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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] Mulberry for Canadian border?

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  • From: David.Maxwell@dal.ca
  • To: NAFEX <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Mulberry for Canadian border?
  • Date: Sun, 03 Feb 2008 15:12:51 -0400

On 2 Feb 2008 at 9:10, Jim Fruth wrote:

> Ernest Plutko wrote, "I wish I could
> grow a mulberry tree on the Canadian border."
>

I used to live in Dundas, Ontario, at the base of the Niagara escarpment, and
perhaps 100 miles north of the border. In our back yard was what we were
told was
"the largest mulberry tree in Ontario", as well as a second smaller tree on
the edge
of the property (both morus alba). The big one was, as I recall, 155 inches
in
circumference, shaded virtually the entire back yard, and never bore until my
7 year
old son, in burst of agricultural zeal, fertilised it with a newly acquired
gadget which
delivered liquid fertilizer to the root zone through a long hollow metal rod.
Bad idea;
now we had not one but two trees dropping huge quantities of dark purple
berries
all over the lawn for us to squish as we walked into the house, staining
everything.
We tried spreading tarps under the trees to catch the berries, but the sheer
size of
the darn things made it impossible to catch all the berries, and we resigned
ourselves to having everything stained purple for weeks every fall. The
berries
themselves were edible, but no more. I certainly wouldn't grow these trees
for the
berries. We were told that these trees had been planted in the 19'th century
as part
of an attempt to establish a silk industry - the mulberies were to feed the
silkworms.
As far as I am concerned, they are welcome to them. As a fruit-bearing
species
they are a bust - the berries are most unappealing, and as the tree grows out
of
reach they become impossible to harvest. But if you want to feed silkworms,
or just
have an impressive shade tree, (starve the darn thing so it doesn't fruit),
they can
readily be grown in the Niagara region of Ontario.




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