Fruitless Mulberry Facts

Features

• Fruitless mulberry is a member of the mulberry family and grows 20 to 50 feet tall and up to 40 feet wide. Some fruitless mulberries are called weeping trees because their limbs grow long and droop downward from the foliage weight. The trees tolerate soil conditions from desert and alkaline to fertile and moist as long as they are well-drained and wind-protected. The trees tolerate air pollution in urban landscapes and salt air near beaches. Fruitless mulberries grow with a singlet trunk or with multiple trunks topped by a leafy, dense crown.

Fruitless

• Fruitless mulberries are male plants and do not produce fruit. Fruiting mulberries are warm-climate plants that produce raspberry-like fruit used in jellies, juices and other berry products. The fruit-bearing trees, however, are highly invasive. Birds eat their fruit and drop seeds at random that sprout to become fast-growing trees. Fruits are abundant and messy, staining driveways, walkways and cars. The fruitless mulberry is preferable for home landscaping as it is more tolerant of extreme temperatures, less invasive and does not produce the problem fruits.

Culture

• Optimum conditions for a fruitless mulberry tree include full sun to part shade in deep and fertile soil. The tree tolerates other conditions but produces profuse shade foliage and fast growth when pampered with regular fertilizer and water. The fast-growing tree is weak-wooded, meaning that it breaks easily, so a young tree benefits from support stakes and protection from wind. When branches weep or droop on the young tree, selective pruning takes weight off the tree and shapes the overall tree profile. In dry conditions, the fruitless mulberry drops its leaves in summer. The tree is not harmed, but the appearance can be disconcerting to a novice mulberry owner. The tree is pruned in late winter or early spring before buds develop, removing lower branches to promote the shade zone and take strain off the tree trunk.

Problems

• All mulberry trees, including fruitless mulberry, are prone to disease and pests. These problems are more severe in warm and humid conditions encouraging disease to spread. Blight, canker and mildew can affect a fruitless mulberry. Fungicides may help, but adequate air circulation and sunlight are important for long-term tree health. Pests such as scales and mites are treated with insecticidal soaps or horticultural oils unless infestations are so severe that insecticides are required. Choose products suited to deciduous trees, such as mulberry.