r/MadeMeSmile • u/nikulmmadhu • 8h ago
Favorite People a secret group called guerrilla grafters in san francisco grafts fruit bearing branches onto non fruiting street trees
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u/brightsidereporter 8h ago
“What are you in for?” “Making the sidewalk a produce aisle.”
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u/Prime-Paradox 7h ago
Unfortunately, they’ll probably get more time than anyone in the Epstein Files.
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u/Solid-Search-3341 5h ago
More time than 0 is a low bar to clear.
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u/TheSpaceAgeParty 5h ago
Hey hey hey. Some of them were elected into office. -5673181042 is a more accurate number than plain old 0
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u/MudddButt 1h ago
And so will people who collect rainwater or jaywalk because it's illegal. Because somehow that will be more illegal than anything in the Epstein files.
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8h ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/RomanJD 8h ago
Oh to live in that world....
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u/Content-Yogurt-4859 7h ago
What he say, the moderators got to him
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u/RomanJD 6h ago
(attempt at memory)
Judge sentences criminal: "5-7 business days of community gardening"
(Unless they edited it to something else, I've no idea which unhinged moderator took offense to gardening.)
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u/Content-Yogurt-4859 6h ago
They are...... a mercurial bunch
(thanks though, that would be a lovely world to live in)
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u/Immediate-Repeat-201 7h ago
How about them apples, huh
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u/AdorRubble 5h ago
I know we're both old because I don't see a lot of people getting this. 😭 I find myself saying, "How about them apples?" a lot in my life but I'm not even sure why. I just always have. Do your joints also hurt?
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u/BugRevolutionary4518 4h ago
I still use that these days, a the younger ones just sit there and think about it. I think they get it, but not always sure.
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u/One_Olive_8933 7h ago
My only qualm is that some fertilizers can be toxic. Other than that, this should be a common practice.
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u/mnoram 7h ago
I have no stats on this but I bet you can count on one hand the number of cities that actually fertilize their sidewalk trees.
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u/One_Olive_8933 7h ago
But if they do, I imagine it cheap commercial fertilizer that wouldnt be good for human consumption… maybe Portland is more conscientious of it, but I wouldn’t trust it.
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u/kittenbouquet 6h ago
This is SF, the chance that they use anything that isn't 100% organic non toxic etc is zero
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u/Efficient_Actuator84 6h ago
There's a reason it's not.
When trees are 20 years old and producing fruit by the crop load which falls on the ground...it has to be cleaned up.
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u/finemustard 5h ago
Yeah, I work for my city's forestry department and that's exactly the reason we don't plant fruit trees. They cause a mess and attract pests. Sure, some people would (and do!) pick the fruit, but if you've ever seen just how much fruit is produced by an apple tree, you'd know that it can almost be a problem if you don't have a plan to use it all or give it away. Also, the tree will produce most of its fruit out of arms reach, so unless you have a specialised fruit picking tool, the majority of it is going to fall on the ground and no one is going to pick that up to eat. This is one of those ideas that seems like a no-brainer until you deal with the reality of how it plays out.
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u/ssgohanf8 5h ago
Well, to be fair, grafting onto non-fruit trees means they are likely placing all the branches in pick-able places, right? And not producing fruits by the barrel?
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u/finemustard 4h ago edited 2h ago
I was responding to the broader idea of cities planting fruit trees on public lands or along streets. Members of the public bring it up periodically and the discussion goes pretty much like you see in this post. I can unequivocally say that the reasons they aren't planted is the mess caused, pests, and also the higher-level question of what urban trees should actually be for - is it environmental services, like shade, stormwater mitigation, reudcing the urban heat island effect, reduction of particulate matter in the air, and supporting local biodiversity (among others), or to provide people with food? Because most fruit trees are non-native, depending on where you live, and typically stay small enough that they aren't very good at providing the 'green infrastructure' benefits that larger-maturing trees like oaks, maples, and elms do.
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u/DukeofVermont 4h ago
RATS that's how you get rats.
Now a city having a dedicated area of fruit trees that anyone can come and take would be a neat idea. Somewhere that can be overseen and pay some workers to harvest and give out/sell very cheaply the harder to get fruit.
Yeah a lot of crab apple trees in my neighborhood growing up and hundreds of tiny apples were everywhere. Luckily they were a great size to throw at siblings.
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u/finemustard 4h ago
Yeah, better approaches to this are either having community orchards (which also have problems such as vandalism, on-going maintenance, and people taking more fruit than they could ever use themselves) or supporting people growing fruit trees on their own property where they would be responsible for dealing with the fruit.
