Mulberries

It has been almost four weeks since I got the mulberry plant from JEM NTUC Fairprice. The plant had a lot of small green berries when I bought it. After I acclimatised the plant in partial shade to full sunlight, the plant has gradually regained its glory. I did a prune to get rid of the heavier branches and put the cuttings into soil to propagate more mulberry plants.

It is amazing to see the little green berries growing bigger and longer each day and turning from green to red and then to dark purple. The first two berries I tasted were a bit sour. After four weeks, I tasted another two dark purple berries but this time they were longer and bigger. They felt a bit soft. I washed them and put them into my mouth. Wow!!! They are very sweet. This plant is a keeper!

On the left, ready to eat (dark purple)

I would strongly recommended people to get the mulberry plant and they will be able to have organic and pesticide free mulberries year round. They are fresh and definitely you will be able to control the ripeness of the berries. However, mulberry plant or tree needs full sun to grow properly. If you don't have the condition to grow it, I don't recommend that you buy them. It will be a waste of money.

Once my cuttings are growing well, I will definitely repot the current plant into a bigger pot. However, I will not be getting sunlight at the balcony from April to September. So, I hope that from now to March, the mulberry plant can grow bigger and hopefully can withstand the period that there is no direct sunlight. Keeping my fingers crossed!

Mulberry Cuttings

As mentioned in my Mulberry Plant post, the mulberry's branches were getting heavier and I had cut them away and stuck them into a pot of soil together with my other cuttings from lemon tree, avocado tree, soursop tree and custard apple tree.

I placed all the cuttings into a bigger pot because I have no idea whether they will root or not. I don't have that many pots to place cuttings into individual pots. The only thing is that I need to remember the soursop and custard apple cuttings because they looked alike. I didn't use rooting hormone because I don't think it is necessary. I have tried using rooting hormone but it is not 100% that the cutting will root. I used a transparent plastic bag to cover the pot to keep the soil moist.

Mulberry cuttings

I will wait till new shoots or leaves to appear before transplanting to individual pots. But I know I will need to be careful not to damage any roots during transplanting.

Mulberry Plant

I got a mulberry plant before Christmas 2016. I saw it in the plant section of the JEM NTUC Fairprice. It is near to the fruit section.

I was curious when I saw the green berries on the plant and didn't know what they were. I checked the label on the pot and it said "Mulberry". It was selling for $7.90. There were three pots. I selected one out of three pots. A lady standing behind me was saying to her partner that she wanted to buy the plant and the berries are edible. Her partner just simply brushed her away and moved to another section.

I knew that it was a surprise to find mulberry plant in the supermarket and I didn't want to go to any local nurseries to try to find one. So, I decided to buy it.

There were many green berries on the plant and none was ripe yet. Some green berries were quite small and I thought they would develop over times. Went to the internet to research on the mulberry and confirmed that they are edible. Another thing on the pollination, it doesn't require any human touch. So, the berries will grow by its own. Cool!

Mulberry Plant

I wouldn't call it a tree yet because it is still small. I hope that it will grow bigger and in a couple of months, I will repot it into a bigger pot. Right now, I did a bit of trimming/pruning because the branches were getting heavier. I removed about a third of the branches and stuck them into a pot of soil. Hopefully after three weeks, I can see new shoots growing from the cuttings.

I placed the plant in full sun for at least 6 hours per day. Of course, I water it every morning and maybe a little bit in the evening.

The green berries started to turn to red gradually. I noticed that when the berry turned into full red, it will take about a day to turn to purple. When it is dark purple, I will pluck it. I just wash it and then into my mouth. The mulberry has a bit of sweetness.

Mulberry turning red

Red and purple mulberries

You will see the purple mulberry near the center of the above photo (center, slightly left). It is ripe and ready to be eaten. I was careful not to let the ripen mulberry to drop to the floor. When it is squashed, the purple stain is hard to get rid of.

Does money grow on trees?

My daughter drawn on a paper and wrote this:

Money=Paper=Tree

She said that money is made from paper and paper is made from tree...

I told her, maybe... if you plant fruit trees and have fruits, you can sell them. Maybe you have some rare plants that other people may need, you can give them for a small token. Maybe you have a good rootstock and grafted many different varieties on the tree, you can then sell it.