I was shopping for groceries at the JEM NTUC Fairprice when I noticed little green "caterpillar liked" things on a small plant. The things looked hairy and didn't appear to be flowers. Upon close examination, it appeared to be some kinds of berries. I wasn't sure what it was. I looked at the label on the pot and it said "Mulberry". It was priced at $7.90. I googled and found out that mulberry is edible when ripe. Interesting. I was curious how the mulberry developed the berries since I didn't see any flowers. The tiny hair liked structures on the berries seemed to be the one that developed the berries. Cool, I think!
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| Caterpillar liked berries |
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| Mulberry Plant @ $7.90 |
Well, I grabbed the one that looked the healthiest. I was buying something that I had not planted before. I wanted something that is easy to take care and at the end provided abundant amount of fruits. I was really excited and couldn't wait for the little green berries to grow bigger and longer. I acclimatised the plant by placing it in partial shade and then gradually in full direct sunlight. The plant is doing well and some of the green berries started to turn to red. Wait a minute, it seemed to me that the berries were quite small to me. I think that placing them in full sun had accelerated the berries turning red. Oh no... I saw two berries had turned from red to dark purple. I took a leap of faith and washed the berries. I ate them. They had a bit of sourness in them but generally they tasted good. I waited for a couple of hours and nothing bad happened to me. So, they are edible. I was excited.
After a couple of weeks, I cut the long branches away and placed the cuttings into soil to try to propagate them. I believed that by pruning away the branches, it would promote more berries to appear and I was right! After three weeks in full sunlight, receving about at least 6 hours of them, the mulberry plant has bigger and longer berries. Today, I harvest two dark purple berries and they are very sweet.
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| Dark purple mulberry ready to be eaten |