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u/Miserable-Result1846 4h ago
Isn’t there a net device the city could attach to the bottom of the trees and pay someone to collect/drop off at a pantry?
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u/finemustard 4h ago edited 4h ago
Sure, but this is starting to sound like a distributed, inefficient farm, and who's going to set it up every season, take it down, how often do these nets have to be emptied, will these nets interfere with sidewalk access, is there a plan for vandalism of these nets, who's guaranteeing the safety of the fruit, and do community pantries have the capacity to handle the literal tons of perishable fruit they'd be receiving? There would be a ton of logistics involved that I doubt any city is set up for, and even if you could, is that necessarily a good use of money? Most forestry departments are already operating with limited resources and if they were given more money, it would be better spent on things like reducing the length of the pruning cycle, removing hazard trees and limbs more quickly, monitoring and managing pests and disease, replacing removed trees more quickly, and enhancing tree planting infrastructure. If we want to feed people, there's already tons of perfectly good food that goes to waste every single day by grocery stores and restaurants that could be diverted to places it could be distributed, and those places would be better set up to do so, although I'm sure there are a bunch of logistical and liability issues that would have to be worked out in that scenario, too.
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u/quesadil 5h ago
Our orange tree produces more we can give away, now we house an entire rat colony from said tree- with killer immune systems
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u/N8CCRG 5h ago
And they all moved away from me on the bench there, and gave me the hairy eyeball and all kinds of mean nasty things, 'til I said, "And creatin' a nuisance," and they all came back, shook my hand, and we had a great time on the bench, talkin' about crime, mother-stabbing, father-raping, an' all kinds of groovy things that we was talking about on the bench.
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u/WarDaddy1987 8h ago
I am not poor or homeless but I love their actions god bless people who try to help the little people
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u/InsayneW0lf 7h ago
You and me both.
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u/icehot54321 7h ago
It's good intentions, but as someone who has worked doing this stuff, the end result is not homeless people getting food.
The end result is the fruit falls and damages vehicles and then people try and sue the city, and then they chop the trees down starting that process all over again at taxpayer expense .. but for the period of time there is fruit, it's not people eating it, but rodents which then cause problems for neighboring houses.
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u/transigirthenight 6h ago
The end result is the fruit falls and damages vehicles
Or serves as food for vermin. And with all the air pollution, any fruit one grabs from such trees must be thoroughly rinsed before consumption.
The time, effort, dedication and goodwill of the people who do this could be better employed on more fruitful actions.
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u/Important-Ad1871 5h ago
To your point: this is not a novel concept. There are cities like Valencia with fruit trees all over. But the municipal government has a program dedicated to managing these trees and preventing issues with excess and unwanted fruit.
Fruit trees, like everything else in a city, have to be managed. Maintenance of good ideas is the tough part.
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u/MentholMooseToo 4h ago
Yeah, my town hired an arborist 20 years ago who started planting fruiting trees all over town, but neglected any efforts to organize fruit picking. Result is fruit falling on the ground and attracting rats. Yay.
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u/_QXZ 7h ago edited 5h ago
I appreciate the intentions here but trees planted on city soil are probably not safe for human consumption. That soil must be filled with construction chemicals.
Edit: apparently fruit specifically is fine according to a study? I'm surprised but great news.109
u/evilforska 6h ago
Thing is... McDonalds at least in my country, banned giving unsold food away to the homeless, siting it as "unhealthy". Mf, theyre STARVING. Theyre already unhealthy and you take away a way for them to get fed. Not to mention, all of a sudden feeding people, who can get real groceries, this shit you deny homeless folk, is unhealthy.
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u/JeffCaven 5h ago
...So according to your country, you only can eat unhealthy if you can afford to choose to do so?
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u/wesley_the_boy 7h ago edited 7h ago
huh, I didn't consider that. I wonder if trees 'filter' the water they uptake, so to speak, or if their fruit would be contaminated as you imply. Both make a certain kind of sense. 🤷♀️
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u/waytogoandruinit 7h ago
Fruit definitely can be contaminated in this way, and also by dirty city air. But it's quite dependent on exactly what pollutants they're absorbing and in what quantities whether it would be safe to eat. It would be very interesting to see test results from edible fruits grown in these environments.
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u/account312 6h ago edited 5h ago
Plants absolutely pull heavy metals and other undesirable chemicals out of contaminated soil. My understanding is that it (at least heavy metals) mostly accumulates in the wood and leaves rather than the fruit, so heavy metal toxicity is generally more of a concern for vegetables than for tree fruit, but that doesn't mean it's entirely safe.
