under mulberry trees. The mulch should not touch the stem as this may lead to rotting. Mulberry trees thrive with little to no fertilizer. Fertilizing more than twice a year should be avoided and fertilizing later than July may lead to freeze damage. An NPK value of 10-10-10 is targeted and depending on the available nutrients in the soil, other nutrients like iron should be added. Usually, the red mulberry is free from pests and diseases but in some areas the “popcorn disease” may occur. In that case, infected fruits should be collected and burned, to prevent the pathogens population to reproduce and survive for the next season. If cultivated for fruits, male and female plants must be grown, if a monoecious variety is chosen. However, there are also dioecious varieties. To harvest the fruit, branches are usually shaken and the fruit collected manually. Yield Mulberries yield wood for timber, with an average 10-15 m height and diameter of 50 cm. The timber volume is 0.962 m³ to 1.435 m³. Mulberry wood has the same quality as oak, which can be sold for 90-150 euro per m3. Nevertheless, to achieve a quantity of 1m3, we should have to take down the whole tree, which can be counterproductive in the case of fruit production. Nevertheless, the wood from the trimming can still be used as firewood and the biggest parts for furniture or turned objects. An additional yield of 8–12 tons/acre/year (20–30 tons/hectare/year) can be achieved with the littler parts and the leaves which serve as forage. Only 2 to 3 years after whip cultivar plantation, the tree should already start to fruit. The yields of fruits should reach 3 to 5 kg (per tree per year) on the first years until 300 kg for a mature tree. Economic aspects In 2015, almost 3.4 million pounds of frozen mulberries were imported to the US – a market value of 2.6 million US-Dollars. The demand for the fruit is still rising and the prices are high. This constitutes a great opportunity for mulberry producers. It takes ten years from the seedling stage, until a mulberry tree bears fruit. Thus, for the decision of building up a mulberry orchard, one needs to estimate not the current demand but the market potential of ten years later. This involves more risk and long-term planning. However, there are grafted varieties that produce fruit earlier and reduce