The Must-Have Fruit Tree for your Backyard Garden

if you can only have one fruit tree in your yard  it really should be a mulberry tree and if you're   not familiar with mulberries mulberries look  and have the same texture of a Blackberry they   actually taste like raspberries there's a lot of  benefits to growing mulberry trees number one they   can grow in a very wide variety of Gardens and  wide varieties of climates so their zone is zone   6 to 10 but if you are in a lower Zone like in  five you could still probably grow them if you   grow them in a pot and bring them inside during  the coldest parts of the winter the second cool   benefit is they actually can be grown in pots and  they do produce very well in pots just try to get   a large size pot they are fast fast growing I  mean within one year I had a full Harvest from   these trees but some would consider that maybe a  negative because they're going to grow too quickly   but they actually can handle pruning way better  than any tree I've ever seen I actually pruned   one of these guys all the way down to the ground  I will show it to you they got pruned super heavy   and it came back with a vengeance so you can  prune them and in fact I don't plan on letting   either one of these trees get above 6 or 7 feet  tall they're going to stay short because this   is a narrow walkway in my area and so being able  to prune them heavy and keep them short is going   to be a big deal for me and it's probably a big  deal for you too if you have a small garden space   they're pretty Pest and disease resilient I did  have some struggles with them through the summer   um but I think that they were just responding to  our heat really the only pest that see well pest   that seems to bother them is going to be the birds  and that's when they start producing their berries   the birds really love their berries I mean a lot  and that was okay with me because honestly these   two trees produced I don't know probably like  almost 10 gallon size bags of berries it was   insane how much these two short little tiny trees  right here can produce way more than my regular   BlackBerry way more than the strawberry Tower I  have they were huge huge in terms of yields and   in particular this one which I'll tell you more  about later another cool couple things about them   is that they really only need one tree I have  two because I'm trying two different varieties   but they only need one they will pollinate them  and their Sun requirements are pretty variant so   I mean they can go in Full full Florida sun or  they can sit here where they're almost almost   in shade so and they produce the same regardless  so there's a lot of great benefits to these trees   so I got these trees last spring I got them from  greendreamsfl.com they're actually a local Nursery   around here that does ship I believe all over  the country they've great trees I absolutely   love their perennials um but I ended up getting  a Thai dwarf which is the shorter one closer to   the fence gate and then the one behind it is a  everbearing and I believe both of these are a   type of white mulberry I believe I think they're  also hybrids there's three different kinds of   mulberries there's red black and white I think the  most typical ones that people grow for food are   the white ones although I've heard other people  growing the red and the black believe it or not   it the red black and white doesn't necessarily  mean that that's the color of the berry in fact   that's actually the confusing part the easiest way  to tell them apart is by their Leaf structure now   after I planted these and I have a whole video  about how I planted all these trees so I'll put   that down in the description below but once  I planted them I noticed that the everbearing   was having some issues like the leaf structure  wasn't doing very well it was like the leaves   were dying and so I thought it was like a fungal  is issue uh it was summer here in Florida summer   is tough on all plants so I figured what I would  do is actually trim it back I heard that these   guys are like super good at being pruned so I was  going to put it to the test and I trimmed it back   probably by 50% taking off the branches and then  I took off all the leaves and I only did it to one   of them because I wasn't 100% sure that this was  uh going to work out well although I had seen my   friend friend Jaclyn over at the wild Floridian  do this to her tree to try to get it to produce   more and that's actually one way that some of the  farmers that grow these mulberries um get them   to produce a second set of berries is by trimming  back the branches and then trimming off the leaves   and it will push New Growth so that's what I did  mainly because I thought that it had a disease   but also kind of as to test to see how well it  handles being pruned being as it is such a fast   growing tree if you saw when I put them in earlier  they were very very small and after just probably   I