Ruth Nakamura · January 23, 2026
You’ll encounter two conflicting pieces of advice about mulberry watering online: one source will tell you these trees need daily irrigation during summer, while another claims they’re drought-proof and barely need water once they’re a few years old. The first one is dead wrong — at least for home growers in the Pacific Northwest like … Read more
Ruth Nakamura · January 22, 2026
Almost every new mulberry grower makes the same wrong assumption: that because the tree is famously tough once established, the planting itself doesn’t need much thought. I made exactly that mistake with my first tree — wrong depth, no drainage check, no stake in a spot that caught wind off the fence line — and … Read more
Ruth Nakamura · December 26, 2025
A late frost in April rolled through my yard one year just when my Illinois Everbearing had started flowering, and I watched those tender blooms blacken overnight. What struck me wasn’t the lost crop that season—it was what it exposed when I finally got fruit the following year. Because suddenly I was facing ripeness windows … Read more
Ruth Nakamura · December 15, 2025
I have a photograph on my phone I took last July: my concrete patio stained in a splotchy purple pattern that looks like modern art. Those aren’t paint accidents — they’re the ghost marks of what happens when you hand-pick mulberries one at a time and let the juice run everywhere. That image is proof … Read more
Ruth Nakamura · December 13, 2025
The basket cup cradles fragile berries as you twist and extract them—I’ve found that a gentle scooping motion preserves the soft fruit intact across multiple picking sessions during the ripest weeks. A 12+ foot extension covers the productive zone on most mature trees without requiring you to climb or place yourself in awkward, risky spots … Read more
