Red Mulberry

Size, growth and what to expect

Red mulberry is a rapid-growing tree, and our growth estimator models it at nearly three feet a year on an average site. In a yard expect 35 to 50 feet with a spread of 35 to 40. Wild trees run 15 to 70 feet depending on the site, with trunks up to 30 inches through. It usually lives 125 years or less.

Trees usually begin to bear at about 10 years, though planted trees in an east Texas field fruited at 4, and good crops come every 2 to 3 years. Bearing peaks between 30 and 85 years and ends by about 125. The fruit is a blackberry-like cluster 1 to 1¼ inches long, reddish then dark purple, ripe from June into August, and most birds, opossums, raccoons and squirrels favor it. Most trees are male or female, though some carry both.

It grows wild from Massachusetts and southern Ontario west to Minnesota and Nebraska and south to central Texas and southern Florida, in valleys, floodplains and low moist hillsides, often as an understory tree.

How to grow Red Mulberry

Red mulberry takes full sun or light shade and any ordinary soil that drains. Its crown grows nearly as wide as tall, so give it 25 feet from the house. Keep it away from patios and driveways, because the fruit drops for weeks and stains. Set trees about 35 feet apart.

Plant a dormant sapling, bare-root or potted, between leaf fall and bud break, in a hole twice the root width and no deeper. Set the root flare at grade, put the native soil back in, and keep mulch off the bark. Seed wants two to three months of cold, damp storage before spring sowing. Press it into the surface, barely cover it, and screen it from birds and mice.

Water weekly the first summer. It grows fast, so a rabbit guard for two winters and a deer cage until the leader is above browse height, about three years, is all it needs. Train one leader early and prune in late fall or midsummer, since spring cuts bleed sap.

Most red mulberries are male or female, so plant three or more seedlings for a fair chance of fruit. Fruit usually starts at about ten years, though planted trees in an open field have fruited at four. Any white mulberry within pollen range will cross with yours, so never save its seed.