Managing fruiting mulberry tree - Ask Extension
Hello! I just moved into a house this year and there is a mulberry tree on our property. My husband and I had a garage built and concrete poured this ...
Knowledgebase
Managing fruiting mulberry tree #873450
Asked June 17, 2024, 1:43 PM EDT
Hello! I just moved into a house this year and there is a mulberry tree on our property. My husband and I had a garage built and concrete poured this fall. This spring/sunmer, the mulberry tree has been dropping thousands of berries and staining the concrete. What are our options for managing the berries? Can the tree be sterilized, and if so is that safe for the local ecosystem? Thanks for your help! I just want to see if there are other options besides removing the tree.
Oakland County Michigan
Expert Response
Mulberry trees are notorious for dropping thousands of messy and staining berries. People either love them or hate them...depending on whether or not they enjoy the berries in pies, jams, etc.
Unfortunately there is no way to prevent the berries from forming. There are more issues with mulberry trees besides the staining of concrete and cars:
Unfortunately there is no way to prevent the berries from forming. There are more issues with mulberry trees besides the staining of concrete and cars:
- Berries should be raked up fairly often to prevent them from killing the grass underneath.
- It's difficult to keep children and pets away from the ground-covered berries.
- When the weather gets hot and humid the whole area may smell like fermented fruit.
- The need to deal with purple colored droppings that appear everywhere, as the tree is quite popular with wildlife (birds and deer.
