Mulberry FROM CUTTINGS

 

 

When reading posts on mulberries, one name keeps popping up.

 

 

This lady with her bottomless pit of knowledge is Ms. Wisteria Lesley.

I saw her posts in Green Culture Singapore and Urban Farmers (Singapore) quite by accident.

Pictures of her lush plentiful mulberries caught my attention.

I don’t think I ever taste one before or seen these sold in supermarkets!

 

 

 

The color of ripe is BLACK for the red mulberries varieties.

Fully ripen, these are very sweet fruits.

 

 

Leaves to brew for tea or dry for tea leaves to store.

 

 

Constant trimming to bald stumps after each harvest made for healthier plants and better fruits yields constantly.

New shoots would grow on the stumps and after only a few weeks, flowers showed.

She often sells her tree-sized (thick) cutting (unrooted) in gardening communities for a reasonable price.

 

 

 

Flowers showed on the bald stump after every hard pruning.

 

 

Flowers can show on cutting even before roots appeared in new cutting as it sits in water.

 

 

On the mature plants, flowers will show in three weeks after a hard prune.

 

 

Flowers are self-pollinating.

 

 

Ms. Lesley has three mulberry trees and they began their journey in 2008.

For bald stem cuttings like this picture, it is best to root them in freshwater until leaves and “good roots mass” appeared.

 

 

 

 

 

These can be planted in a minimum of 15 cm diameter pot until they are more established.

 

 

Mulberries can be planted in pots or grounded.

Her trees are planted in the ground.

When their roots became root bound, they coiled around soil instead of the pot.

This plant would pop up of the pot when pressed gently on the soil.

A sure sign that it is ready to move to a bigger pot or be grounded!

 

 

SG STRAWBERRIES JOURNAL

Began on July 19 2016 from cutting.

Each cutting was stripped of leaves and pruned down (made shorter) for the rooting process (in plain water).

Roots did not show but fruits developed.

 

FRUITS CAN show WITHOUT ROOTS! 

 

 

 

We decided to plant our cutting without roots and surprisingly they established well in containers without them.

We grew them in our own compost mixed with sand.

 

 

These plants grew better in the ground and can be very tall plants with a thick stem, but are possible in large pots as well.

However, for better fruits yield and size, they were best grounded with as much direct full sun for as long as possible.

When there was an inadequate sun, these plants took a long time to fruit no matter what we do.

In the beginning for our plants, they grew only leaves and become taller.

We constantly pruned them down or as advised, bend (and tie) the thin stems to gain more access to sun heat.

 

OBSERVATION – HARDER TO FRUIT IF NOT ENOUGH SUN

 

 

The first sign of fruits in July 2017.

 

 

Yield and size of fruits seem to increase over the years, in shaded gardens.

The darker the berries, the sweeter they were.

 

 

Our fruits were not very big or plentiful but we were nonetheless, very grateful to be able to harvest them at all.

 

 

 

Information from http://www.gardenguides.com/ :

• Full Sun
• Ground depth should be minimum the same height as the sapling and twice the size of its root ball
• At maturity, this is a medium size tree, 20 -30 feet
• Water well after transplant
• Slightly acidic soil, PH 6.0
• Adaptable in zones 5 – 9