Some mulberry trees I have seen seem to have that 'bent over' sort of look, with hanging branches.. I have one in my yard that is around 30 years old and has a serious over hang that extends at least 15 feet out way from the trunk in one direction (toward sunlight)
Not sure if it is normal though..
J

I see that you tried hard to verbally describe the situation, but a picture would probably REALLY help. Any possibility of posting at least one or two pics?

I will try and upload some pics first thing tmrw morning..

I have 2 red maples (Red Sunsets) and they were a little bit bent at the top so sooner Plant Farm told me I could CAREFULLY bend them straight and he told me how, by gently grabbing the trunk and slowly bending them back. He said nurseries do it all the time. I un-bended the trees last year, and it was nerve wracking for me! But it worked! And they have been perfectly straight since, and they even went un-staked this winter, and even with 60 mph winds a few times they remained straight and tall. Btw, they are about 7 feet tall now. They were 5 feet last year when I did this.

since there are weeping mulberry.. w/o a pic.. there can be no solution ...

check out the link

BTW ... a perfectly straight tree.. is more of a man made concept.. rather than what happens in nature .... especially in a babe ...

when this thing.. presuming its not a weeper.. is 30 feet tall ... whatever bend it has today.. is not really going to be all that important ....

and i doubt it will break.. simply due to bending.. trees bend.. flex.. and blow in the wind .. and take 99% of it all w/o a problem .... and usually grow to compensate for such when it is naturally occurs ... its when we start forcing an aesthetic/preconceived notion on it when real problems begin ..

lets see the pix

ken

Here is a link that might be useful: link

I cant figure out how to put pix on here. So for now no pix

So here are the pics of the mulberry tree. I hope it shows what im talking about.

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its been growing like that for at least 5 years ... why is it an issue now???

did you pay to have it installed??? personally i would not have bought that tree ...

i say no ... it can not be straightened.. well.. it can.. but then all the branches will be on one side ....

i would enjoy it for what it is.. rather than force it into some other shape ..

ken

In my opinion, straightening that tree is definitely not practical. I agree that it's not the "ideal" form, but the bend will become less and less noticeable as the tree grows. I'd leave it (the bend) alone and possible do a little balancing pruning. As Ken said, enjoy it for what it is.

Who planted that tree? Where's the root flare? And, why is the water dam so high?

That tree is planted all WRONG! You have literally asphyxiated the rootflare! When you plant a tree the root flare must be seen. Google image what a root flare looks like. This is an emergency! Dig the tree up ASAP! It's a would-be telephone pole! Trees are not telephone poles, and shouldn't be placed in the ground as such.

Oh, my God, that poor poor tree suffering. Breaks my heart!

Brambi24, Below is a link to instructions about how to plant a tree. The two things that would concern me most is if the root system was potbound or girdling roots were present and that wasn't addressed at planting (see section 3 in the article), and, if the root system was planted significantly below where it should have been (see sections 4 & 5 in the article). Since the tree was only recently planted, now would be the time to correct either of these issues.

Here is a link that might be useful: Planting a Tree or Shrub