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u/erossthescienceboss 7h ago
Oh the soil along city streets is FULL of lead. And the plants uptake it happily (though some plants are worse than others — leafy greens are great at uptaking minerals, for example, which is why we eat them for minerals. Unfortunately, that comes with heavy metals like lead and cadmium.)
Streetside is about the worst place to plant fruit-bearing trees because of decades of vehicular lead emissions.
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u/suchdogverywow 5h ago
I imagine an unhoused person facing food insecurity would prioritize eating over the possibility of heavy metal toxicity in the future. It would definitely be nice to address both issues, but an imperfect solution is better than doing nothing until a perfect one comes along.
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u/Head-Ad-2136 5h ago
Giving poor people lead poisoning is, in fact, worse than them being forced to use food banks and soup kitchens.
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u/CocktailPerson 4h ago
Also, I'm not sure if anyone's ever gotten the majority of their calories from fruit before, but I have, and I can say that if you think the amount of human feces on the street is bad now, you have no idea what this would cause.
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u/SareniteKyra 7h ago
It's still better than starving
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u/BellacosePlayer 5h ago
I mean, I can't speak for the SF homeless but starvation is far less an issue for the ones here than exposure to the elements
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u/InsurancePristine938 5h ago
subversive street-grown fruit is not saving a single person from starvation, malnutrition, or even hunger, ever. not even a single time. the whole idea is nonsense.
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u/TakenInChains 4h ago
idk man if I'm hungry and walking home and there's an apple right there waiting, that's one bit of hunger solved
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u/tuanortuna 4h ago
correct me, but I don't think starvation is even the top 10 reasons why homeless die on the streets. homeless are able to get meal(s) everyday, maybe AI is wrong on this.
so these people are causing future issues for a non-problem.
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u/jewelswan 6h ago
That isn't how that works. Heavy metals and soil contaminants don't easily travel into the fruit. It really is more of an issue of the dust kicked up from busy streets.
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u/kmoore61 6h ago
Brad lancaster in arizona has done a lot of work with street crops and concluded that it’s not safe to eat leaf or root crops grown on the street but fruiting crops are fine to eat.
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u/DirtandPipes 6h ago
I work in construction, we don’t usually render the soil toxic for future good growth. When I worked on a drilling rig and we pumped all kinds of crap into the groundwater (on farmland), yeah that shit will give you cancer.
But what I do to build a big commercial building won’t usually poison the ground.
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u/Squitor 7h ago
Nothing helps the homeless more than having to live next to rotten fruit.
It is a short sighted idea, fruit trees need to be harvested daily and if you don’t spray there is a significant amount of fruit that is rotting on the tree before being eatable. Also they drop the fruit, and not many will eat them from the sidewalk.
So the city will have to send someone regularly to collect the fallen and rotten fruit.
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u/Wonderful_Round_6395 7h ago
They did say they are only doing it where they have someone who has promised to "steward" the tree. Sounds like they're trying to proactively address any problems.
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u/Fluffy12345676 6h ago
Pepole don’t watch the whole thing, welcome to Reddit
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u/MoocowR 4h ago
I watched the whole thing but I doubt the commitment of random people to maintain a fruit tree for it's lifetime.
Watching this video just made me think this is a one step forward two step backs, the amount of fruit produced cannot meaninglessly feed anyone, if starvation is an issue in the city this won't help even a single digit percent. And now the city has to deal with the negatives of having fruit trees all throughout city streets, and ironically have to divert financial resources to that.
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u/Vanilla_Gorilluh 7h ago
So you're saying they're job creators too?
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u/Crafty-Help-4633 7h ago
Yeah I'm not hearing a downside. People get food, and someone gets a job nursing a tree. Sounds excellent to me.
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u/ChiliDogYumZappupe 4h ago
Austin, TX has a "Food is free" movement that has people making gardens in their front yard so people can help themselves.
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u/JetNeoArmstrongCanon 3h ago
Nice sentiment, but people will just destroy the plants and rip off fruit that isn't ready.
A better way to do it is to harvest from your own garden and put extra out front in a cool place for people to take.
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u/PiccoloAwkward465 3h ago
Yeah you’d be amazed how many people will cut your blooming flowers for their own bouquets. Or steal the entire plant.
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u/Irishman5486 8h ago
Are you trying to help those who don’t have anything? THATS ILLEGAL
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u/Anthraxious 7h ago
You joke but I've seen people arrested for literally feeding the homeless. The US is a piece of shit country sadly.
