Mulling over the mulberry plant

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A pair of mulberries on the plant from Novice Gardener ...the day before a bird discovered (and ate) them

A pair of mulberries on the plant from Novice Gardener …the day before a bird discovered (and ate) them…

It’s been three years since I first introduced the mulberry plant to our garden, and the main thing I’ve learned about it is that it likes tough love.

You don’t have to coddle it and feed it constantly with fertilizers.

You can transplant it, breaking the tap root, and it will keep growing with gusto once it has recovered from the shock. I’ve done this a few times…

If you want it to produce fruits more often, you have to prune it ruthlessly. Me, I haven’t quite reached “ruthless” yet, but I do trim away the greenery fairly regularly.

It does need sufficient water, which I’ve been a bit negligent about, at times – and that’s why it’s probably best if I let it take root in the garden.

A visual comparison of the fruit from the first mulberry plant on the left, and Novice Gardener's plant on the right. What a difference in size!

A visual comparison of the fruit from our first mulberry plant on the left, and Novice Gardener’s plant on the right. The one on the left is like a Tic-Tac while the one on the right is almost the size of a jellybean. What a difference in size!

I recently came across a video on YouTube about propagating the mulberry plant (go to around 1:13 for a close up of the clusters of fruits). What caught my attention was the mulberry tree in the video – it was absolutely loaded with fruits!

The mulberry tree in our neighbourhood...

The mulberry tree in our neighbourhood…

This made me take a closer look at the mulberry tree in the neighbourhood – it really is a tree, at least 3 to 5 metres high. It recently was in season, and had quite a number of clusters of fruits.

One of the fruit clusters on the neighbourhood mulberry tree

One of the fruit clusters on the neighbourhood mulberry tree

If our plants produce these numbers of fruits, I’d plant them out to grow in the garden – but I would have to remember to prune them to keep them at a suitable height. Hmm… I suppose I could start with one test case first…

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Cucumber tales

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We have a cute short variety of cucumber growing in our garden – but like the length of the fruit, the life span is not long either. That’s why it irks me whenever we don’t harvest the cucumbers in time. If you’ve grown cukes, you’ll know how the fruits tend to get lost in the foliage unless you really look for them at least every other day.

This is why we harvest cucumbers when they're younger - look at these well developed seeds in an old cucumber!

This is why we harvest cucumbers when they’re younger – look at these well developed seeds in an old cucumber!

Last December, one such fruit slipped my notice until it had started yellowing on the vine. I was rather frustrated and broke it open after plucking it, just to see how seedy it was. Well, the seeds inside were already nicely formed and rather hard, so I decided to bury them right back into the soil there and then. You know me and my experimental tendencies…

What we've been getting in the cucumber trough - new plants sprouting at different times. This is successive planting done Nature's way!

What we’ve been getting in the cucumber trough – new plants sprouting at different times. This is successive planting done Nature’s way!

I was a little disappointed not to have a little forest of seedlings in the subsequent weeks, but a few seeds did sprout…

This little forest of seedlings happened with my first round of growing cucumbers 3 years ago, when I discarded an old cucumber in a corner of the garden, where it decomposed, and to my surprise, left these seedlings behind.

This little forest of seedlings happened with my first round of growing cucumbers 3 years ago, when I discarded an old cucumber in a corner of the garden, where it decomposed, and to my surprise, left these seedlings in its wake.

Being the rainy season then, the snails were out in force, and only a few plants grew and became fruitful. What surprised me is that, since sowing those seeds, we still get the odd couple of sprouts – even to today! So there are a few cucumber plants growing in the same trough, but at different stages of growth.

The cycle of nature in progress - new fruits growing on the vine.

The cycle of nature in progress – new fruits growing on the vine today.

This was an unexpected but definitely not unwelcome result of my impulsive seed-sowing half a year ago, because I haven’t had to bother about sowing new seeds for the next generation for months!

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Angled loofah update

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The latest angled loofah fruit, very visible as it hangs from the horizontal part of the trellis.

The latest angled loofah fruit, very visible as it hangs from the horizontal part of the trellis.

Not to gloat – but I guess maybe I am – but a third fruit has set on the Aussie angled loofah vine! This baby is dangling from the horizontal part of the trellis that I dubbed “Phase 2” about a month ago.

The first two fruits are growing bigger…

The first ketola that set in this round of fruiting, still growing nice and straight.

The first ketola that set in this round of fruiting, still growing nice and straight.

The second angled loofah fruit that I originally called sturdy, but now consider misshapen...

The second angled loofah fruit that I originally called sturdy, but now consider misshapen…

I think one of the most important things to do to keep these fruits happy is to make sure these plants get enough water. As usual, our weather has been quite unpredictable, with clouds that roll in, threatening to rain, but then float off without shedding a drop. And it is approaching the hot time of year with temperatures moving up towards the mid-30s. Since I can never tell whether or not the weather will cooperate, I just have to check how dry the soil is in the morning, and decide whether or not to water the plants before I leave. Sometimes I do the right thing, and other times, my gambles don’t pay off – it doesn’t rain when I don’t water, or it rains after I water… :|

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Return of the yellow ladybug

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The first yellow ladybug of this year (that I've seen, anyway)

The first yellow ladybug of this year (that I’ve seen, anyway)

I’ve been wondering whether the loofah plants would bring back the yellow ladybugs, and they have.

These little fellas seem to feed on powdery mildew on cucurbit plants, and I last saw them on our previous angled loofah plants – incidentally, growing in the same location.

The yellow ladybug larvae is a lighter colour than its red cousins, which are predominantly black. The shape is the same, though, so don't kill them if you see them on your plants - they are busily eating pests you may not see immediately.

The yellow ladybug larvae is a lighter colour than its red cousins, which are predominantly black. The shape is the same, though, so don’t kill them if you see them on your plants – they are busily eating pests you may not see immediately.

At first, there was just the one ladybug. A few days later, I spotted tiny ladybug larvae on several leaves. I don’t know if this ladybug lays its eggs in a cluster like the red ladybug, or singly, but there seemed to be just one larvae per leaf. Maybe they had been in a cluster but had spread out – I don’t know. What I do know is that I’m going to have fun watching these little fellas grow bigger, go into cocoon mode, then hatch into adult yellow ladybugs.

Here’s my last post following them through their life cycle.

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