Probably everyone knows what tasty fruits mulberry gives, but many mistakenly believe that caring for it requires special skills. We will dispel this myth, because the mulberry can be successfully grown in our country, and there is nothing exotic about it.
- Necessary conditions for growing mulberries
- Lighting
- Temperature
- The soil
- How to plant a mulberry?
- Features tree care
- Trimming rules
- Soil care
- How to prepare mulberry for winter?
- When and how to harvest?
- Mulberry breeding
- Seeds
- Cuttings
- Inoculation
- Layering
Necessary conditions for growing mulberries
Planting a mulberry and further caring for it are so simple that people call it "a tree for the lazy." Anyone can grow it in their own area, and without making much effort for this. To the environment it is very unpretentious. Even the mulberry, cultivation and care of which occurs in the middle lane, will produce a small but stable crop annually.
Lighting
Mulberries should be planted in places with good lighting, where the north and east winds do not blow. If necessary, you can build an improvised defense against them.
Temperature
The tree grows quickly, resistant to drought and does not suffer even from severe frosts. It can withstand cold weather down to -30 ° C.
The soil
Mulberry can be planted in 90% of the soil. But, of course, it will bear good fruit only on fertile soils that are rich in nutrients and substances. It is strictly forbidden to plant these trees in wetlands and damp lowlands. The most suitable option would be soils with good drainage and high ability to retain moisture. When planting mulberry trees, take into account that they grow over time, so the distance between the seedlings should be left up to 6 m.
How to plant a mulberry?
Growing mulberries, like any other tree, begins with planting, which is best done in the middle of spring, namely in April, until sap flow begins. The second option is the middle of autumn before the beginning of the rainy season.
If the soil in which the tree is planted is poor in nutrients, the pit should be made wider and deeper so that up to 7 kg of compost mixed with 100 grams of superphosphate can be placed at the bottom. Then fertilizers are covered with a layer of soil. Its thickness should be such that the roots of the plant are not in contact with fertilizers.
Two weeks later, you can plant mulberry. His roots need to straighten and prikopat, shaking the barrel. This is necessary in order to remove excess voids from the ground. When the roots along with the pit are completely filled, the soil should be compacted, and the seedling should be watered with 20 liters of water. When the water is completely absorbed, you need to mulch the tree trunk.
As mentioned above, planting mulberries is carried out twice a year: in spring and autumn. Landing during these periods is almost identical.But usually in the autumn they dig up a trench for planting, lay nutrients in it and leave until spring. But in April, complete the landing.
Features tree care
When the tree is planted, you need to know how to continue to care for the mulberry. The main thing is to carry out abundant watering of the tree during the period of active development, especially when buds are blooming. It is also important to feed the plant.
Trimming rules
Like any other tree, mulberry needs pruning. This is best done in periods of peace. The most painless pruning mulberry occurs in the spring. From the end of April to the beginning of May, when the buds have not yet blossomed, two types of pruning are performed: formative and rejuvenating. The third - sanitary - pruning is carried out in the autumn, when all the leaves have already fallen. But the air temperature should not be below -10 ° C. Different types of mulberry need to be trimmed differently. In the weeping mulberry, as a rule, the crown is thinned and the shoots and branches are shortened.
When it comes time to prepare the mulberry for wintering, sanitary pruning is carried out. During this procedure, all diseased, dead and too weak branches and shoots are cut off. Sanitary pruning is usually not needed every year.
Soil care
In order for the mulberry to hurt less and not be overpowered by pests, the tree trunk circle is treated with fungicides and insecticides for preventive purposes. It is better to do this in early April, while the buds have not woken up yet, and in October, after the end of the vegetative period. A good cure for diseases and pests is Nitrafen.
In the spring, it is better to process wood and add 7% urea to the soil.It will destroy all the pathogens and insect larvae that lay in the ground and in the bark of the mulberry tree. Also, the plant will be fertilized with nitrogen fertilizer, which is so necessary mulberry in this season.
