Fruitless mulberry trees are hard to establish

Question

My fruitless mulberry trees are hard to establish. I’m losing 50% of the 10 trees planted each year on our ranch. The others remaining are doing fine. I live in Oregon near Salem. The fruitless mulberry trees that I’ve planted from 10.5 gallon containers are not surviving well. They struggle even with watering once a week. 50% have survived and are doing well, but the others last one season and never come back. What am I doing wrong? I keep replacing them and I may get 40% to live and the others have to be replaced. Now I’m competing for the trunk size of 3″ in diameter to ones that are 1-3/4 inch diameter. The trees look funny because they are so much different in size, and I’m finding it hard to find 2″ or 3″ trees. It’s a show horse barn and I like it to look balanced in the landscaping. Can you help? 503 931-2740 [e-mail]
Thanks
Dari Jongsma

Answer 1

When you are losing trees in a location, it is good to access if the area is proper for planting.
Soil, sunlight, wind all factors that could be contributing to the failures.
I do think you most likely are not watering enough. You said watering once a week. This would not be sufficient for a newly planted tree.
Daily water would be needed for at least the first 2 weeks. Then you can cut back, but you have to be aware of the weather conditions and be ready to adjust if temperatures are warm. Wind also will dry a tree out.
Here are a few links to help you.

https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamental/trees/fruitless-mulberry/fruitless-mulberry-trees.htm

https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamental/trees/tgen/watering-newly-planted-tree.htm