Returning from our vacation this past weekend, we discovered the tomatoes to the right in our garden, clearly victims of the same burglar that spied on us in our hot tub and plucked cherries from our neighbor’s tree: raccoons.
These particular bandits aside, it brings to mind a thorny question: as any Wallingford stroller knows, we are thick with sidewalk fruit trees. What’s the etiquette of partaking? If someone’s plum tree is planted in their devil strip, and those luscious fruit are hanging down, ripe and purple, as you walk by, just begging you to take a tug, is it kosher to snack? It’s hanging over public property after all, right?
Or is that stealing? Their car is parked on public property, too, and it hardly seems OK to pick that. Should people post signs?
For ourselves, we encourage anyone coming by our sidewalk peach tree to help themselves to a peach, as in one to a customer. There just aren’t that many fruit on the tree to allow more than that.
What’s your take?
I bet I know exactly which plum tree you are talking about.
Anyway, I feel like grabbing a little bit of fruit, if it’s on the sidewalk, is no big deal.
A handful of cherries, or a pear. Just don’t pick it bare.
One, two or even three fruit from an overflowing tree shouldn’t be a problem. What really frustrates me are seeing trees full of cherries that have withered away and died, the contents of a dozen delicious pies unused and rotting on the branch.
We have an insanely overflowing plum tree this year (though they’re all still slightly underripe), and a pear tree which is a bit on the sparse side. There’s no way we could possibly use all of the plums we’re going to get, so anyone walking by is more than welcome to grab one or two (though we do have plans for plum preserves and pickles, so please leave a gracious plenty) (oh, and on the lower branches, too, since we’re short). One pear probably wouldn’t be a big deal, either, but it should be fairly obvious to passers-by that the pears are few and far between, so we would ask some consideration prior to snacking.
Also, isn’t it good for fruit trees to lose as much of their fruit as possible? And can you post a link to that organization that will harvest your extra fruit and give it away to the needy? Let no cherries be wasted!
I’d love to see people who have trees in the right-of-way put out a sign saying either “Neighbors: feel free to harvest A peach” or “…a plum or two” or whatever it is; and on the flip side, your sign could read, “we have plans for our fruit, so please leave it on the tree.” Or something.
Someone harvested a bunch of plums the other day and left some on the parking strip with a “free” sign. That was a nice little treat. I wish I’d done that when I had a tree that produced way more plums than I could possibly eat!
I think one can’t assume whether it’s ok to pick from someone else’s tree. if there’s no sign, then it’s not right to pick.
We had similar tomato problems, but we saw rats doing the damage instead. Yuck.
I agree with meganc and cc. I love all the fruit trees in Wallingford and would love to see a small sign saying they are for sharing or not. I personally would not feel comfortable taking fruit from someone else’s tree unless I was given explicit permission to do so.
If there is a lot and it can be reached from the sidewalk then I say it’s fair game. I’ll have destroyed the evidence by the times the cops get there anyways.
I just moved into a house with two street-side pear trees overflowing with fruit. The other day, a nice gentleman knocked on my front door and asked if he could take one. What courtesy! Unfortunately, these pears are full of larvae of (I think) the codling moth, so I don’t think the passerby will be too pleased to bite into them. Anyone know what to do to protect fruit trees (especially pears) from such an infestation in the future?
Legally speaking, what overhangs the sidewalk is public property, I believe. I know it’s the law that what overhangs your property is yours.
Morally speaking, I always grab a fruit as I go by if it looks like there’s plenty. It’s better than letting it go to waste!
Here’s a Wallyhood poste on Lettuce Link (which organizes the fruit harvest for the food banks): http://www.wallyhood.org/2009/06/lettuce-link-volunteer-orientation/
Here’s the Solid Ground page on the fruit-tree component of Lettuce Link: http://www.solid-ground.org/programs/nutrition/fruittree/Pages/default.aspx.
I agree with Robert…a sign with the owner’s wishes would be helpful. Even though trees in parking strips are on public land, the fruit trees weren’t planted with public money for public consumption no more than vegetables in a p-patch are meant for everyone to graze. Though often tempted, I don’t take any fruit from these trees unless the owner says it’s okay. Why not dig up or divide someone’s perennials in a parking strip? Same logic.
