Mulberry — white sweet (shahtoot sufaid)

Sweet white shahtoot (Morus alba var. dulcis, shahtoot sufaid) is the long-fruited dessert selection of white mulberry—the pale, finger-length berry children strip off roadside trees across northern Pakistan every June. Where the wild white mulberry is grown for fodder and silk, this one is bred for the fruit: honey-sweet, low in acid, and produced in heavy hanging clusters. Plant it for a generous, kid-friendly early-summer crop on a tree that asks almost nothing of you.

Where it thrives

This selection carries the same toughness as the parent species. It does well through the KPK hills and the Punjab plains, taking a wide swing of cold and heat, drought once established, and indifferent soil that would stall a stone fruit.¹ Like all mulberries it wants full sun—six to eight hours—to set good fruit, and it grows fast in its first years.² The one thing to respect is drainage: any reasonably drained ground suits it, but it should not sit in standing water. It is more forgiving of poor and dry sites than the black shahtoot, which is why it carries the warmer, drier plains so easily.

Role in the system

Slot white shahtoot into the secondary stratum as a dual-purpose tree—fruit first, fodder second. It shares its parent’s defining habit: it coppices and pollards readily, so a tree grown mainly for fruit can still surrender a fodder cut from its prunings, and the high-protein leaf feeds livestock and the chop-and-drop layer alike.²³ But the priority is the crop, so keep cutting light if you want berries. It is self-fertile and wind-pollinated, fruiting alone, and its window is early—late spring into early summer, ahead of most orchard fruit, ripening over several weeks rather than all at once. In the canopy it sits below the climax trees, casting light shade, drawing birds, and dropping soft leaf litter that builds soil. As a vigorous secondary it also nurses slower neighbours while they establish.

Growing it

Three decisions matter. First, propagation: take hardwood cuttings or buy cutting-grown stock of the named sweet long-fruit type—seedlings vary wildly and many give small, dull berries. Second, the fruit-versus-fodder balance: prune lightly and structurally if you want the crop, harder if you want leaf, but do not try to maximise both on one tree. Third, spacing and reach: give a fruiting tree 4–5 m and head it low or train it so you can pick—an unpruned mulberry quickly grows beyond a ladder. Water to establish; thereafter it largely looks after itself.

What you get

Heavy crops of sweet, mild white berries over a multi-week early window—eaten fresh, dried into a long-keeping sweet snack (a northern-Pakistan staple), or fed to livestock and poultry. Plus fodder from the prunings and durable timber from old wood. The economics are domestic and farm-gate: abundant fruit that rarely reaches market because it bruises, so its value is on-farm and sold close to home.

Sourcing notes

Insist on a named long-fruit sweet selection on its own roots or grafted; avoid generic seedlings if the fruit is the point. It companions well above a moisture-holding herbaceous or legume guild and below a high climax canopy, and pairs naturally with the black shahtoot to stretch the mulberry season across colours and sites.

Sources

1. Heuzé, V. et al. (Feedipedia). “White mulberry (Morus alba) — ecology and drought tolerance.” INRAE, CIRAD, AFZ & FAO.
2. Orwa, C. et al. (2009). “Morus alba — AgroforesTree Database.” World Agroforestry (ICRAF).
3. Feedipedia. “White mulberry (Morus alba) — fodder value.” INRAE, CIRAD, AFZ & FAO.