Black mulberries are large and juicy and have a slightly sweet, slightly sour taste. If you have a black mulberry tree growing in your back yard and the fruit that it has produced this season is small in size and sparse in amount, then some of the tree's branches may be stunting the production and growth rate of the fruit. Prepare to yield a better crop next year with some late fall, early winter pruning tips.
Let Nature Take Its Course
Since it is already late in the season, there is not a whole lot you can do to change the size and amount of fruit that will be produced this year. Right now, you can begin to formulate a plan for the pruning that will take place. A black mulberry tree is a deciduous tree and should be pruned during the late fall or early winter, while the tree is dormant.
Pruning the tree at any other time of the year could have devastating results. Either the tree's limbs won't heal all of the way or the tree will wind up getting sick and dying if a large amount of limbs are removed from the tree during the dormant months.
Learn How to Use Your Pruning Tools
Pruning shears and scissors are both common landscaping tools that are quite easy to use, but if you are unfamiliar with using these items, now is a good time to practice.
Look outdoors for a couple fallen limbs. Use the limbs as aids during each practice session. The main idea is to remove a few inches from the ends of the branches that are overgrown or wilting. Of course, you can't determine these actualities with random branches, but you can pretend that each one needs to be trimmed. Grip the first tool's handles with both hands. Press the handle parts together until the blades open.
Insert the end of one of the branches between the blades. Each snip that you make should be angled slightly to reduce stress that is placed on the tree. After growing accustomed to using the first tool, repeat the practice steps while using the other tool.
Remember That Less is More
Cutting a tree's limbs feverishly won't provide you with satisfying results. Less is more when it comes to pruning branches. You do not want to place the tree in shock by removing too many branches and you surely do not want your black mulberry tree to have a distorted appearance.
On the day that you plan to prune the mulberry tree, move slowly around the tree as you prune it and complete one revolution so that an even amount of weight has been removed from the entire tree.
Don't worry, you don't have to go at this alone. Consider hiring a professional like A Advanced Tree Services to do the job for you.
After thinking about how to keep some of the flowers in my yard alive, it occurred to me that we had some real problems on our hands. For starters, we had a bunch of overgrown trees that needed to be dealt with. The second thing we had to take care of was the fact that we were really behind on basic yard care. I started talking with friends and neighbors about what they did to make things better, and they recommended a local tree service company. After they came out and made some changes, my yard was gorgeous. Learn more about tree care on my blog.