I have many multi-grafted trees planted on my property but outside the fence. People just don’t steal them because they don’t know if the fruits are ripe or not as there’s a mix of them in one tree, especially the citruses. I grafted the late maturing ones lower and towards the street so that when they sample harvest it, it is always sour and they don’t know that there are gold gems of a taste somewhere in the tree.
Many ask permission to get some fruits, and so I would tell them what is ripe and describe the color and location.
So this guy here wouldn’t have a clue if he tries to harvest my fruits without permission.
Funny! I could see this happening in Florida. In Florida orange groves are everywhere. I was in this motel next to an orchard. No buildings, no nothing but oranges on the property. The 5 days I was there, only migrant workers went in one day. Came on a bus, left on a bus. Otherwise I didn’t see a soul on the property.
I caught a young 2 legged bandit stealing plums in my yard last year. He got a good scolding, haven’t seen him since.
I wish the other pests were so easy to dissuade.
@GeorgiaGent planted some usual looking Pomegranate bushes by his street when he was in San Jose. He never got to taste much of them. He told me he should have planted the lighter colored Poms there instead!
I once had a lady with her kid knock on my door and ask for a street facing NectaPlum once. She said her kid wanted to try it badly. The tree had just a couple though.I gave her one with a heavy heart. At least she didn’t take it without asking!
My multigraft apple is on the boulevard and legally people can help themselves, but I hang signs on them and mostly they don’t. But whenever anybody goes by and I’m working around ripe fruit I try to give them a sample and use it as an educational opportunity. (Some years I have enough fruit from that tree I give bags to several neighbors.) I figure once somebody knows I’ll share they’re less likely to help themselves; that could backfire! But at least I get a chance to protect the spurs and keep people from ripping off and discarding unripe fruit.
Initially they have tags but after i get to know the branches and their fruits for more than a couple years, I remove the tags. All my pluots don’t have tags for example.
I don’t hang signs and I give blanket permissions to all my neighbors that they can harvest fruits only what they can eat that day and not to bring a bag, just what they can carry in their hands. If they want more, and bring a bag, they’ll have to ask my permission via text msg.
I’m not stingy or anything and frequently give some fruit away to my customers. I let people eat all the blackberries they want while they are picking.
But I’ve had theft of peaches the last two years. I’ve also had a neighbor run thieves off a couple different times. Some people just don’t think it’s stealing when they take your fruit. I’m sure they would think different if someone came into their yard and dug up their flowers.
Once I had a customer tell me how she taught her sons how to go and steal sweet corn from a local farmer, just so they could experience the “thrill” of it.
In some parts of the world, including south of our border, I’ve heard that fruit trees are considered common property of villages. Not sure if this is true, but it was Europeans, particularly the English, that brought much of the world the concept of private property- so it could be taxed. This cultural difference is actually one of the elements of the Jewish-Palestinian conflict almost never mentioned- but that would be a subject for the lounge so I will not elaborate here.
I have a lemon ‘bush’ on the front of the house. I’ve had a lot of neighbors come up and ask for lemons, some to beg forgiveness as they took a couple. I never mind as the lemon is so prolific. It’s a super juicy variety, great flavor.
I live in the city and kids don’t realize fruit comes from trees (it comes from the supermarket) and don’t realize you can eat them and think they’re poisonous. I don’t lose a thing. But I pick the same fruit and put it in a bag in an honor stand in the driveway and people buy them in droves, knocking on the door when the stand is empty. I guess taking it off the tree and putting it in a bag makes it non-poisonous.
Our city of Riverside, CA has thousands of citrus trees for street trees; a lot of the fruit falls on the ground and rots. If you need a lemon you just find someone’s lemon tree that’s grown over the fence and is hanging halfway over the sidewalk; same with loquats. Hard to imagine anyone stealing from a commercial orchard (the few that are remaining) here.
Yes, my Wonderful variety would always get taken. The Eversweet would never be taken because they were an ugly pink/brown when ripe. Feijoa never got taken that is a no brainer for a Nor Cal front yard as they are very ornamental too. My navel oranges were taken but the tree was huge enough for my family, squirrels/rats, co-workers and trespassers
My last summer there someone took all my Brandywine tomatoes which was a major disappointment they were dead ripe . They didn’t touch the Lemon Boy tomatoes right next to it.
If I learned anything about planting in the front yard of a semi busy street is don’t plant stuff that will look like supermarket fruit.
