Reptile & Amphibian Forums

All six of the babies are doing great (our one three-toed and our five surprise easterns). Some are eating now, but all are still very secretive.

Our pens have gotten their new trees. We got tiny trees to plant, a fig, a white mulberry (no berry staining) and two paw-paw trees. All will eventually drop fruit into the pens. Regular maintenance in them is helping them mature better, hopefully the grass takes nicely soon in them.

The pond is about half dug. It's taken me at least 16 hours of digging, and my wife helped for about 5, but I'm closing in. It will be done for winter so my aquatics (spotteds, muds, woods) can hibernate in it.

I have some photos of the pens, newly set up and all, with their fresh landscaping, and I have photos of the pond hole, I just need to get them all uploaded. I will try and do so soon.

Nathan sound really nice - where did you get your trees? Probably have different sources than I do here in So. Ca.

Bill

http://www.ediblelandscaping.com/

But I can see they don't ship a lot of things to CA for some reason... but maybe they'll have what you want.

About white mulberries...
Morus alba, or white or common mulberry...Not an indicator of berry color, necessarily.
No guarantee you'll have white berries and hence no staining.
From my textbook "Manual of Woody Landscape Plants" by Michael Dirr (U.GA.), I quote:
"FRUIT: Multiple fruit of small, fleshy drupes, white, pinkish, red or purplish violet, sweet but insipid, 1/2 to 1" long, June to July somewhat similar in size and shape to a blackberry; birds love them and create fantastic messes because of cathartic properties."

They're called “white” mulberries because (if I remember correctly) the flower is white.

One more thing, mulberry trees have gender. In order to have fruit, you have to have at least one male tree (somewhere in the neighborhood, and upwind at that) and one or more female trees.

from this site:
http://www.ediblelandscaping.com/

Beautiful Day: Very sweet pure white fruit. Great for drying and eating fresh. Original tree growing in College Park, MD. Mature height 25’–30’. Zones 6-8.

Are you sure about the male female thing? I can't find that anywhere and I tried looking around (that's why I have two pawpaw's, just so they can pollinate each other)

Not to get too technical, but here goes:
Flowers are reproductive organs of plants and have both male and female parts, or, in some cases, flowers may have only one 'gender'.
To further complicate things, some plants have flowers with characteristics of only one 'gender', but both 'gender' flowers on the same plant.
THEN, you have plants that will have flowers of ONLY one 'gender' per individual plant.
Hollies are a good example of this. Female hollies won't produce berries unless there is a male holly in the vicinity.
Mulberries also fall into this category, but can also have male and female flowers on the same plant.
When purchasing fruiting plants, always make sure you have a "mate", or you might not get the fruit you hoped for.

Probably more than you ever cared to know about the sexlife of your fruits & berries.

I spent some of yesterday afternoon looking around... I found reference to mulberries being self-fertile three times, but that was all the reference I could find to it going either way. I did also read about many people with mulberry trees, who only have one, and it producing crazy amounts of berries. This holds with my own experience with our neighbors tree in Maryland. There wasn't another mulberry at least within 300 yards of it (you could see around there easily) and it would stain the grass purple.

In any case, I'm pretty well versed in plants, it's just specifics of some species that get me, most specifically in cultivars and things where stuff gets all wacky (apple cultivars are a nightmare... match up flowering times with multiple species, etc.). Red cedar also has male-female, as well as Ginko (the only deciduous conifer that exists, I think).

My paw paws are going to be a pain. They require two trees, but have only a single flower. The pollinators for them are flys, beetles, and ONE kind of butterfly (which is not native to our area). Flys and beetles are not good pollinators though. I read that some people pollinate with a paint brush, others hang meat in their trees to attract flies (ew!).

Anyway, it'll be several years before there's anything going on fruit wise back there. Right now all the trees are about a foot tall. I can't wait until spring, though. There's a solid acre of flat field that I'm going to COVER in fruiting plants.

There wouldn't have to be one close by. It could be a mile away.Insects will travel some distance if need be.
Its recommended that a partner be planted nearby as insurance, in case there isn't another in the neighborhood.
And, for the trivia department:
Baldcypress and Common Larch are also deciduous conifers.
Baldcypress is a very cool tree that would do well where you are.

Stephanie

I've seen lots of baldcyprus near us in the wet areas. We are up on a hill top, though, and don't have any standing water on the property (other than in the turtle water dishes and soon in the new liner pond). Heck, even puddles are gone fast, and are few to begin with. I wouldn't think they would do well without more water, and they don't make FOOD!
I may go ahead and add another mulberry on the property. Do you think they could pollinate with another variety? I'd consider one of the purple varieties, but only at the far front or back of the property (about 300 feet away). Otherwise, it has to be the white fruited, like this one, to avoid stains on everything from bird poop and shoes tracking it inside. Nothing stains quite like mulberry!

There is probably another in your area that would be close enough, or you could get another and plant it at the edge of your property.
I have no literature indicating that you would need a particular variety to pollinate the one you have, probably because they have a fairly long blooming period, and therefore have a longer window.
Some other plant don't bloom for very long periods and that's when it becomes critical to have partner plants that bloom at the same time, vs. say, three weeks later.
Apples get even more complicated so I won't get into that here...

I assume that you have a liner of some kind to keep the water in the pond, so it doesn't soak out down into the ground.

Also, I strongly suggest an air stone in the pond over the winter (actually, I keep mine going all year long). This greatly helps the turtles have more efficient cloacal respiration.

It will have a liner by the time it is complete... still digging!