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nafex - [NAFEX] mulberries - invasive?

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  • From: "kieran or donna" <redherring@tnaccess.com>
  • To: <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [NAFEX] mulberries - invasive?
  • Date: Wed, 16 Feb 2005 22:13:33 -0600

I have read that the kind of mulberry to grow to keep birds away from your
cherries is the small soft fruited Russian type. I would like some of
these, and suspect that this is the invasive kind being discussed. One day
in Athens GA I went for a walk around the neighborhood where we were
visiting. I found a beautiful lavender mulberry, gorgeous and quite good
tasting. A bit further in my walk I passed a small cherry tree with a
couple of cherries on it, and then I heard the most awful racket, sounded
like a thousand birds gossiping. I followed the sound and found another big
mulberry, this one alive with birds. The berries were small, dark, and
squishy. I would not have liked to have had washing out on the line near
that tree!!! Unfortunately, I didn't get seeds from it, and now wish I had
some planted because my cherries are old enough to start bearing... (if we
can have a non frozen spring. How could it be that in 2004 we didn't have a
late freeze to hurt the peaches, but the sweet cherries were already
frozen?) I did save seeds from the lavender unpopular mulberry(unpopular
with birds anyway), and the seedlings look like M. alba. I suspect the
squishy ones were albas also. From a mulberry's viewpoint, a squishy
fruited tree that people swear at and the birds spread all over the
countryside is more successful than a tree in your backyard that is ignored
by birds but well treated and used by humans. Though the fruit is eaten
and appreciated, it's like the ultimate insult when you deposit it's seeds
down into the septic tank. Donna





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