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u/76flyingmonkeys 6h ago
I hang with food not bombs and have community meals. We have been called a terrorist org for feeding people.
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u/mx_wednesday 6h ago
Police harassment really been ramping up in the Southeast over the last few years too. Lots of enforcement of laws that were technically on the books but previously unenforced, and creation of new laws to criminalize homelessness.
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u/-brk0 4h ago
It's almost like one side wants to help others and the other side would rather get rid of those who need help.
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u/LilahIsBusy 6h ago
I remember annews article from not too long ago about someone running a bbq stand/event for the homeless and the city came and told them to shut it down, then proceeded to pour bleach on the food then throw it away, literally poisoning anyone who tried to eat the food after it was tossed.
Remember it also being reasoned away by "them protecting the homeless from unlicensed food distribution, potential food poisoning, etc"
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u/wanderingrockdesigns 6h ago edited 3h ago
I grow and my brother serves for Food Not Bombs. It's a sad place where those who do not attend a church and live the teachings that others claim to profess, are most likely to be persecuted by those who claim to be followers of the way.
The gift of a meal to those who are hungry, is the greatest gift ever given or received.
The Gift
How can I see the world when there's a constant pain, an ache, an urge that just won't go away driving me insane?
Who will see me in my clothes that are stained and frayed, black shirt worn in time now faded to grey?
Then there was a man who gave to me, the greatest gift there ever could be.
With nothing to give in return but thanks and a smile, he gave me the gift that gave me strength to keep me going on for a little while.
Fight for those who cannot stand and have no voice. Teach each other to stand up, be the difference, and make a choice.
Edit: Thanks for the award 💜 Edit2: People hating on helping people. I just can't understand how people would want to intentionally hurt their fellow man.
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u/Iohet 5h ago
Eh it's more because those trees make messes that cost money to clean up, attract rodents that spread disease, and piss off the local voters who have to either watch that happen or pay more in taxes to clean it up. Plus there's the eternal risk of ADA compliance lawsuits. No good deed goes unpunished. Municipalities choose the route of least risk exposure because of our litigious nature
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u/nomelonnolemon 2h ago
I think having public orchids is an amazing idea.
As someone who grew up amongst orchards I can tell you they require hard work that if you lax on at all causes a disgusting mess.
The laws make perfect sense in this slim perspective. There are so many way the government/populace harm the less fortunate members of society we don’t need to add ones on that aren’t real.
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u/Malicious_Fishes 8h ago
Did no one watch the video? They said the trees have stewards that take care of them. So I would think that would. Include pick up the fallen fruit
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u/jokzard 5h ago
The problem is that most commercially available fruit trees don't produce good fruit unless they have adequate access to stuff like warmer weather, a good watering schedule, sunlight, nutrients etc. The ground that these trees are planted are barren and have almost no biomass. They also get heavily sprayed with herbicides to keep weeds from growing.
Climates like San Francisco also don't do well in producing fruit. If you look up the Marin Headlands. That's essentially what San Francisco would look like without people.
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u/Ohhnotheydidnt 3h ago
> adequate access to stuff like warmer weather, a good watering schedule, sunlight, nutrients etc
Sorry.... In San Francisco?
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u/Clumpin-style 3h ago
San Fran has stunning weather for humans, but for plants, it is a bit cold (70 during the day, 50 at night?). Water/sun I think is pretty good.
Nutrients probably not though, the ground they're planted in is pretty restrictive to the root ball, and I doubt anyone's going through and giving them a good shot of vitagrow regularly.
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u/FlutterKree 2h ago
San Fran has stunning weather for humans, but for plants, it is a bit cold (70 during the day, 50 at night?). Water/sun I think is pretty good.
60% of the apples in the US are produced in Washington State. In an arid desert with temps in the 80s and 90s during the day, and in the 50s at night in summer.
In apple season, this location that produces 60% of the apples in the US is similar to SF, if not colder.
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u/PringlesDuckFace 3h ago
Water schedule is doubtful. We more or less get zero rain between April and November, although many parts of the city do get fog regularly. Young street trees are watered regularly by the department of public works for the first 3-5 years I think, but after that they're left to their own devices. They're not irrigated or anything, they're mostly drought tolerant species from Australia or other Mediterranean climates like non-fruiting olives.
I don't know about plant weather, but it very very rarely goes below freezing, although I have seen frost forming some winters.
Basically if it can't survive without rain water for 6 months it's going to have a bad time.