think this was at maybe four or five months they  had doubled in size easily doubled in size and I   knew that that meant okay these guys are going to  grow fast I can't let them get crazy and out of   control how H how well can they handle pruning and  so this is the tree after I pruned it it's just a   stick and then within I believe it was 3 weeks  this is all the new growth and it's beautiful   growth the the leaves came back more vibrant it  came back with another flush of berries and then   here it is the following spring so one year after  it was planted look how huge these trees are this   is what I mean by fast growing you can already  start to see the berries on these so the ever   bearing produces really well that's these right  here they're a little bit larger of a berry I   feel like they're a little bit sweeter of a berry  but let me tell you about this one the front the   front one this is is a thai dwarf and it produces  a yield like I have never seen any fruit tree   produce all those red berries are going to turn  black and they do have a little bit more tartness   to them but they're absolutely amazingly good and  like I said so productive to harvest the berries   you can pick them off one by one but if you happen  to pick one that's not quite ripe yet they tend to   be extremely tart sour even if you're into that  cool but I kind of like them on the sweet side so   I have found that if you shake them um the ones  that are ripe are going to fall off and that's   the easiest way to harvest them so that you're not  harvesting ones that are not ready to be taken off   yet so once you're done shaking them you can pick  them up off the ground which is what I do but I've   seen other people you can you can shake them over  an inverted umbrella so take an umbrella open it   up flip it upside down and lay it underneath the  tree and shake it or you can wrap like a blanket   a towel or a tarp around the bottom to catch all  the berries I didn't mind it this year although   I think next year I might try the umbrella trip  because I think that that would be so much easier   realizing how many berries there are and how much  picking I ended up doing this year uh I think I'm   definitely going to find an easier way to collect  them for next year it still wasn't that time   intensive but it was a little bit time intensive  now in terms terms of maintenance for these guys I   watered them every 3 days or so during the hottest  part of our year and during our drought season so   during spring when I put them in every 3 days  when we got into summer before our rain started   it was every 3 days and then once our rains kind  of started and my sprinklers water them two days   a week I pretty much stopped watering them so  that was in probably August I completely stopped   watering them I never watered them since then and  they have done absolutely fine I don't treat them   for any pests whatsoever they get nothing and  for fertilizer in spring when I start to see   the buds forming for the the fruit I actually put  down my favorite fruit tree fertilizer which is   Job's fruit and citrus fertilizer that seems to  be like pretty much an all around good one for   all of the trees in my garden Citrus or otherwise  now this tree produced I believe I ended up with   10 one gallon size bags of berries and that wasn't  even all of them when I got towards the end of the   season I was just so sick of picking berries and  I was like what am I going to do with all of these   berries that I finally decided like okay that's it  the birds can have the rest and I I'm telling you   the birds were very very thankful we have seen  such an increase in the amount of birds in our   yard which some would say is a negative because  getting a lot of birds means that you're going to   be getting a lot of them trying to Peck your fruit  and stuff like that but giving them a tree to   focus on has made them super helpful in my garden  in fact they've become my little worm catchers I   have not had any issues with horn worms or with  um pickle worms that I normally have uh I think   it's because these new fruits that I'm allowing  them to have some and you know we're basically   sharing has allowed them to come into the yard  and they are picking up those bad insects as well   which is totally a win-win for both of us so being  as I had way too many bags this is just three but   I ended up with 10 by the time I'm done I think I  still have two more in the freezer that I'm going   to have to work on I decided I'm going to work on  three different recipes um this first one right   here I'm going to be making is a mulberry lemonade  concentrate so this is something that I can can   and I can use later um and I can just take a  third of each one of these jars pour it into   a pitcher add some water and it becomes mulberry  lemonade and then you can use put the rest in the   fridge and then just keep using um a third and a  third until you reach the full capacity of the