If it’s on the parking strip, I think it is technically city property, so while legally it is fair game, since it is usually the adjacent property owner that has planted the tree and is taking care of it, I think a piece or two for the casual neighborhood walker and his dog is awright.
Hi McKenna,
(are you the McKenna that I know from AUS?)
I apologize that it has taken 5 days to respond when Jordan notified asked me ten minutes after you had posted if I could respond to your question about codling moth.
First, if the pears are full of larvae, it sounds more like apple maggot have gotten at them than codling moth(for reasons you will see below)…you can look at the below resources and determine for yourself who is likely inhabiting your pears through comparing your fruit to the pictures they provide.
There are several non-toxic(to everyone but the moths) things that you can do to prevent codling moth from inhabiting the pears which you want to eat.
1. You can “band” your tree(s). This sounds like a terrible procedure but it just involves laying some burlap sacks(or apparently cardboard) around the base of your tree at the right time of year(apparently May) so that the moths, when they go to cocoon & lay eggs, do so in the burlap(or cardboard) and not in the earth below your tree.
You remove these bands and destroy the nests or the burlap itself. I am not sure if there is a more ecologically friendly way to kill the moth babies(gosh that sounds awful) than the burning I’ve heard of. Possibly you could soak the burlap in water but I would check into it further if I were you. you might contact the garden hotline through Tilth if you decide to go that route. Also, there is this article from WSU extension, which describes banding on the second page under “prevention”:
http://www.puyallup.wsu.edu/plantclinic/resources/pdf/pls109codlingmoth.pdf
2. You can do with your pear tree what we recently did with the apple trees at the Good Shepherd Center. You can apply nylon ‘footies’ (the kind that people use to try on shoes) over each pear early in its growth, before the codling moths have made their way up the tree to the fruit. These barriers are also effective against apple maggot. This is possible as soon as the fruit is about the size of a quarter all of the way around(the nylon expands as the fruit grows). These barriers can’t actually keep the codling moth out of the pears but the texture freaks them out and they no longer recognize your pear as a pear(at least for the time being, they may evolve). You can contact Jon Reardon, Vice President of the Seattle Tree Fruit Society for them if you are interested in purchasing some of those socks..
3. As the WSU article mentions, you will want to clean up any fallen fruit, as this attracts both the codling moth and the apple maggot(as well as the raccoons and rats who were mentioned earlier in this thread).
Another note: codling moth is distinguishable from apple maggot in that they will drill usually just one hole in your pear and then exit the fruit, so the fruit is usually more usable when they are done with it.(they are most interested in the seed & core, actually so it is these that they are drilling for.) Apple maggot(who also I believe can affect pear, they were originally I think but am not remembering well, the hawthorn berry maggot or something and so have already switched fruit preferences) will riddle the entire fruit with pathways and holes and basically, there is not much left to salvage.
Although this article by WSU extension doesn’t acknowledge it, you can for sure use the last two treatments above for your tree regarding apple maggot as well. I have only heard of using banding for codling moth but it might be helpful for apple maggot as well. I am including this article so that you can compare what a fruit eaten by an apple maggot looks like, with what your fruit looks like:
http://gardening.wsu.edu/library/tree002/tree002.htm
Thanks for wanting to and probably taking care of these trees!
May we all be well, free and happy!
Lily
Oh goodness.
There are several typos in that message, some things that I should have edited out and one big mistake!
I realize now that I cannot edit after posting and I sorely wish that I had read more thoroughly what I’d written…here’s the correction:
The moths are coming up from the ground and they get somehow fooled by the burlap or cardboard and therefore never make their way up the tree. They’ve spent the winter cocooned in the ground and they will lay their eggs on the fruit of the tree. I don’t know how i managed to write that all turned around in the opposite direction the first time, with them heading down the tree in May towards the earth. They do that after they’ve eaten the fruit, obviously.
Eek.
May we all be well free and happy.
(he didn’t notify me, he asked…sheesh)
Lily