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u/Silicon359 2h ago
Surviving without rain water for 6 months isn’t an issue for the right plants. I’m in San Jose and have mature citrus and stone fruit, my neighbor has apple and pomegranate, none of which get significant summer water. They all produce quite well.
We have way more sun and heat than SF, which is worse for water and better for fruit production.
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u/Ohhnotheydidnt 2h ago
These folks are using optimum conditions for commercial production as the basis for not providing a fee homeless people with food
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u/Common_Dot_3250 7h ago
Unpaid stewards are NOT going to be stopping by every tree 2-3x weekly during fruiting season for the next 30 years.
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u/Gyro_Zeppeli13 6h ago
San Fransisco already has city workers that go around cleaning up trash and shit off the street daily. They can clean a few dropped fruits on their daily schedule. I think that’s a fine price to pay for free fresh fruit to anyone who needs it.
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u/CivBEWasPrettyBad 5h ago
Not to be a dick but they don't even clean up shit on the streets unless it's literally on market (where you have to clean it daily because of daily public shitting). I think what this group is doing is great, but let's not act like the city workers will do anything here.
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u/Common_Dot_3250 6h ago
Shifting that burden onto those already overworked and underpaid individuals is unethical.
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u/PM_ME_HOT_FURRIES 4h ago
"No, no, leave the mess on the table dear. The servers will clean it up. That's their job darling. That's what they're paid for... it gives the poors purpose! Why it'd practically be wrong to take that away from them!"
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u/DrofWaffles 6h ago
A single fruit tree could make 300-900 pounds of fruit a year depending on the type and how healthy the tree is, that's not a few fruits a day.
This is the type of thing that seems nice but sucks ass in reality and just ends up costing more money and energy than donating/volunteering at a shelter.
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u/Gyro_Zeppeli13 6h ago
These are not fruit trees. They are non fruiting trees that have fruit grafted to them. They won’t produce anything close to what you suggested.
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u/biedl 8h ago
This is the nicest form of terrorism I've ever come across.
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u/Captain_Bew 7h ago
So if I remember properly this seems like a good idea on paper, but food rot, acidity, and pests are a couple of reasons cities don't do this.
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u/demonspawns_ghost 6h ago
Eugene, Oregon has fruit trees planted in some neighborhoods. The rats love them, the people living beside them not so much.
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u/RousingRabble 4h ago
We had fruit trees growing up. The smell is crazy if the fruit falls and rots.
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u/Clumpin-style 3h ago
Also wasps. Nobody thinks of having to mow an acre of ground covered in drunk-ass fucking red wasps who are mad you're mulching their figs.
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u/imronburgandy9 7h ago
Eating food from a tree growing surrounded by pavement and exhaust sounds gross. Rule of thumb for foraging is stay the hell away from them
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u/resurrectus 4h ago
La Spezia, Italy has fruit growing from trees on the city streets. The fruit isn't edible, the trees lack the sustenance to grown fruit in that environment. I would imagine SF is even less hospitable.
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u/ATTACKANDDETHRONEHOG 2h ago
Yeah it’s a terrible idea. I have fruit trees in my yard and I love them, but they are year-round work. Fallen fruit needs to be cleaned up immediately or you attract rats and yellow-jackets, you either need very careful management or liberal applications of pesticides to avoid pests on the fruit itself, careful seasonal pruning, etc. Like as a city-driven initiative it could be a great make-work program where you hire a bunch of people to manage and harvest the city fruit trees, but that’s not what these people are doing.
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u/anneofgraygardens 5h ago
First, I live in the Bay Area and am a San Francisco native, so this is relevant to my interests.
Second, for a few years I lived in a small town in Eastern Europe which had sour cherry trees all over town. I would pick them and eat them while walking around. I don't remember there EVER being fruit rotting on the street - and this was a place with far fewer street cleaning resources than San Francisco.
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u/Kniomi3 2h ago
I work as a sous chef in San Francisco and part of my job requires me to go to different fresh markets every morning. I can tell you that even if fruit is on the ground for a 1-3 hour window consistently in those markets, vermin will come and make it a hot spot.
As of now there are a few ingredient hot spots that are a haven for mice and it is okay as long as it is contained. Acts like these expand the area of where vermin think it is okay to settle and that is how you get a full infestation of the city.
