Latest Prices for Mulberry Seeds and a Detailed Guide to Growing Them
The mulberry is a deciduous tree or shrub in the genus Morus of the family Moraceae, native to central and northern China; it is now cultivated in every province and region from northeast to southwest China and in the northwest as far as Xinjiang. Its leaves are feed for silkworms, its wood can be made into utensils, its branches can be woven into baskets, its bark can be used as a papermaking raw material, and its fruit, the mulberry, can be eaten and used to brew wine; the leaves, fruit and root bark can be used as medicine. Let us take a look below at the price of mulberry seeds and how to grow them!
How much does a jin of mulberry seeds cost?
The price of mulberry seeds is about 30 to 40 yuan per jin, but prices vary greatly depending on seed quality, variety, place of origin and the market. The mulberry likes a warm, humid climate and tolerates shade slightly. It begins to sprout when the temperature rises above 12°C, its optimum growing temperature is 25 to 30°C, growth is inhibited above 40°C and stops below 12°C. It is drought-tolerant, not waterlogging-tolerant, tolerates poor soil and adapts strongly to different soils. In production it is commonly propagated by seed, grafting and cuttings.
Sowing methods for mulberry
1. Sowing time: Mulberry can be sown in spring, summer or autumn, and summer and autumn sowings can use new seeds from that same year. Harvest ripe purple mulberries, rub off the flesh, wash the seeds, and sow them immediately or store them in moist sand.
2. Seed treatment: Before sowing, soak mulberry seeds in 50°C warm water, let it cool naturally, then soak for another 12 hours, store them in moist sand to promote germination, keeping them moist at all times, and sow once the seed coat splits and the white radicle shows.
3. Sowing method: When sowing mulberry, open furrows at a row and plant spacing of 20 to 30 cm, with a furrow depth of 1 cm, using 7.5 to 15 kg of seed per square meter, cover with soil, seedlings emerge after about 10 days, and thin them when the seedlings are 3 to 4 cm tall.
How to grow mulberry
1. Planting time: The planting time for mulberry is from December to March of the following year, transplanting 1000 to 1200 mulberry seedlings per mu. There are two planting arrangements: wide-and-narrow row planting and equal-row planting.
2. Seedling treatment: Sort mulberry seedlings by size and plant them separately. Before planting, cut off withered roots and overly long roots and dip them in mud slurry, which can improve the survival rate.
⟦NL>3. Planting method: When planting mulberry, the seedlings should be upright and the roots spread out, planted shallowly and firmed down, watered thoroughly to settle the roots, and covered with plastic film (film width 3 chi for wide-and-narrow rows and 2 chi for equal rows). Check promptly after the mulberry buds sprout and replant any that have not survived.4. Trimming the stem and thinning buds: After transplanting, cut off the mulberry stem 5 to 7 cun above the ground. When the new shoots grow to 4 to 5 cun, keep 2 to 3 strong, well-directed shoots per plant to form vigorous branches; for those with only one bud, pinch off the growing tip when the bud grows to 4 to 6 cun.
5. Water and fertilizer management: Water mulberry in drought, drain water in rainy weather, carry out shallow plowing and weeding promptly, and after bud thinning and tip pinching apply 10 to 15 kg of urea per mu or irrigate with biogas slurry, human manure and urine, etc., with the application rate kept at 1/3 of that for a mature mulberry orchard.
How to manage a mulberry orchard
1. Tree form training: In the spring of the year after planting, cut back the mulberry about 35 cm above the ground, leaving 2 to 3 stubs per plant, and thereafter cut back each year at this cut point as the standard.
2. Cultivation and weeding: Carry out one cultivation of mulberry each year after the silkworm rearing season ends. Weeding depends on how the weeds are growing, generally 2 to 3 times a year.
3. Fertilizer management: Mulberry must be fertilized four times a year.
① Spring fertilizer: Apply spring fertilizer when the mulberry buds begin to swell, 20 kg of urea per mu.
② Summer fertilizer: Apply summer fertilizer after the spring silkworm rearing ends, 20 kg of urea and 25 kg of special compound fertilizer for mulberry per mu.
③ Autumn fertilizer: Apply autumn fertilizer after the early autumn silkworm rearing ends, 5 kg of urea and 10 kg of special compound fertilizer for mulberry per mu.
④ Winter fertilizer: Apply winter fertilizer in early December, 1500 to 2000 kg of farmyard manure per mu.
4. Pest and disease control: After the spring buds sprout, carry out one round of pest control on mulberry with dichlorvos, dimethoate and Sangning; after the spring, summer and early autumn silkworm rearings end, use dichlorvos, dimethoate, Sangning, carbendazim and thiophanate-methyl respectively for pest and disease control.