Is it possible to grow mulberries in middle lane our country? Despite the fact that the tree has southern roots, according to reviews, mulberry of certain varieties grows and reproduces well in the Moscow region. In the article you will find tips with photographs on how to plant and care for mulberries.
Mulberry is widespread in the subtropical zones of America, Africa and Asia, India, in the Middle Volga region and the Moscow region, Stavropol and Krasnodar region, Nizhny Novgorod region. This ancient culture It has great importance as fruit and medicinal plant. Wood is a valuable material for making crafts, cooperage and musical instruments. Juices, wine and vodka, vinegar, and jelly are made from the berries. Dried berries are added to the dough. Mulberry leaves are a valuable source of nutrition for the silkworm, whose pupa is used to produce silk. It was from mulberry bast that the Chinese began to produce paper.
There are more than 17 types of mulberries. In our country, black and white mulberries are most often used. The difference between these species lies in the color of the bark, and not the color of the berries, as many are accustomed to thinking. Black mulberries have a more pronounced taste, so they are often planted for fruit production. White is considered much more frost-resistant.
Considering the unpretentiousness of mulberry to growing conditions, the ability to tolerate air pollution, ease of shaping and decorativeness, it is widely used for landscaping: dense hedges, in groups and individually, for creating alleys. These look the most impressive decorative forms:
The favorable time for planting mulberries is spring or early autumn. Choose a well-lit place, ideally southern slopes. Mulberry is undemanding when it comes to soil; it can grow on saline soils, but prefers well-drained loams.
Planting holes are prepared in advance so that the soil can stand. Size 70 x 70 cm and depth up to half a meter. The removed soil is mixed with a bucket of humus, half is placed in a hole, a seedling is placed on top, the roots are straightened and sprinkled with the remaining soil. Compact the soil around the stem and water it. Depending on the future formation of the seedling, the distance between the trees is set differently. Between standard forms leave 5 m, and 3 m between bushes.
After planting, the soil must be mulched - mulch will protect the roots of the plant from freezing in winter.
Advice. Mulberries are divided into male and female. It is better to purchase seedlings from the nursery that have already bear fruit once, so you will definitely get a fruit-bearing tree. Males do not bear fruit and are used only for landscaping or decoration.
Agricultural techniques for growing mulberries include watering, fertilizing, formative pruning, disease prevention and pest protection.
Mulberry tolerates cutting and shaping very well. Withstands temperatures down to 30 degrees, annual shoots may be damaged. In cold regions, where freezing occurs frequently, the growing shoots form a bush and a bush form of mulberry is obtained; only sanitary pruning in winter. Therefore, in the Moscow region, mulberry is a bush, not a tree.
Free-growing mulberry reaches a height of 10 meters. It is better to create a tree on a one and a half meter trunk, bend the branches in different sides and maintain by pruning. At such a height, it is convenient to pick berries and easy to care for the crown.
Enough for the young seedling nutrients, which were introduced during planting into the pit. When the mulberry begins to bear fruit, the need for nutrition increases and it is necessary to apply fertilizer. On sandy soils this event is especially necessary. After thawing the soil, apply nitrogen fertilizers. Possible for every square. m add 50 g of nitroammophoska or apply an infusion of bird droppings and mullein. If necessary, this feeding is repeated in early June. In the fall, you can add potassium and phosphorus elements.
Advice. If pruned very hard, the mulberry may stop bearing fruit, keep this in mind if you are growing a tree for its berries.
Mulberries are reproduced by seeds, root shoots, layering, cuttings, cultivars vaccination.
Mulberry is a fairly resistant plant to pathogenic flora and pests; in the middle zone, the crop suffers more from frost than from disease. Diseases are divided into two etiologies: fungal and viral.
The development of the pathogen can be facilitated by the introduction of an excessive dose of nitrogen or a lack of nutrients, or thickening of the crown.
Mulberry pests: chafer larva, mole cricket, wireworm, white American butterfly larva, Comstock worms, spider mites.
Mulberry is a deciduous tree with a spreading crown of southern origin. It is also called Mulberry tree or mulberry. Today there are about one hundred and twenty varieties of this tree. Some of them are grown in industrial scale, since their leaves are a source of food for silkworms, thanks to which they obtain the finest threads of natural silk.
But besides this important task, mulberries provide tasty and useful fruits, and also has medicinal properties.
Recently, the mulberry tree has attracted increasing interest and landscape designers, who use its various types to decorate estates, parks, and gardens of large and small areas.
Mulberry feels great not only in the southern regions of our country, but also tolerates harsher climates.
