On 26/07/2014 5:29 AM, Pam Moore wrote:

I have one in a pot, about 3 feet high, aobut 10 years old.
3 years ago it had 3 fruit. I put it in a bigger pot, no fruit the
last 2 years. This year it has at least 8.

Long, but it is mulberry related:
This year, the show 'Gardening Australia' is celebrating 25 years of
being on air. Last night there was a replay of one of the presenters
favourite segments from past years.

The segment involved a visit to a former commercial, unheated,
greenhouse complex - huge, huge greenhouses - bigger than the average
urban house block. These greenhouses are situated in Melbourne,
Australia which has the unenviable reputation of 'having 4 seasons in
one day' because the weather is so variable.

The elderly owners had retired and leased out most of the greenhouses
but retained 2 for their personal use which a son had taken in hand and
turned over to meet the interests of the elderly parents. The elderly
man's greenhouse had been completely laid with fake turf and he and his
cronies spent many an hour in there playing lawn bowls.

The elderly ladies greenhouse had been turned over to growing tropical,
subtropical and other fruits and vegetable.

One of the plants grown there was a black mulberry. This was not a big
mulberry - perhaps about 7 ft tall I suspect by comparing it to the
height of the presenter. I know she is over 6 ft tall. The owners said
that the mulberry fruited all year long and they managed to achieve this
by constant trimming back of the tip growth of the mulberry tree after
they ate the current fruit - IIRC, they said it took about 5-6 weeks for
the plant to produce the fruiting flowery thing (infloresence??) after a
trim.

These mulberries were huge. As I mentioned, the presenter is over 6 ft
tall and when she held the mulberry in her hand, they were longer than
the bottom 2 joints on her middle finger - only a bit of the tip of her
finger poked out beyond the mulberry. She was trying to eat the
mulberries in two bites and leaning forward so she didn't drop any juice
no doubt. The elderly man said to her that she must pop them into her
mouth in one go. His cheeks were bulging when he demonstrated how to
eat one mulberry. I was envious. Ive never produced any mulberries
that big. I decided I'm going to try theri tip pruning trick over the
coming summer months to see if I can stretch my harvest.