Mulberry Trees

[2.5YR8]

Anyone have thoughts on mulberry trees?

I was always under the impression that people considered these undesirable, and made it a point to remove them. They are growing on me, and I've been leaving them on my place if they aren't bothering anything. They put out a ton of fruit that the deer seem to like. The deer strip every branch of leaves/fruit off every branch they can reach around here.

I was also surprised how large they can get, I figured they were an understory tree. I have a couple that previous owners left alone that I can't get my arms around. I did cut 1 of these down since it was 1/2 dead and sandwiched between 2 really nice walnuts that I wanted to give some more space. The wood was harder than I was expecting, split nice, and burned pretty well in the wood stove.

 

[hillrunner]

They spread like fire is my biggest problem with them.

 

[Daver]

I know the deer will seek the ripe berries, I have a couple of them on my industrial property in town and I often see deer around them getting that ripe fruit right in town. I have thought about planting a couple/few of them around my pond...as I know the catfish will gorge on the berries too that drop into the water. But I don't like them near where I park my truck, if you know what I mean.

 

[IowaBowHunter1983]

I like em. And people will likly find this strange, but I like em as treestand trees too. They have an insane amount of cover.

 

[203ntyp]

They spread like fire is my biggest problem with them.

Yes they do, they grow like crazy too! I have a few at the edge of my yard and trim a couple of them 3 times a year they grow so fast. Deer and birds of all sorts love them, especially my chickens...

 

[Sligh1]

They have their place. All advantageous other than like above mentions…. Spreading. But- they don’t spread in forested areas choking out trees like oaks, etc. which is great. They are also incredibly easy to kill & manage.
One place for them…. If a person wanted to reforest…. They are a great component as they grow fast & tolerate a host of conditions. Overall I like having some for sure.

 

[BearCreek]

Underrated tree IMO when you factor in browse preference, growth rate, and the fact that they also produce fruit. I dislike that most of what we typically get is the non-native version, but on my farm they are heavily browsed. Their fruit is incredibly attractive to turkey and other species as well. Moving forward I will probably hinge the male trees so that most of it is within reach of deer and the females will be allowed to produce fruit.

 

[sep0667]

They seem to get a bad rap, for whatever reason. They grow super fast and seem to be pretty tough.

 

[JNRBRONC]

Good firewood. Raccoon magnets though when the fruit is ripe.

 

[Nrharris]

They seem to get a bad rap, for whatever reason. They grow super fast and seem to be pretty tough.

They get a bad rap here because they grow everywhere. It is a constant battle to keep them out of fencerows and from under powerlines and keep them from creeping into ag fields. We bought a tree puller for our skidloader just for those instances. The grow anywhere a bird or coon poops.

 

[sep0667]

They get a bad rap here because they grow everywhere. It is a constant battle to keep them out of fencerows and from under powerlines and keep them from creeping into ag fields. We bought a tree puller for our skidloader just for those instances. The grow anywhere a bird or coon poops.

makes sense from an ag perspective. But for a hunting property, seem like something someone would want.

 

[letemgrow]

The only reason they spread like wildfire is how attractive they are to wildlife. The birds spread them all over at my house from trees I don't even know where they're coming from, since there aren't any mulberries in my neighborhood....obviously somewhere close tho.

Great browse for deer and also fruit. The only thing worse than a female mulberry tree is a male....

 

[2.5YR8]

I like em. And people will likly find this strange, but I like em as treestand trees too. They have an insane amount of cover.

I have thought about throwing a stand in this 1. All the lower branches look like this from being browsed on, and there are usually 2-3 scrapes under it every year.