Looking for white mulberry trees for research

[Connor Youngerman]

Greetings forestry ning communities!

 

My name is Connor Youngerman, and I’m an extension support specialist at the Cornell Small Farms Program; my focus is agroforestry and mushroom production. 

We are currently working on a research grant to establish white mulberry as a silvopasture crop. White mulberry is the cornerstone of the silk/silk moth industry and has been cultivated by humas for at least 4000 years. It was brought to the US in the early 1600s, and Ben Franklin pushed for all landowners to grow a few trees (this was actually mandated by law in Virginia for a little while) to start a silk industry here. Obviously this never panned out…

But now, white mulberry is common in every state except Alaska. Though it is often classified as a moderately invasive species, this is largely due to its ability to hybridize with our native Red Mulberry, rather than its ability to dominate an ecosystem. Because white mulberry can grow in a wide range of pH, temperature, saline, alkaline, and altitude conditions, it has wide applicability as a resilient fodder crop across the US. There is a ton of literature from oversees that shows mulberry leaves as fodder improves gut health, and meat and milk production in cows, sheep, goats, pigs, and water buffalo; and can be used for chicken and fish production too.

 White mulberry can be managed as a tree (normally the case for shade and fruit), or as a coppice. Here, a stump is allowed to grow sprouts, which are harvested every year or couple years as a “cut and carry forage.” 

For part of our research, we are looking for populations of naturalized white mulberry trees that can be cut down and experimented on as a coppice. The goal is to have a few populations of 16 or 20 trees in 3 or 4 hardiness zones in NY. I’d cut the trees, wrap the stumps with a hardware cloth cone to keep the deer off, and monitor and sample once or twice a year for four years. We will determine how the pruning regime affects forage quality, along with other genetic and environmental factors. The focus is on wild individuals so we can get a sense for the existing genetics in the state, and provide results that are immediately useful to farmers.

 If you have some easily-accessible white mulberry trees that could do with a trim, I’d love to hear from you. Extra points if you have a grove...

 Thanks for reading!

Connor