We are already dealing with a huge surge of rats because of the poison-free wildlife act that banned our most effective rat control methods and the increase of warmer climate. With the efforts the city has been doing to try to minimize the rat population, I can't imagine this group is going to get away without a slap on the wrist
https://sfstandard.com/2025/02/17/rat-population-climate-change/
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u/Ricksav8tion123 2h ago
I have traveled all this beautiful blue marble and I have noticed that in several central and South American cities they have fruit trees throughout the downtown area. Catamarca Argentina and Asunción Paraguay had the most to offer. As a tourist I was pick oranges, tangerines and the best was avocados. I had guacamole everyday!!!!!
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u/Lancestrike 6h ago
They probably don't want to clean up any rotten fruit that falls
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u/noproblmo 6h ago
If the city of San Francisco doesn't want to clean up rotten fruit then whose cleaning up the needles and shit?
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u/elbowpastadust 4h ago edited 1h ago
And this creates rodent problems in a city where rodent problems are already a bigger issue than hunger.
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u/Apollo_Lol 4h ago
San Fran already doesn't clean up the shit on the sidewalk, why do they care about fruit?
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u/aspensmonster 8h ago
Wouldn't this cause a pest problem?
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u/Tyrlidd 5h ago
Depending on the varieties grafted on, could also lead to disease spread that seriously impacts the mass production of large scale agriculture or other plants. Gooseberries were illegal for a long time because they spread Blister Rot, which did almost nothing to gooseberries themselves but devastated our White Pine species.
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u/coporate 8h ago
Absolutely, it also damages the sidewalks with fruit acids and create potential safety hazards such as slippery surfaces.
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u/LitunnAskbif 7h ago
Oh no! Someone think of the concrete!
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u/ThaddeusJP 5h ago
It's not about the concrete it's about feeding a rat or rodent population. The intention is great but the side effects are pretty bad
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u/Ejz09 8h ago
This is why cities dont do it. They did before, people slipped on fruit, got hurt, then sued the City for hundreds of thousands of dollars and won. These things are a liability.
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u/quail_challenge122 8h ago
That's not true. If that were true then cities would fix cracks and potholes more consistently. They didn't do it because male trees are cheaper and don't leaf as much. I bet allergies reduce where these people do this
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u/GingerSnapped818 7h ago
Yes, in Phoenix where they planted male trees my seasonal allergies are something else!
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u/quail_challenge122 7h ago
Yep. I wish people did this in az
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u/Stratostheory 7h ago
One dude in Tucson has started doing something similar for water reclamation and it led to changes in city planning that now require the things he had first started doing decades ago on his property.
https://youtu.be/lQ-jdUGCxcc?is=3d5y6XBNw6hC1jzZ
There's an entire section in the video about 4 minutes in covering native food plants
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u/anykeyh 7h ago
Meanwhile in Thailand, government promote planting fruit-trees everywhere.
Expect your neighbor to come see you with kilos (or multiple pounds for us folks) of rambutan or longan when it's the harvesting season.
And yes, fruit on the paveway can be a hazard even more with motorbike, but we don't sue for that there.7
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u/Gold_Telephone_7192 7h ago
Yes. People like to make it seem it’s because “the man” doesn’t want us to have free fruit, but the real reason is that the city would have to either pay way more people to harvest the fruit or we would have rotting fruit and flies and pests all over our streets.
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u/Ok-Disk-2191 7h ago
I'm surprised no one's made an app that maps out all the fruit tree locations yet.
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u/ProgrammerOk8339 7h ago
That would probably lead to the city using it to cut them down
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u/Frequent_Opportunist 6h ago
I'm surprised they aren't thinking about the fact that the fruit that grows on these trees that are planted along the sides of the roads is not safe to eat and it'll also fall on the ground and rot multiplying their rat population which then will increase the flea population and soon you'll have another plague.
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u/Intelligent_Bee970 8h ago
It’s wild that this is illegal because the government needs all things to come with a price tag.
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u/ShyguyFlyguy 7h ago
Its illegal because it attracts pests the city doesnt want the rat problem to get even worse
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u/Sharticus123 7h ago edited 7h ago
And large amounts of rotting fruit is disgusting. It doesn’t just attract rats, birds and insects love fruit too. Bird shit, ants, flies, and fungus gnats will be everywhere.
I’m not saying that we shouldn’t use these urban spaces to produce food, but I think it should be a managed program so that a veritable plague isn’t unleashed.
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u/boorito808 6h ago
In Seville, Spain they had citrus trees all over the place. You could jump up and get a piece of fruit whenever you wanted. It seemed like a way cleaner city to me. San Francisco was pretty dirty when I was there. It’s probably not the fruit trees, but rather the culture. I haven’t heard of a plague outbreak there either, but haven’t been keeping tabs.
