🫐 Mulberry
Fruit Trees · growing reference
| To first harvest | ~2 years – ~4 years, by type |
|---|---|
| Spacing | 240″ in the row × 300″ between rows |
| Planted as | tree |
| Water | ~0.75–1.2 in a week |
When to plant
In USDA zone 6, for example: Plant around Mar 4, while the stock is still dormant — bare-root wants to be in the ground before it leafs out.
| Spring | |
|---|---|
| Zone 3 | Apr 3 |
| Zone 4 | Mar 26 |
| Zone 5 | Mar 15 |
| Zone 6 | Mar 4 |
| Zone 7 | Feb 18 |
| Zone 8 | Feb 1 |
| Zone 9 | Jan 9 |
Dates are the typical window for each zone's average frost dates — your own last frost can differ by a couple of weeks. Zone 10 and warmer is effectively frost-free: plant to the season, not the frost. Southern Hemisphere: shift six months.
Mulberry Types
- Red · ~4 years · 60–150 lbs/plant — M. rubra — the zone-4 eastern native, a big shade tree, best flavour of the hardy kinds.
- White · ~3 years · 60–150 lbs/plant — M. alba — the silkworm tree, naturalized across the US; fast, tough, weedy where it escapes.
- Black · ~4 years · 40–100 lbs/plant — M. nigra — zone 7+, slow, and the best-tasting mulberry there is.
- Everbearing · ~2 years · 25–75 lbs/plant — Dwarf selections (Issai, Dwarf Everbearing) — 6–8 ft, months of fruit, container-friendly.
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