What do you know about mulberry trees?

I didn't know much about them, so I did a little research and found that red mulberry trees are the tallest, reaching up to 75 feet but the white mulberry, which was imported, reaches only around 40 feet. If yours is native red mulberry, they're both probably fairly young trees. Apparently you don't have to prune them for best production. You should have enough mulberries for an army, from two young, healthy trees!

I don't know alot about them either. I know it fruits here in late june-mid july. But you know once I figured out what the tree was the kids were excited to eat the berries. However, last year not a single berry, I don't know if the birds got them all or what happened. My grandmother had one that was such a good producer that I remember as a kid to have my hands stained from all the berries.

I probably know more about them than I did quarter of an hour ago! If you want to produce silk (from silk worms), the mulberry is a favourite plant and produces a good silk with a lovely natural gold colour. Unfortunately, good silk production means killing thousands of moth pupae (if you let them turn into moths, you get far more moths than you need and, since they have to eat their way out of the cocoons, the length of the silk thread is spoiled). Mulberry fruits are very high in reservatrol, which some people have said is a life-prolonging product (though there is no hard evidence for that in humans, at least). Some studies have shown that it may inhibit cancer as well but, again, that is controversial. The milky juice of green parts of the tree are said to be mildly hallucinogenic. The bark of some varieties of mulberry tree can be used to make a very lovely, silky textured paper (called Mulberry paper), often favoured by Chinese artists for their most beautiful calligraphy. Unfortunately, the Paper Mulberry has become a pest in some areas to which it was introduced because it is very greedy for water and can choke out the native flora. Your trees may very well be the Red Mulberry, which is the only variety native to North America. Otherwise they would probably have been planted by a previous owner either as fast-growing shade trees or, perhaps, for their fruit or even for silk production. Other varieties are natives of Asia: http://www.ehow.com/facts_5161198_types-mulberry-trees.html but were imported to North America early on. Having seen many mulberry trees here in England, I often wondered about the nursery rhyme, which refers to a bush, but it seems that mulberries were often pruned as bushes, perhaps to make the fruit and leaves easier to harvest. When they are fully grown and in good shape, they are truly one of the most beautiful trees, though they do make an awful mess when the fruit starts to fall! If you want to cultivate them, this http://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/mulberry.html should give you all the information you need. Otherwise, just enjoy them!

We have 25 ft or so tall Mulberry tree in our yard. The birds and raccoons usually get the mulberries before we do. The fruit that falls on the ground attracts all kinds of flies and bugs. We want to cut the tree down and get rid of it!

When I was a child there was a house down the street that had a mulberry tree. Sometimes a friend and I would go and sit on the wall next to it and talk and eat some of those berries. There's one at Maggiepie's place, but the berries are very tasteless.

We spread out tarps, plastic or dark colored sheets underneath our mulberry trees and then shake the branches hard with a rake or hoe - much easier than picking by hand. Our chickens love them too.

My husband hates this fruit, yet I heard it can be made into pies. We had a mulberry tree when I was little and even when we moved when I was 5, there was a mulberry tree a couple blocks away and my dad would take me every year to pick berries..I love them, but let me warn you, they stain, BAD!!! I'd come home from picking berries and literary, my face and hands would be stained. And yes, they do produce a lot of fruit, so I wouldn't worry about leaving any for the birds, as tall as these trees get, you can pick to your hearts content and there would still be enough in the tree tops for the birds..lol

Congrats on having what I think is the most fruitful yet annoying trees. Many people.love the berries, but after living with ten or so trees in my backyard for years, I want them chopped down. There is so many berries you cannot pick them all unless you are at it constantly for weeks. And when the berries fall they make a big mess. Watch where you step because as the previous poster said they stain bad. I'm talking you need bleach to get these suckers out of your skin. Personally I cannot stand them after living with them so long, but lots of people use them in jams,jellies, and pies. My grandma used to make jelly with them but she too, has grown sick of them. So I guess to each his own. If your family loves them, then they get a free food source. And that's always a good thing. P.s they don't really need much sun, 3 of ours grow under other trees with little sun and produce just as much as the others.