In order for the mulberry to adapt to severe frosts, it needs to be watered from spring to mid-summer, only when the weather is dry. After watering should stop. If spring is rich in rain, then it is not needed. At the same time, mulberry must be fed. In early spring, fertilizers with the nitrogen component should be added to the soil, and in the summer - with potash and phosphate.
How to prepare mulberry for winter?
A mulberry is prepared for wintering in the middle of autumn, bending the branches to the ground. This procedure will not cause difficulties, since the young mulberry is quite flexible. But since the mulberry grows large enough, it is better to place the skeletal branches horizontally in the future, and bend only the young branches.
The first three years, it is desirable to wrap the trunk and the main branches covering material in several layers. It depends on the severity of winter frosts. Then you need to throw it on the stanants, spreading out poison under it for winter rodents, which can greatly harm the tree.To prevent the wind from tearing down the sheeting, you need to press it down with something heavy, for example, with pipes, boards or bricks. It is necessary to remove shelter from a mulberry in May when spring night frosts come to an end.
If you do not take into account the bending in of the young branches and the manipulation with a protective coating, then the care of the mulberry tree and its preparation for wintering is no different from the usual agrotechnics of apple trees.
When and how to harvest?
The mulberry gives the first fruits already in the third year. Only berries are small. They become larger after another five to six years. But there can accelerate this process. In the spring you need to plant a seedling uterus in the seedling.Harvesting mulberries is the greatest pleasure, because you won't have to climb a tree. When the berries ripen, they fall down themselves. On the ground, under a tree, you only need to lay a thick cloth, for example, spunbond. Mulberries are very juicy and sweet, they can reach 5 cm in length. It all depends on the variety.
Mulberry breeding
The mulberry tree multiplies both by seed and vegetatively.
Seeds
The multiplication of mulberry seeds is the easiest way for all types of this tree. You just need to take a handful of berries of the selected variety, put them in a container and put them in the sun. Then in the water it is necessary to mix the seeds well and drain the water with empty shells. Then again fill with water and pass through a strainer with a fine mesh. Then wipe again and rinse. Repeat until only pure seeds remain without pulp.
After they should be well dried and put into a paper bag and stored in a dry place until the beginning of spring. 45 days before sowing, moistened seeds should be put on a shelf under the freezer for stratification or kept in water for three days. It is necessary to seed mulberry seeds to a depth of 1 cm in the most light place. It is often necessary to water the future mulberry, but not to flood it.
You should also make sure that the young plant does not ruin the spring frosts. The first shoots need to be protected from direct exposure to UV rays. Thick plantings should be thinned in the phase of the fifth leaf. Bad ones are left on the ground to grow until the age of two years. Signs of the plant mother during reproduction by seeds are not transmitted. Such seedlings are used for grafting varietal mulberries.
Cuttings
How else does the mulberry breed? The best method of breeding in the summer is cutting. In the beginning of summer, cuttings with two or three buds are cut from a healthy shoot of this year. Lower leaves need to be removed, and on the rest, leave half of the plates so that the cutting further grows and develops.
You need to plant the cuttings in a greenhouse, you can even make it improvised, under a translucent film to a depth of 3 cm. There are conditions in which cuttings root well.They will need moderate watering, frequent airing of the room and fertilizing with mineral fertilizers. The fact that the stalk is rooted can be understood in a month, when new shoots appear. These seedlings are exactly the mother tree.
Inoculation
Mulberry is grafted in almost all known ways. The easiest and, most importantly, successful is copulation. The mulberry can be planted indoors in the winter or with the onset of early spring. Those cuttings that were grafted before sap flow are taken root faster.
A simple copulation represents the same oblique cuts on the graft and the rootstock so that the cambial layers fit together more clearly. Cuts are made between the kidneys. When the cuts are aligned, the junction should be tightly covered with a soft plastic bandage.
Layering
As the otvodka used lower branch. It bends down and fixed on the surface of the soil, then sprinkled with earth. For rooting to occur better, the branch must be broken at the fold or the ring of bark removed. With this technique, the formation of roots is stimulated. The procedure should be carried out in the spring, and by the fall roots will appear on the layers.