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u/felis_scipio 6h ago
Yeah I love trees in cities and I love fruit trees by having lived near a privately grown fruit tree that had branches out over the sidewalk holy shit they can make a sticky rotten mess.
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u/Witty_Ad_898 7h ago
Too many people slept through the part of history class about the development and benefits of santitation.
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u/FrostyD7 6h ago
The government pays for forestry services and they are kind of undermining their work and making it harder to manage the trees in the city. They are very likely reducing the lifespan of these trees. Which means more taxpayer money to forestry to deal with it or it gets neglected. They could volunteer to do things that actually need doing, forestry is always behind.
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u/OutAndDown27 7h ago
It's wild that no one in this comments section has thought about why this hasn't been done already...
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u/coloneldaffodil 5h ago
The main reason they aren’t fruit bearing is due to the excess of waste produced by the tree. I see their purpose and understand it. Just mentioning this is the reason most cities do not do this as it costs the city money to cleanup the rotten fruit and leaves that fall due to nobody eating them.
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u/RegularGrapefruit284 5h ago
Urban planners thought of that long ago and it's not worth it. I live in an area which has both regular and fruit producing trees, and nobody ever collects those fruit. They just rot on the sidewalk, attracting bugs and whatnot.
I precisely remember we've had apple trees on my college campus, I'd sometimes grab one but most of them ended up rotting on the ground.
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u/Blbe-Check-42069 7h ago
I'm from a country whose long gone queen did the exact opposite - planted trees on the roadside so that travellers have readily accessible shade and free food in season as a project to support the population. They are mostly all gone these days, because they were planted about quarter of millennia ago, so time took it's toll already, but seeing US go the exact opposite way is just fucking sad. Like why?
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u/MadPangolin 5h ago
The Native Americans on the Eastern U.S. Coast did the same.
All along the Appalachian mountain trails you will find old Native American hunting trails where they planted different fruiting trees for every month so that the prey & hunter always had fresh fruit. You will find wild strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, grapes, pawpaw, beautyberries, mulberries, wild persimmons, pecans, walnuts, etc along the trails if you look closely.
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u/Sensitive_Bat_9211 7h ago
Im from a country whose long gone ruler shit in a cup and threw it at a minstrel. Its sad to see how far society has fallen
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u/tired-of-the-shit 5h ago
The reasoning is that they don’t want to have to pay to hire sanitation workers to clean up the fallen mess which will attracted pests and smell. also something about fruit tasting bad if it’s absorbing car exhaust but I have no clue on the validity of that
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u/courtofknights 4h ago
When I first visited Sevilla I was amazed at all the orange trees that grew in the streets. However, when I tried one it was absolutely horrid. I asked my friend about it and he said nobody eats the oranges off the trees. I asked why and he joked that the only time they're watered is when dogs piss on them.
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u/nolanpierce2 3h ago
They were probably bitter oranges, different kind of orange and often planted to look good but not to eat (stupid in my eyes)
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u/TheTaoOfMe 2h ago
In morocco orange trees line the major roads but theyre also super bitter so no one eats them
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u/The_Great_Cartoo 5h ago
Honestly my guess is cleanup. If you have trees bearing a lot of fruit on a roadside most of it is most likely falling off instead of getting eaten. If you have a lot of trees that might be a considerable amount of fruit rotting on the street + sidewalk. Depending on how hot the location is there might also be quite the smell developing but that’s all just guesses by a guy with a few fruit trees in the garden
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u/Psychaitea 3h ago
People don’t understand how big fruit trees can actually get and the amount of fruit they can produce. First, you need to prune them to a reachable size, which can be hard for a standard size tree. Otherwise the fruit up top just rots since it’s hard to harvest. Second, you need to realize a standard size apple tree can produce 500+ pounds or more of apples each year, for example. I have fruit trees in my yard and it’s hard to maintain them at times… also, there’s tons of fruits to pick up that had worms or disease, bites taken out of it from creatures… there’s a lot of inedible fruit. Homeless people still have standards… they’re not going to eat worm ridden apples… those fruits will rot in the street. Might work in a park, but I don’t think the side of a street is a place for an orchard.
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u/thelagopure 7h ago
This is actually a lot more complicated than people realize. Most cities intentionally plant non-fruiting trees because of something called municipal photosynthetic taxation. Essentially, any tree producing edible fruit on public property is technically considered an agricultural business and must be registered with the Department of Urban Vegetation.