jar   now the all these recipes are water bath canned  but I'm using my presto electric pressure caner   just because I'm using a large volume it does do  water bath canning I typically do most of my water   bath canning in just a regular pot but since I was  doing like a really big canning project this this   day I decided to just go ahead and pull it out and  use it so I put the jars in the presto electric   caner I filled them up with water 1 inch above the  jars I put it in the caner and I got it heated up   to kind of clean and sterilize those shards  the next step for the concentrate is to blend   up these berries now whenever I pick the berries  you can eat them fresh but I freeze them and so   I'm grinding up the frozen berries right here and  after I've ground them up I make sure that I have   four cups and then I'm going to take those four  cups of kind of frozen ground up mulberries and   I'm going to put them into a pot I'm putting them  in the pot so that that way I can heat it up cuz   everything needs to be heated up before it can go  in the jars and just to throw this out here this   is not a tested and approved recipe um I am basing  this recipe on a strawberry lemonade concentrate   that is tested and approved now this is risque  or controversial because mulberries technically   there are so many different kinds that you can't  be 100% sure is whether your variety that you have   particularly the thai dwarf is the one that I was  using here if it is acidic enough to compare to a   strawberry mulberries depending on where you  grow them the variety how much water they've   had all these things will you know change their  acidity level anywhere from I think it's like   3.8 to 5.2 and 4.6 I believe is a magic number  for canning water bath canning what I ended up   doing to make myself feel more comfortable and  I'm not encouraging you to do this but the thing   that I did that made me feel more comfortable is  I bought some pH testing strips and I tested my   ground up mulberries I tested the lemon juice and  then once this was combined I tested them together   to test what was the acidity levels and they all  came in right at like the 4.1 4.2 range so I felt   comfortable now I'm not going to say that this is  like a safe recipe this is not a tested recipe so   normally when you are testing acidity you are  using in the in the Laboratories you are using   complex Machinery these little tabs that I have  are not always considered 100% accurate but I felt   comfortable doing this understanding the variety  of Mulberry that I have testing the Mulberry ahead   of time and seeing that it was at a 4.4 already  I felt that with the amount of lemon juice I   was adding and with the fact that my mulberries  were or seem to be within that safe range that by   adding the lemon juice and having the acidity  tested I felt like it was okay if you're not   comfortable canning this absolutely fine you  can still make this and instead of canning   it you can actually put those jars in the freezer  and just defrost them whenever you want just like   the Frozen concentrated juice that you find in  the grocery store so back to the recipe we did   four cups of mulberries ground up and then we did  five cups of pure lemon juice or bottled lemon   juice I went and got Pure lemon juice and then I  did four cups of sugar I brought that up to not   a full boil but a simmer If You full boiled it  they might start to gel and create like a Jammer   of Jelly versus a concentrate so you don't want  to like full blown boil this stuff you just want   to get it to where the sugar melts and it heats up  properly then I'm going to spoon this into my jars   that I had taken out of my Presto electric caner  drained off the water and um now I'm putting the   concentrate in the jars I'm going to wipe off the  rims of the jars really good because this is very   sticky stuff between the berries and the sugar  this is very very very sticky so wipe off the jars   with some vinegar and a rag and then I'm going to  put brand new canning Tops on and then we're going   to put our rings on fingertip tip which just  basically means that they uh aren't screwed on   like He-Man but they're not loose either usually  about a quarter term past what you can do uh where   you can do it with one hand then I'm going to put  them into the presto electric pressure caner I'm   not pressure canning these I'm water bath canning  them so there is a step that you have to do when   you put the lid on that you take the regulator off  so that it can properly water bath can and so we   put that lid on and that little black little piece  at the top there I ended up taking off we seal it   and then we put it for 15 minutes you can see that  little black piece is gone now so then we let it   process for 15 minutes I pull it out and I'm going  to let it rest on the counter here for 24 hours   and make sure all my seals uh sealed properly and  they all did I was very very happy with this batch   