Re: Fruiting mulberry?
- To: Nan Sterman , m*@ucdavis.edu
- Subject: Re: Fruiting mulberry?
- From: J* M*
- Date: Sun, 14 May 2000 23:22:27 -0700
Nan,
Mulberries are dioecious (from the Greek, di+oicos, in two houses, i.e.,
sexes on separate plants). Monoecious (one house) is a plant that has
separate male and female flowers on the same plant. I know this because I
am violently allergic to mulberry pollen, and the house in Albuquerque where
I lived when I was in high school was shaded by three huge mulberries--a
red- and a white-berried female and one male. The females produced huge
crops virtually every year, and the berries were delicious, but when they
were in bloom, I was on an oxygen tank. On these trees, the flowers opened
just before the leaf bud were beginning to break (to better facilitate
pollen transport). If I remember correctly, by the time the catkins faded
the leaves were about half expanded.
John MacGregor
jonivy@earthlink.net
----------
>From: Nan Sterman <nsterman@mindsovermatter.com>
>To: "John MacGregor" <jonivy@earthlink.net>
>Subject: Re: Fruiting mulberry?
>Date: Sun, May 14, 2000, 8:25 PM
>
> Hi John and thank you for that information. I was trained as a
> botanist long ago so I never expect easy answers to plant questions!
> I always expect to experiment a bit. I didn't realize that
> mulberries are either male or female (is that monaceous or
> diaceous?). I have two plants so maybe I'll be lucky and end up with
> one of each. Once they are mature enough to bloom, will they bloom
> before they leaf out?
>
> Nan
>
>>Nan.
>>
>>First you must understand that mulberries have male and female flowers on
>>separate plants. Thus some trees will have fruit and some just pollen-laden
>>catkins. Statistically, you probably have a fifty-fifty chance of having a
>>seedling fruit eventually, but in small numbers, yours could be either sex.
>>In my experience, it may take several years before they bloom, and then
>>fruiting will depend somewhat upon getting pollinated, although mulberries
>>are so commonly planted in urban America and the pollen is so widely
>>distributed by the wind that the chances are high probably that when your
>>female plant does get around to blooming, it will set fruit. I'm not sure
>>that this is the easy answer you were expecting, but that's the way it is.
>>
>>John MacGregor
>>jonivy@earthlink.net
>>
>>
>>----------
>>>From: Nan Sterman <nsterman@mindsovermatter.com>
>>>To: medit-plants@ucdavis.edu
>>>Subject: Fruiting mulberry?
>>>Date: Sun, May 14, 2000, 9:05 AM
>>>
>>
>>> Hi everyone and happy mother's day to all mommy's in North America
>>> (how many countries celebrate mother's day on the second sunday in
>>> May?)
>>>
>>> I have a question about fruiting mulberry -- The birds brought me two
>>> mulberry trees -- and since they arrived by seed, I had assumed that
>>> they were fruiting mulberries (there was one across the street). The
>>> trees are now 2 or 3 years old and about 9 feet tall. Leaves are out
>>> but there is no fruit. Will they fruit? When will they fruit?
>>>
>>> Nan
>>> --
>>> **********
>>> '''''''''''''''''''''''
>>> Nan Sterman
>>> San Diego County California
>>> Sunset zone 24, USDA hardiness zone 10b or 11
>>>
>>>
>
> --
> **********
> '''''''''''''''''''''''
> Nan Sterman
> San Diego County California
> Sunset zone 24, USDA hardiness zone 10b or 11
>