The most common types are white and black mulberries. They received this name because of the color of the bark.
It is the white mulberry tree that is used to provide food for silkworm caterpillars.
The tree grows quite quickly and bears fruit well. But the best performance is achieved when certain conditions are met. For mulberry you need:
Mulberry tolerates dry weather, saline soil and even pollution. environment(grows near roadsides, plants and factories).
Height of an adult tree at favorable conditions and lack of pruning reaches thirty meters. IN landscape design, as a rule, the crown is trimmed, shaping the size and shape. Thanks to regular pruning of branches, you can get not only beautiful tree, but also significantly speed up its fruiting.
Mulberry fruits are quite sweet and juicy, which ripen in early summer and delight with their abundance and gradual ripening.
The mulberry tree has good reproduction ability. New specimens can be obtained using cuttings, seeds, maternal offspring, or by grafting. Of course in order to grow mature tree Any of the indicated methods will require not only time, but also some effort. Let us immediately note that the success of any endeavor depends on a positive attitude, faith in success and diligence.
And so, in order to get mulberries and seeds, you must first collect the seeds; for this, well-ripened berries are selected, kneaded and washed with a sieve and water. Then the seeds can be immediately planted in specially prepared containers with nutrient soil. Shoots appear after two weeks. Young seedlings grow up to ten centimeters by autumn. To ensure they overwinter well, the trees are dug up, placed in damp sawdust and stored in the basement. If the seedlings were grown in open ground, then you don’t have to dig them up, but cover them with dry leaves and grass to protect them from frost.
Note that mulberry seeds can be stored, so collected in the summer, they are dried and stored in fabric bags. Before planting, at the beginning of spring, they are soaked in water for a day, after which they are planted in open ground.
Since mulberry seeds are quite small, the maximum planting depth should not exceed two centimeters.
Seed propagation is used to breed new varieties and to grow rootstocks for varietal seedlings. For other purposes, other methods of propagation are used, since the seed tree does not retain the characteristics of the mother tree.
In order to grow a tree with identical characteristics of the mother tree, a vegetative propagation method is used. You can use layering. To do this, you need to bend the lower branch of the mulberry to the ground, fix it and cover it with soil. In order for the branch to take root as quickly as possible, it is recommended to break it at the point of fixation and remove a little bark. This manipulation is done in early spring As a rule, small roots appear by autumn. You need to let the cuttings get stronger until spring. You just need to cover it for the winter.
TO vegetative method This also applies to mulberry grafting. The most effective spring budding is a germinating eye. Other methods do not always give positive results. Although theoretically they should all be successful.
For eye grafting, it is necessary to prepare buds from last year's shoots. To do this, you can prepare cuttings in the fall or cut them in early spring. Budding is carried out using the butt method.
A fairly popular method of propagating mulberries is cuttings, which can be carried out using lignified, semi-lignified and green cuttings.
The most optimal method for mulberries is propagation by semi-lignified cuttings. Firstly, it has a high rooting rate, and secondly, it is suitable for all types of trees.
A few words about how cuttings are prepared and planted. This propagation process begins at the end of June, when young green shoots begin to become woody. They are cut so that at least two buds remain. The upper cut ends slightly above the upper bud, and the lower one is made directly under the eye. Then the shoots are cleared of leaves, treated with a stimulant and planted in pre-prepared greenhouses or under plastic bottle at a slight angle.
Rooting cuttings does not take much time; as a rule, by autumn the first buds may appear on the shoots - this is a clear sign that the cuttings have taken root.
You can also use two other cutting methods. The resulting seedlings, after rooting, can be dug up and moved to the basement for the winter or left in open ground, while covering them.
A standard country garden consists of common berries and fruit trees: plums, cherries, pears, apple trees... Planting mulberries will help to please children and dilute the usual set. Thanks to this unique plant, your children and grandchildren will have a lot of childhood memories: scolding their mother for having black hands, dark spots on clothes and climbing all over the tree in search of tasty treats.
Mulberry berry has about 120 species of plants. Distributed in Central Asia, China, Japan and India. Considered a valuable medicinal fruit plant. In our country, white and black mulberries have become widespread.
In the 17th century, Russian craftsmen discovered the secret of producing natural silk and tried to grow mulberries in Moscow. Since the mulberries did not tolerate frost well, the experiment failed. Over time, breeders created frost-resistant mulberry, which is now so common in our country. Mulberry, description and featuresThe mulberry tree has interesting feature- sexual organization. This plant may be:
Both female and male plants, as well as bisexual inflorescences, can be found on the same tree at the same time. Combinations depend only on the variety. In mulberries, fruit formation without fertilization is practically never observed. It is also very rare to see the formation of male and female flowers in the same inflorescence. Female flowers of black mulberry are inconspicuous and small. This makes it possible to distinguish fruit-bearing trees from male pollinating plants. In the latter, the flowers form earrings.
