Knowledgebase
Weeping Mulberry Tree Leaf #906178
Asked June 17, 2025, 9:15 PM EDT
Washtenaw County Michigan
Expert Response
Thank you for your email. My name is Emily Lavely, and I am a tree fruit educator with MSU based in West Michigan. From the pictures, it looks like your mulberry tree has Cercospora leaf spot. This is a fungal disease, and fungal spores spread in rainy weather and infect the leaves. This typically is not an issue and trees can recover.
Once the leaf tissue is infected, those leaves will not heal. They may turn yellow and fall. You can prune out infected tissue if it's not too prevalent (so you don't over prune) or you can remove infected leaves and burn or bury them. You could use fungicides to protect leaves from infection, but a fungicide program would need to start when the leaves come out in the spring. Then repeated applications are needed every 10-14 days through the growing season.
However, I am not seeing mulberry trees listed on fungicide labels from products available to homeowners. These would be products sold at stores like Home Depot or Lowes. So if you used one of these products (and mulberry is not on the label), you are not able to eat the fruit.
Feel free to reach out if you have additional questions. I think your tree will likely be ok even though the leaves do show those brown spots.
Hi Emily,
Thank you so very much for your detailed information. I really appreciate it. I actually started to spay the Neem Oil to all our trees yesterday,.
Our Alberta Spruce trees turns to brown and red badly. Both Weeping Mulberry tree and two Alberta Spruce trees are in our front yard. Do they have same fungal disease. Can Neem Oil treat both trees?
Thanks Again for your help!
Julie
Hi Julie,
Some people say that neem oil can prevent fungal diseases, but others have reported that it doesn't help very much. In commercial production, we use oil to manage insect pests. Hopefully it does help in your situation.
There are a couple things that can cause browning in spruce. It's hard to know without seeing pictures or taking a look at it in person. Die back could be from fungal disease, underwatering, overwatering, mites, or other insect pests.
Two of the most common spruce fungal infections are addressed in these pages, along with an insect pest:
https://extension.umd.edu/resource/cytospora-canker-spruce-trees
https://extension.umd.edu/resource/whats-wrong-my-colorado-blue-spruce-tree
https://extension.umd.edu/resource/shade-tree-galls
Best of luck!
Emily
Thank you very much Emily for all the information. It is very helpful.
Today is the fourth day I spayed Neem oil. It seems to me that all the trees are getting a bit better.
I will finish 7 days Neem oil and I hope the disease can be controlled.
Thanks again for all your guides and information!
Best,
Julie
Ok, very good to hear. Thanks for letting me know. Hope all goes well!