True Fibers

Before you can even think about raising silk, it is necessary to have mulberry. And lots of it. Estimates are that it takes twelve full grown, pollarded trees to raise one pound of silk each year. Or, 200 bushes, three years old. These fit in about the same space as twelve trees, but are easier to pick.

White mulberry, morus alba, is considered the best food source. Worldwide, this is the species that is planted specifically for silk raising. However, I've successfully used Red mulberry, morus rubra, and Black mulberry, morus nigra. The only mulberry variety whose leaves I know the worms won't eat is the thick and hairy pendant fruitless mulberry. But fruitless mulberries whose leaves are thin, like normal mulberry, are fine.

Silkworms are the ultimate in picky. They simply won't eat anything but mulberry leaves. Some books claim they'll eat lettuce, but they won't. It is very frustrating should one run out of leaves, because they really won't eat anything else. Why this should be is a curiosity. One year I raised a few worms outside on a bush on my porch. When the caterpillars went to spin, they wrapped themselves in the underside of a mulberry leaf. Mulberry leaves are big, flexible and soft. They thus provide camouflage for the cocoon. Possibly silkworms evolved to eat only mulberry, because those who spun on mulberry were better shielded from predators. Thus they survived preferentially, and eventually evolved into a species that ate nothing else.

So it is necessary to have lots of mulberry. To plant lots of mulberry and to grow lots of mulberry. Even if you think you might only maybe like to raise a little silk, someday, it is wise to plant of mulberry. Plant it now, and plant lots of it. The worst thing is to raise up your caterpillars to their last stage, when they really start eating and really start to make silk, and then you run out of leaves.

Since this is very likely to happen, (one cannot believe how much they grow and eat in their last 10 days as caterpillars), it is wise to scout out at least one mature tree within driving distance that you can harvest from in a pinch. Leaves harvested at a distance will keep about a week. They should be loosely packed in plastic bags and kept cool. This preserves them better than standing shoots in water. As cut shoots in water they begin to wilt almost immediately, and keep only a few days. Picked in the cool of the morning, placed in plastic bags and stored in the refrigerator, leaves can stay edible for as long as two weeks.