to use it you take a third of the jar and you put  it in a pitcher and then you add water to the rest   of the jar mix it up really good it can just be  cold water and then to serve it I just add some   ice and then my mulberry lemonade now what I  would have done differently in the future is   I would have strained out the mulberries because  when you get towards the bottom of the glass jar   the pitcher you do get some of the seeds and I  don't mind that so much but if that's something   that you don't like and something that I may not  I I probably won't do that in the future now the   next recipe we're going to be making is fruit  leather so I'm taking some more of my frozen   mulberries and I'm going to grind them up using  my food processor I'm once again doing four cups   of the Frozen ground up mulberries once they're  ground up I'm going to put them in a pot so that   I can get them to go from Frozen to a more liquid  state I'm just going to heat it up slowly in the   stove for a few minutes then what I'm going to do  is I'm going to take two cups of lemon juice now   this isn't something that's going to be canned so  you can use fresh lemons if you'd rather or you   can use orange juice or you can use grape juice  apple juice pretty much whatever juice you want   I went with lemon because I had some lemon juice  um but I think in the it made it very very tart I   think in the future I would do an orange juice or  an apple juice because I think that that would add   to the sweetness now what I'm doing is I'm adding  five tablespoons of pectin the pectin is what's   really going to help get that texture that you  like from a fruit leather you know that that kind   of sticky flexible uh texture if you don't use the  pectin it will kind of come out more like crisp   so adding the pectin and then I blend it up with  the lemon juice or whatever juice you prefer and   then I'm going to pour that into my pot of um  mulberries that have been kind of cooking here   on the stove for just a couple minutes then I'm  just going to Stir It Up really good you can see   how pretty it is a dark dark red the next step  is I got to put in my dehydrator now I think this   would be so much easier putting in a dehydrator  that was completely flat I have this little   circle in the center and I've kind of learned  through this process that it it's actually best   maybe to use plastic wrap instead of parchment  paper the parchment paper did okay but the the   fruit leather really sticks to parchment paper  the second round I did a second round of this   I ended up going with plastic wrap in well I'm  not super excited about using plastic wrap and a   dehydrator because it's heating up plastic right  and that just seems weird to me I'd rather use   the paper the paper is very very hard to deal with  afterwards it's very hard to get the fruit leather   off of it the second round that I did with the  plastic wrap worked a lot better it was easier   to put the liquid fruit leather in there it was  easier to peel the leather off it just was all   around much easier but I do got to figure out I  might end up going with silicone flat trays but   then I would have to upgrade my dehydrator to  just a straight flat dehydrator versus the one   with the the thing in the center and those tend to  be more expensive so I don't know maybe I'll find   something that is workable for mine or maybe I'll  get some silicone trays or flats that I can cut   into the shape of my dehydrator so then all I do  is I roll it up and then I take some scissors and   I cut them into bite-sized pieces you can put them  into a jar at this point or into a baggie I like   the jar just because they're just going to keep  longer and these do not have to be refrigerator   because they're dehydrated at 140 for about 20  I think it was like 140 for about 12 hours maybe   18 I think it was 12 to 18 hours and it depends on  the thickness now this this first round that I did   was very very thick the second round I did when I  used the actual plastic wrap was much thinner and   it seemed to work out a lot better um the thinner  seemed to be easier to cut seemed easier to come   off the plastic wrap and it it seemed seem to um  dehydrate a lot faster it was more towards that   12 hours our last recipe is going to be canning  some Mulberry pie filling once again this is not   a tested recipe I am Breaking All the Rules I'm  definitely doing some rebel canning these days but   once again I I tested my pH I feel comfortable  with it I am not saying that you know you have   to do it this way you can do this pie filling and  you can freeze it or you can make the pie filling   fresh and then use it in a pie that day put it in  a pie shell and freeze the whole pie shell there's   a lot of ways that you can do this if you're  not comfortable with canning it I measured out   14 cups of my frozen mulberries and then I put  them in this colander with a bowl underneath to   catch the liquid cuz what you're