John McMillan wrote:

In article , Janet Tweedy
wrote:



Ah but I grew it from a seed so I guess that explains the variation in
type?
Makes superb whippy stuff for a friend who does a great deal of living
willow sculptures and basket work etc.

How long from seed to first fruit? Not that I'm actually interested
in speed-trialling your newly developed insipid variety. I have a
sapling which came from J.Tweedie, Dumfries. Its now two years older
than when I bought it and produces lots of healthy looking foliage
but as yet no fruit. No "superb whippy stuff" either; each new years
twigs are only 70cm or so. Its on a hill, protected from NE winds
by the house but completely exposed on the W to wind/weather coming
off the pennines.

john McMillan

We bought our Black Mulberry ~5 years ago. It has been groowing
reasonably vigorously, putting on ~15 cm a year (70 cm seems a lot!).
This summer is the first year which it produced a good quantity of fruit
- somewhat to our surprise, this has been almost completely ignored by
the birds. Currently, it is ~2.5 m high and I felt it might be a good
idea to remove one or two lower twigs - which produced no fruit - and
open up the centre by taking out a few crossing twigs.
--
Larry Stoter