Mulberry tree

Almost everyone is acquainted with mulberry. But only one more is known, not widely distributed, its name is a mulberry tree. Places of its growth - Ukraine, the Caucasus, Asia, Crimea.

The history of cultivation of mulberry leaves in Ancient China, in which caterpillars-silkworms were fed by the leaves of a tree . The secret of silk production has been successfully preserved for more than three millennia. For one thing only the suspicion of its disclosure in China felled. In the meantime, Russia was satisfied with raw silk and ready-made fabrics.

In 555, the silkworm was secretly exported to Europe, which allowed it to start its own production of expensive material. The silk-weaving manufactory built in Moscow (the reign of Ivan IV) served only the satisfaction of the tsar's needs.

During the reign of Peter the Great, another 43 factories were opened, producing silk, not inferior in quality to Chinese. The mulberry tree was under the protection of the tsar himself: he who cut him off said goodbye to his head. In addition, new plantations of mulberry were laid (in the Botanical Garden of Kiev, for example, trees still planted under Peter the First are still growing ).

It is worth noting that the mulberry tree is also valued for delicious (and most importantly - useful) fruits. Residents of the East use berries, bark, leaves and even roots for the treatment of kidneys, diabetes, heart diseases. The mulberry berry, when used skillfully, is able to purify the blood, normalizing the metabolism. With obesity, folk healers prescribe infusions from the fruits of a miracle tree called mulberry.

Useful properties of mulberry come in a very long list. Its leaves reduce heat for colds, broth of the bark is recommended for hypertension, asthma, bronchitis, coughing. If you collect all the famous recipes of traditional medicine, you will get a fairly voluminous book.

In Nagorno-Karabakh, the mulberry berry is called just "king-berry" ("shah tute"). Here her juice is treated not only cough and hypertension, but also stomatitis, angina. Mulberry berry is used raw, dried, dried, canned. It contains a lot of glucose, organic acids, vitamins, fats, proteins.

Mulberry tree - a wonderful building and finishing material, able to be compared in strength except that only with oak.

There are quite a few species of trees: mulberry mourning (up to five meters in height, branches long, hanging down), mulberry pyramidal (up to six meters, pyramidal crown) and globular (up to two meters, the crown is like a ball). About 400 varieties are known. Decorative forms usually represent mulberry white, the rest - black (red).

The wood is resistant to soiling, heat, frost. The plant is dioecious, wind-pollinated, fast-growing. Polygamy is a rare phenomenon for him. The maximum height of the mulberry tree is 15 m.

Despite the low demand for growing conditions, a good agrofon is still desirable: with regular fertilizing and good watering, the mulberry tree fructifies more abundantly, and its fruits are larger and juicier. Podkarmlivaetsya and watered the plant until July, further provides the so-called peace. Decrease in temperature even during vegetation is not dangerous. The mulberry is afraid not so much of frosts as the drying up of growth with the onset of early spring, when the moisture evaporation is high, and the roots in the frozen ground can not yet raise the life-giving moisture (especially in the northern regions). Adult plants are covered
A crocked layer that prevents desiccation, but the young ones do not have such a natural protection, so it dies.

Mulberry tree, despite its unpretentiousness, prefers still open (light) places and loose sandy loamy or loamy soils. Adding sand to the trunk causes additional growth of the accessory roots. The plant adapts quickly. Fruiting is one-time (once a year). Yield directly depends on the variety, age and shape of the crown. Thirty-year-old plants can produce up to 300 kg of fragrant fruit.

Propagate mulberry seeds and vegetatively.