the male tree doesn't get any fruit. So I will be ordering a male. Does anyone else know anything about the Black Beauty kind? If it is safe for torts to eat?
 

Jacqui

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To my knowledge all types should be fine. Mine all come from a tree that was a very old tree when I moved in 20 some years ago. I do have two weeping mulberry trees, but they don't seem to grow at all. Except for my old tree, all the young ones I am keeping pruned down to a small height I can reach, so for me how tall it "could grow" because it will never happen. :D I love seeing all the birds that are drawn to the fruit even before it matures.
 

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I didn't know about the "male" tree thing. I've just seen "fruiting" and "non-fruiting" varieties offered for sale. Thanks!

Jaqcui, with birds comes bird doo doo. How do you like trying to wash those purple schmeres off of everything? :p
 

wellington

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Thanks Jacqui. I thought about getting the weeping one, until I seen the price of it:( I have planted a few trees and lost too many of them to pay too much. I will have to read up on the pruning of them. I would love to keep it small.
 

Jacqui

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Tom said:
Jaqcui, with birds comes bird doo doo. How do you like trying to wash those purple schmeres off of everything? :p

Purple is more colorful then their usual doo. I have no problems with that at all and when I look at the value I get for those birds coming around, that possible doo is more then well worth it.
 

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You might look to see and differentiate between species a varieties. White and red mulberry are but a few of the 'about 12 to 15' species. And there are several varieties "cultivars" of some of these species. Not all are male and female on separate trees. For the most part you are looking for leaf production, not so much the fruit?

They can be grown in a bi-lateral cordon fashion (like grape vines, but without the need for a trellis). Whole short branches can be harvested and inverted while green (the leaves not the branch) to dry for later use, while preserving a large proportion of the nutrients.

You can force it to grow low to the ground by always pruning to the last down pointing node (opposite of what would be done normally) and then the tortoises can feed themselves directly from the tree.

To get the best tips look to silkworm farming web pages, for them it's all about the leaves.

I have used mulberry for virtually every herbivorous reptile I have kept, often it being well over half the diet. Reproduction, and growth have been excellent.

Will
 

RedfootsRule

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Will said:
You might look to see and differentiate between species a varieties. White and red mulberry are but a few of the 'about 12 to 15' species. And there are several varieties "cultivars" of some of these species. Not all are male and female on separate trees. For the most part you are looking for leaf production, not so much the fruit?

They can be grown in a bi-lateral cordon fashion (like grape vines, but without the need for a trellis). Whole short branches can be harvested and inverted while green (the leaves not the branch) to dry for later use, while preserving a large proportion of the nutrients.

You can force it to grow low to the ground by always pruning to the last down pointing node (opposite of what would be done normally) and then the tortoises can feed themselves directly from the tree.

To get the best tips look to silkworm farming web pages, for them it's all about the leaves.

I have used mulberry for virtually every herbivorous reptile I have kept, often it being well over half the diet. Reproduction, and growth have been excellent.

Will

A horticulturist and a herpetologist....You, sir, are a double-edged sword. I seriously need to get a mulberry :).
 

wellington

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Thanks for the info Will, very helpful. I do only really want one for the leaves, the fruit although good to eat, makes a big mess on things.:(
 

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Coastal silkworms periodically sells the dwarf mulberry trees (seaonal). I believe they are fruitless. Pruning works too!
 

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I love this thread! I forgot about Coastal selling the dwarf trees. My torts really enjoyed the leaves they tried.
 

Tom

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I did not prune mine this year. I just left them alone after the leaves fell off. Will pruning make it grow back better in the spring? Pruning tips for a pruning noob? I'll google the silkworm farming sites too.
 

wellington

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lynnedit said:
Coastal silkworms periodically sells the dwarf mulberry trees (seaonal). I believe they are fruitless. Pruning works too!

Going to check right now. Thanks:)
 

Kapidolo Farms

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one thing about mulberry, it has got to be the most forgiving tree when it comes to pruning, that is you can do a poor job and the tree will bounce back. 'poor job' is not even a best way to put it, you can prune them to whatever purpose or lack of purpose you have, they are very resilient. it is a close to a 'miracle' plant as you can get, for plant eating animals. I would suggest, this spring try some of the tender leaves near a growing tip to see for yourself, it tastes good.

will
 

Tom

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Will I get more leaf growth with some pruning, vs. leaving it alone?
 

Jacqui

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I prune mine all growing season as branches get to high or grow the wrong way, off they come. I do the most serious pruning once the leaves have dropped. The ones I prune atleast seem to give me more leaves (and newer ones) then those I just take leaves from.
 

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Will said:
one thing about mulberry, it has got to be the most forgiving tree when it comes to pruning, that is you can do a poor job and the tree will bounce back. 'poor job' is not even a best way to put it, you can prune them to whatever purpose or lack of purpose you have, they are very resilient. it is a close to a 'miracle' plant as you can get, for plant eating animals. I would suggest, this spring try some of the tender leaves near a growing tip to see for yourself, it tastes good.

will

Going slightly off topic here...When I was building the "gazebo" (so shoot me, it's what I call it) over the Manouria tortoise house, the mulberry tree was in the way, so we cut it off about 4' from the ground. The trunk at that point was about 3' across, maybe even a bit bigger. That was maybe 8 or 10 years ago. The tree now provides the best shade ever and is growing through the roof of the gazebo and about 25 or 30' tall.
 

Kapidolo Farms

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Tom said:
Will I get more leaf growth with some pruning, vs. leaving it alone?

Tom, I would suggest the harder a dormant pruning you give it the more rapid growth you will get when growing starts again. When you prune a tree while dormant, for the most part you are going to have excess root for the tree that remains, that excess root will not go to waste.

Pruning during the growing season works a bit differently, the new leaves draw energy away from the tree which it is generating with older leaves that are in full sun, these full sun older leaves also supplement the older leaves now shaded by those in the sun, old or new. So when growing it works well to keep taking what you need so a good portion of older full sun leaves stay on the tree.

Much like the working middle-age'rs, that float both the post productive age group, and the pre-productive age group, so harvest from the older shaded leaves and the new leaves.

That first rush of leaves in the spring is best to let get on for several weeks.

In all though the bigger the tree the more the leaves, but if they are out of reach why worry.

I used a pole saw and harvested whole branches about 4 to 8 feet long throughout the growing year, put the whole branch in with Prehensile tailed skinks, they did all the rest of the work, with tortoises, just lay the branch on the ground. This tree was pollard at about 12 feet with 15 foot one season branches up from there.

At the Philly zoo, they were grown to about six foot high, then splayed out in rows, so we could harvest 4 to 8 foot branches.

Will
 
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