Planting Fruit Bearing Trees in Public Spaces

Food
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I would like to suggest incorporating fruit-bearing trees into public spaces such as parks, sidewalks, and community areas. This initiative could provide several benefits, including:

Promoting sustainability by offering free, fresh produce to the community.

Enhancing urban greenery and biodiversity while fostering environmental awareness.

Encouraging community engagement through shared responsibility for tree care and harvesting.

Many cities and countries in Asia, for example, have successfully integrated fruit trees like mango, guava, and tamarind into public spaces, creating accessible, eco-friendly food sources. Adopting a similar approach here could significantly enrich our community and its green spaces.

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Not just fruit bearing, but flower bearing as well! Most people don’t realize that the male trees (non fruit/flower bearing) produce all the pollen. It is typical for only male plants to be planted, in an effort to avoid the “mess” from fruit/flowers, which dramatically increases the pollen count and can be problematic for people with allergies.

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This too. It could help not only the hungry but the sick as well.

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President Trump wants you to message him directly about this

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@BSteller, I think this is a terrific idea! Imagine having a public apple garden where folks can pick a nice ripe Honeycrisp, take a stroll, and deposit the cores into a nice compost bin.

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If you are going to do this, you need to set some ground rules on what can be planted in which areas of the city – a topological bio-map of sorts. These mandates would have to include a chart on which trees are self-pollinating, which need a pollinator, if sexed plants need to be intermingled and how far apart would be the maximum spacing for adequate pollination results. You cant just go into a city and start chunking all sorts of pear or apple trees in sidewalk holes and hope for the best. Fruit trees bloom/pollinate in a certain window and oftentimes, different varieties have pollination windows that dont overlap at all, which will result in zero fruit production. So, if you are really gung ho on the idea (which I think is wonderful), you have to place restrictions on what can be planted, where it can go, and how far away the allowed spacing should be. You might ought to research which trees create the biggest fruit but at the same time, are the most drought tolerant (esp. for sidewalk trees) , which is least prone to infection from city pollution stresses, and which trees are the most coldy hardy (esp, with harsh winter winds being funneled between tall buildings (like Chicago’s bitter cold city winds coming off the lake and racing down the streets). And lastly, don’t forget our cherished but overlooked “NUT TREES” in your endevors, which would not only provide protien food for humans and animals, but also serve as perfect shade trees and wind breaks for open spaces like parks and gathering places. Hope that helps, and good luck!. :evergreen_tree: :deciduous_tree: :palm_tree:

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People don’t like the debris from fruit dropping; but if not sprayed, plenty of people would likely “help” pick the fruit, so I see no problem and better use of green space. Kuddos!

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At best this would be a public mess with fruit littering the sidewalks. It might be manifest best as a public garden managed by volunteers which I’ve seen in San Francisco. The produce is given away at food banks already in small quantities. I doubt it’s a good idea to just grow fruit tree as public landscaping in those little squares you see on the sidewalk on Market Street in San Francisco where the fruit can fall on the ground or be picked if it somehow reaches peak ripeness if it’s not vandalize by the homeless. Plants that need a pollinator are often pollinated by bees; maybe someone else can fill us in more on how this actually works if other animals do this.

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These are very valid concerns. And yes if left unatended it could be a mess. But there are some options that could minimize the hassel.

We can use trees with smaller, less messy fruits for sidewalks. (Citrus, olive, etc) or focus mainly on nut trees that drop hard-shelled nuts, which are less perishable and easier to clean. Regular maintenance schedules and community involvement, like adopt-a-tree programs, can keep these public spaces clean.

Public gardens managed by volunteers, like those in San Francisco, are a fantastic model. However, a citywide fruit and nut tree initiative aims to distribute food production more evenly across urban areas. This allows for localized benefits, such as shade, biodiversity, and food access, without concentrating resources in one spot.

Homelessness and vandalism are also valid concerns. Involving local groups and educating the public about the benefits of these trees could foster respect for the spaces. Food insecurity solutions like food banks could partner with the program to harvest and distribute excess produce.

Pollination is a vital consideration for fruit production. Most fruit trees are pollinated by bees, but other animals like butterflies, birds, and bats also play roles depending on the species and region. Ensuring compatible pollinator plants and promoting habitats for pollinators (e.g., planting flowers alongside trees) can maximize yields.

Specific streetscapes like Market Street may not be ideal for this initiative due to space and pedestrian traffic. Instead, the program could focus on less crowded areas, parks, or residential neighborhoods.

Now, this isn’t aimed to replace public gardens or existing food bank programs but to complement them. To help ease the burden of stress for the majority of the donation program when the demand is higher than usual.

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Agreed !thats where we start in our backyard or our neighbors backyard.

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That’s not really a public place if it’s in our backyards. I like the idea of fruit trees being in public places.

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Also native species for desert regions.

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I strongly disagree with fruit bearing trees in public spaces or sidewalks. First, they bring vermin and rodents so now you need massive programs to handle that. Two, fruit trees left unattended in the public can be intentionally poisoned by vandalism or terrorists, 24 h a day. Three, there is no quality control. You want me to eat an apple from a tree growing in a sidewalk next to an urban street where diesel trucks drive by every day and drive thru rain puddles splashing road grime water on the fruit exposing them to asphalt, mercury, or formaldehyde?
And feed this toxic fruit to our children? Flowering trees, sure. Fruit bearing trees? No way.

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I agree that the planting of not only fruit trees but vegetables as well is a great idea. However, I feel that there will hazards in doing so in public spaces. Falling fruit, slip and falls, trip hazzards, those that insist on climbing trees for the fruit too high to reach and finally vandals. I would amend this proposal to say that produce gardens be set up in vacant lots with attendants. These attendants should be done by those already receiving benefits from the government as part of a work program. Volunteers are also welcome. The produce will be attended too and be picked, handed out by those attendants and not the general public. I also believe that a delivery system needs implamanted for the elderly, shut-ins and handicapped.

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I wholeheartedly support this suggestion. I travelled to Saudi Arabia once, and what awed me the most are the dates lining up the island separating the streets. The palm trees with low hanging fruits was a lovely sight to behold. So exotic! It would be an upgrade as oppose to just seeing endless concrete.
Last year, I did a 16 hour drive from the East Coast to GA. When we were passing NC the scenery woke me up because they had vegetation on their highway. It was a wonderful surprise. I forgot what highway it was, but plants makes a huge difference.

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I have been saying this for years.
Before the municipality approves development, food bearing plants should be part of the project.
Asparagus makes a lovely decorative plant when strawberries are planted underneath. Blueberries make a nice barrier wall. Cabbage and parsley make nice decorative displays in cold areas.
The landscapes have a cost already. Why not use perennial edibles?

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You countered the arguements against it well, and I also agree with them. And I would consider it more of a “mess” to step in everyone’s pet crap on the sidewalk rather than an occassional rotton plum. It is worth it from Nature’s POV – at the worst, it would greatly increase the pollinator population, which we might enjoy via bigger yard garden yields. I have read arguements against the idea; however, they seem baseless and driven by dramatic apocolyptic-sounding hypotheticals that I would gather as highly unlikely, and almost comical. If you asked a crowd in the 1950s if they would like something like this, you would probably get a 95%+ show of hands. People were less dramatic and afraid of hypotheticals back then.

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this sounds like a good idea, but someone will go around picking the fruit and then selling it to people instead of people eating it for free

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Probably not.

there are quite a lot of wild fruit trees around here, with lovely fruits - mist never get picked.

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And the trees could also be struck by lightening also, and cause a lot of burnt debris scattered around for people to stumble over and hurt themselves…that one too, mind you! :laughing: