Description

The Illinois Everbearing Mulberry is a well known everbearing Mulberry. Everbearing is an unusual descriptor. I really is a long blooming and long period ripening variety. The trees bloom over a couple of months and the fruit ripens in a similar fashion. Most varieties bloom at once and dump fruit all at once. The benefit is , you don’t have to drop everything when the crop ripens or miss out. Illinois Everbearing has a medium sized fruit with a good flavor. The trees are quite productive. The fruit is a purple/black color. The trees get quite large and do not respond well to trying to contain them with pruning heavily. Mature trees can be 30’+ tall and as wide. Growth and shape is similar to a Chinese Chestnut.

Harvesting Mulberries can take several forms. Ripe fruit drops pretty easily. Spreading sheets or tarps under the tree and shaking the branches works fairly well. Tree climbing children are a great help with this and they have fun doing it. Of course, small trees can be hand picked. Trees will need to be netted to keep the birds out or they will get much more of your crop than you get.

Mulberries are male and female but within their native range they are quite common so pollination is rarely an issue. There are many naturalized White Mulberries out there. Since Mulberries are wind pollinated and promiscuous both Red and White Mulberries will do the pollination job