Mulberry plantingMulberry loves sheltered from the wind and well-lit places. For planting, it would be ideal to allocate loamy, loose, sandy and sandy loam soils. Planting can occur in April or early autumn. The planting hole should have dimensions of 60x80x80 cm. It is sprinkled with compost, fertile soil or humus with fertilizers. Mulberry seedlings, which you can buy at the market, are planted in the center, the roots are straightened, sprinkled with earth and compacted. Planting is completed with abundant watering and mulching.
When to plant mulberriesFor mulberries optimal time for planting is April or September-October. Mulberries are most often planted in the fall; this allows our climate to test the plant for resistance to variable weather conditions until spring. If the mulberry tree survives the winter, then it will live for another 150 years, unless, of course, the owner of the garden gets tired of the plant.
Mulberries, cultivation and care
Mulberry fertilizerThe young seedling will have enough nutrients added to the hole during planting. As the tree begins to bear fruit, the need for additional nutrition will increase. This is especially necessary on sandy soils. Once the soil has thawed, you can apply nitrogen fertilizer or use bird droppings. If necessary, re-feeding can be done in early June. In autumn, phosphorus and potassium elements are added.
Watering mulberriesMulberries are watered to increase frost resistance from spring to mid-summer. Please note that you can water mulberries only in hot, dry weather. During a rainy spring, it is not recommended to water the tree at all. Mulberry propagationWhen propagating mulberries, the following methods are used:
Mulberry propagation by seedsThis is the easiest way to propagate any type of mulberry. To do this, you need to take a handful of ripe, full-fledged fruits, place them in any container and place them in a sunny place before fermentation begins. Next, the seeds are rubbed with hands in water; the raised cap from the empty shells must be drained. The seeds are again filled with water and passed through a fine sieve. The mass should be wiped until you get clean, pulp-free seeds. They need to be dried and stored in a dry place until spring. Seeds are sown in April in fertile soil to a depth of 1 centimeter. Plantings need regular watering. Dense plantings are thinned out and left for 2 years to grow.
Mulberry propagation by green cuttingsGreen cuttings are The best way summer breeding mulberries. In June, several cuttings with 2-3 buds are cut from a healthy, intact herbaceous shoot. Lower leaves mulberries are removed. The cuttings are planted to a depth of 3 centimeters in a greenhouse under a light film. The plant needs moderate watering, frequent ventilation and fertilizing with mineral fertilizers. A sign that the cutting has taken root will be new shoots. Mulberry seedlings grown in this way are 100% copies of the mother plant.
Mulberry propagation by semi-lignified cuttingsIn July, the mulberry tree is propagated by cuttings from wood that is not fully matured, but no longer soft. Cultivation is the same as with green cuttings. IN in this case The cutting time will be long - one and a half months.
Mulberry propagation by lignified cuttingsIN this method already woody shoots of a healthy varietal plant taken from the crown of a tree are used. Cuttings are harvested during leaf fall and planted in a prepared bed. The cutting should stick out 5 centimeters above the surface of the ground. The plant is left in this form for 2 years, after which the strengthened seedlings are transplanted to permanent place.
Mulberry propagation by top graftingMulberry can be grafted onto anyone in a known way. Grafting with cuttings onto a cut is very popular. Top grafting can be done indoors in winter or in early spring.
Mulberry pruningIn order for the tree to grow evenly, delight you with tasty fruits and develop diversified, it is necessary to properly care for it. Crown formation and pruning are the most important points care This procedure must be treated very responsibly, since it cannot be done without certain skills and knowledge. You cannot cut all the branches in a row; you must know how much, where and how much to cut.
When to prune mulberries?Like any other tree, mulberry is pruned during a period of partial or complete dormancy. This allows the tree to endure the operation less painfully. It is recommended to prune in April and March. The main condition 0 is the air temperature, which should be more than -10 degrees. Sanitary pruning is done later. In autumn, the tree gets rid of pest-damaged, diseased and dried branches.
Mulberry pruning by varietyThe process of pruning mulberries is practically no different from pruning other trees. However, some varieties have their own characteristics.
