How to prune very young mulberry?

[fruitylou]

Hi, I got a much longed for mulberry tree in spring and it is still very small, about 3-4ft, with no branches, it's still just a maiden whip, so my question is do I need to prune it and is it even the right time of year to prune a mulberry?

Thank-you

[FB.]

If it was mine, I'd leave it unpruned. The black mulberry are known for often being slow growing but long-lived.

Where possible, I like to let trees form branches naturally as I believe that (at least with other fruit trees) it usually makes the branches structurally stronger and less prone to diseases and rots when the tree is older.

However, sometimes a tree will not oblige with nice branching and then I'll intervene. Trained forms such as cordons and espaliers also require regular pruning otherwise they revert back to tree/bush shapes.

[fruitylou]

Thank-you, I will probably leave it this year then to encourage it to do its own thing, that's nice to know that they are long lived.

Lou

[orangepippin]

Mulberries grow very slowly, but as long as it is actually growing there is no need to worry - it might be 4 years old before it starts developing any branches.