trying to do is  use some of this liquid for the uh pie filling I   did not do this correctly you know I've never  done pie filling before and there's something   called clear gel that you should use to create  that thickness of the pie filling instead of   corn starch especially if you're canning I'd  never done it before so I didn't exactly know   the right way to do this and the right way to do  this would have been to take the liquid that came   off of my berries which I had about four cups  of the berries liquid not the berries yet but   just the liquid that had drained off and then you  take your lemon juice which I believe was one cup   of lemon juice and then you take uh another four  cups of water if you get a full eight cups of the   juice cool that is all you'll need but I didn't  get a full eight cups now what I had done was I   put the clear gel according to the instructions  of the quantity into the liquid before the liquid   was hot and that's not what you're supposed to  do what you're supposed to do is you're supposed   to get the Liquid all hot add your sugar add your  lemon juice and then add your clear gel when you   add your sugar when it's boiling I didn't do this  so it made for a lot of stirring and a very thick   consistency it was very very hard to work with um  so definitely wait to add the clear gel until you   know it's boiling and you're ready to add your  sugar that's when you would add your clear gel   I'm going to put the recipe down the description  because I can't remember exactly how much sugar I   added I think it might have been four cups and  then I'm just going to mix that in really good   this would have been the right Point once it  started boiling to add my shirt my clear gel   but I didn't it's actually in there right now and  it gets almost difficult to manage and use later   on so here's that one cup of lemon juice that  I should have ADD earlier I added an additional   four cups of water because my juice had only  produced um four cups instead of the full eight   cups and then I get that all mixed together once  it is boiling you have it to the right thickness   from the clear gel that's when you're going to  add your mulberries and you add them at the very   end so that that way they don't break apart you  want the berries to kind of Stay Together the   only way to do that is to add it at the very very  end so here's all the mulberries that I'm adding   and then I'm just going to gently mix them in once  they're all mixed in I'm going to add them to the   jars these have once again gone through the Presto  electric caner to be uh heated up and sterilized   and they're going to go into a water bath caner  the problem I found with canning pie filling I   don't know if it's a mulberry problem or if it's  how I did the the clear gel I'm not sure but I did   two rounds of this because I had a serious problem  with a lot of jars not sealing properly because   the the pie filling siphoned out and I left a  good 1 in here but that was not good enough in   the subsequent round that I did of second set  of caner I did 1 and 1/2 in and that seemed to   be just right by doing 1 and 1/2 in of head space  on these versus 1 in it uh helped make sure that   they did not siphon and that they didn't expand so  much that all that stickiness got underneath the   lid so I ended up having to do this process twice  I learned a lot about canning pie filling uh this   round it was something that I struggled through  but uh we got it right in the end after the second   batch so I processed these for 30 minutes and  boiling water in my Presto caner and here they are   coming out believe this was my second round the  first round if you would have seen that come out   it had nothing but red juice inside the caner it  was it was definitely a problem and as they cooled   it expanded even more to where a lot of the seals  popped off so it was not my best canning day but   we did get those I took the seal off them I clean  them up I put new seals on them and I reprocessed   them a second time and they turned out wonderful  I'm really excited to have all of these you can   see how much space there is on that one but you  can as compared to this one but I'm really excited   to have all these on the Shelf to make pie filling  in the future to make my lemonade my mulberry   lemonade to have these fruit leather snacks it's  been such an enjoyable process growing this tree   and processing these berries into just seeing how  much food they produce thanks so much for hanging   out with me today and learning all about the best  fruit tree in the yard which is a mulberry make   sure to head down and give me a thumbs up  if you like this video Happy gardening guys [Music]

Channel: Homegrown Florida

Views: 106,206

Keywords: homegrown florida, florida gardening, southern gardening, vegetable gardening, urban gardening, gardening

Id: _72sDmJ0ryc

Length: 25min 54sec (1554 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 01 2024