Trimming mulberries correctlyInexperienced novice gardeners usually make a lot of mistakes when pruning. Let's consider the main rules of pruning:
Mulberry diseasesExcess/lack of fertilizers and unfavorable weather enhance the influence of pathogenic factors. Possible mulberry lesions include:
Fungal damage to mulberriesPowdery mildew is caused by a fungus and affects trees only during periods of drought. The main symptom is mealy white coating. It appears in a separate area and gradually infects shoots and leaves. The development of the disease is promoted by dense plantings and lack of moisture. On initial stage mulberry diseases are sprayed systemic fungicide, re-processing is carried out after a week. For prevention, it would not be superfluous to carry out antifungal treatment in early autumn. For this we use:
An effective method of prevention is burning mulberry leaves in late autumn. Mulberries also suffer from brown spot, which is caused by a fungus. The disease appears as red-purple spots on the leaves. Severe damage causes holes to form and leaves to turn yellow. To combat the disease, fallen leaves should be collected and burned, since the pathogen overwinters in them. For prevention, spraying with a 0.1% Silit solution is used, which is repeated once every 2 weeks. The procedure should be carried out before the kidneys swell. At least 3 liters of the drug should be consumed per tree.
Mulberry curl and bacteriosisCurly small leaves significantly reduce mulberry yields. This viral infection is spread by insects. Granular nodularity and wrinkles appear on the leaf veins. The leaves decrease in size and curl up. The number of young shoots increases significantly, but they look deformed and weak. Blooming leaves become rough, brittle and lose color. There is no cure. Bacteriosis affects leaf blades and young shoots of mulberries. The disease is accompanied by spots with irregular outlines, which eventually turn black. These leaves curl and fall off over time. Affected shoots become covered brown spots and become deformed. Gamair and Fitoflavin are used for treatment. But fungicides cannot always overcome the disease.
Damage to mulberry wood by gum and mulberryWhen the mulberry bark is mechanically damaged, gum is released. This is an amber sticky mass with a viscous consistency. The damaged area is cleaned and disinfected with a 1% solution of copper sulfate. After which the surface is treated with putty made from sifted ash and nigrol. The mulberry tree loves to settle on this tree. It destroys the wood, which has a detrimental effect on the trunk. Mulberry spores enter the tree through various damage to the tree. Having identified the body of the fungus, it is cut out with part of the wood and burned. The exposed surface is processed copper sulfate. The affected area is then carefully covered with a special putty made from cow dung, lime and clay, or garden pitch.
By planting mulberries, you are guaranteed to provide your children and grandchildren with a supply of berries. After all, depending on the variety, a mulberry tree can live about 300 years. We wish that your plant takes root and turns out to be a female. |
The need for mulberry cuttings arises when a gardener wants to quickly obtain a tree with certain varietal characteristics. Of course, the reproduction of the considered garden culture can occur with the help of seeds, but in this case you will have to wait.
Cuttings can be carried out in summer time during the period of trimming unnecessary side runs. It should be noted that propagation can take place using green or semi-lignified shoots. Green cuttings are taken from the tree in June, when sanitary pruning of the plant is carried out. When carrying out this operation, small cuttings up to 15 centimeters long are cut from the central part of a young, still soft shoot formed this year. It should be noted that each of these cuttings should have from two to three buds.
After dividing the shoot into parts, the lower leaves are removed from each of the selected segments, and half of all remaining leaf blades are cut off, which will help further growth cuttings. After this, the prepared material must be planted in a greenhouse or room with high humidity, while the seedlings are buried 3 centimeters into the soil. The soil for cuttings must be well aerated and contain a sufficient amount of nutrients for development.
Caring for seedlings should consist of moderate watering warm water and periodic ventilation (over time, the intensity of ventilation increases). In addition, cuttings need additional nutritional elements, therefore, three or four weeks after planting, fertilizing is carried out using complex mineral fertilizers, they are introduced into the soil in liquid form. After the first shoots appear, we can assume that the cuttings have taken root; such seedlings retain the main characteristics of the mother crop.
The process of obtaining seedlings can be carried out using semi-lignified cuttings. To do this, take browned shoots with strong wood and divide them into segments. All procedures from planting cuttings in a greenhouse to obtaining seedlings are similar, but such cuttings will take a very long time to take root, about 1.5 months.
You can also propagate mulberries using lignified shoots; they are cut out during the period of leaf fall from the side of the crown, which is well illuminated by the sun. Subsequently, the cuttings, the length of which reaches 18 centimeters, are treated with growth stimulants and planted on a fertilized bed, deepening the cuttings by about 5 centimeters. The plants will develop in the garden bed until they are two years old, after which they are transplanted to a permanent place in the garden.