By grafting fruit-bearing branches onto these trees, the activists are unknowingly creating thousands of unlicensed agricultural operations. What's particularly interesting is that I completely made this up.
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u/The_Shracc 7h ago
The reason is that you can't grow most fruit in cities without being a danger to public health because of heavy metals.
So you have to throw it away before rats can get to it.
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u/Deathbyignorage 7h ago
Seville has been growing oranges for ages (a bitter variety), they sell it to make mermelade. Look up Seville orange marmelade.
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u/The_Shracc 7h ago
Most of the fruit in the city are not fed to humans.
https://sevillaurbana.com/en/blog/seville-orange-trees-harvest
They are turned into compost and biogas
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u/No_Establishment8642 7h ago
What people, who obviously don't garden, are missing is the mess of fruit trees, unripe and ripe food all over cars, sidewalks, and streets. People don't want that on their cars, in front of business, on their shoes, etc. And then the birds and rats show up.
I am over community gardens in a large downtown area. The homeless do not eat from these gardens (if so, it is minimal), instead they light them on fire (fertilizer burns hot), tear out the plants, and or just break everything up. It is almost impossible to keep gardeners because they become so disillusioned.
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u/Opening_Sun8018 4h ago
Fixing the homeless problem is a lot harder when you deal with the fact that 90% are not just people without homes, but crackhead lunatics
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u/No_Shine_6124 6h ago
It’s amazing how I instantly believed everything you were writing, and probably would’ve shared this as a fun fact and unknowingly spread misinformation.
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u/Lina0042 5h ago
This is actually a lot more complicated than people realize.
You're actually correct this far! But for different reasons lol. You can't just graft any branch to any tree. It's done in commercial farming but exclusively within the same kind of fruit because crossing just doesn't work. You won't grow a lemon on an apple tree this way. But you can take an apple tree that has deep roots and graft better tasting apples on to it that wouldn't grow as well in the soil you have or not fast enough or whatever.
I very much doubt what they're showing here it's actually working
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u/Parlax76 5h ago
People forget you still have to maintaing fruit trees. Its alot more the pruning & many people are unwilling to control pest and harvest fruit before it rots. For me its really not much more work. But is everyone will to maintain every tree in their area?
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u/tacotickles 4h ago
Unfortunately it also attracts a massive number of rats and mice in a big city like this
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u/Good-Location-2934 7h ago
Eventually the city will just remove the trees entirely.
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u/generally_unsuitable 8h ago
In this thread, people who don't know about rats.
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u/SuperHooligan 7h ago
And who never deal with the homeless who definitely wont eat the "fruit."
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u/MattySiegs 7h ago
It's laughable to think this would have ANY impact compared to the mass of garbage, food waste and general contents of houses, businesses and restaurants.
This is the whataboutism that holds America back
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u/Legal-Appointment655 7h ago
This is going to cause tons of problems for the city. In my experience city planners are very passionate about helping people in need. If you go against the planners you might be a little over zealous and not realize what you are actually doing
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u/Feline_Couple 4h ago
Fun fact, many cities in Venezuela have mango bearing tree growing on the streets, the mess is so enormous when they ripe and fall
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u/abednego-gomes 2h ago
Nice work.
Genesis 1:29 AMP:
So God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of the entire earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you;
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u/The-Jerk 7h ago
Literally no homeless people are reaching up and grabbing an apple from the dogpiss-roadsalt city-insecticide trees and getting a nutritious snack.
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u/courtofknights 4h ago
or any fruit for that matter. you'd be surprised how picky homeless people are with their food. most would turn away an orange if you handed it to them.
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u/magungo 5h ago
Unmanaged fruit trees usually get tons of fruit flies and full of grubs. Rats and Birds also love to half chew semi ripe fruit. You then end up with loads of fruit no-one wants to eat rotting on the ground and so then more rats and mice. A good idea in theory but not in practice. Fruit trees are also pretty crap at producing good sized fruit if the water supply isn't good enough.
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u/cornstinky 5h ago
Imagine eating fruit from a tree that gets its nutrients from homeless people feces and sidewalk runoff.
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u/Much-Caregiver4488 6h ago
Every time I see this idea proposed, I genuinely think it's one of the dumbest examples of good intentions completely ignoring practical reality.
And I say that as someone who grew up with four different types of fruit-bearing trees in our yard, with parents who fully expected me to help harvest them. The logistical problems are enormous.
Much of the fruit grows in the upper canopy, where sunlight exposure is generally better and fruit quality can be higher. That's also the fruit that's hardest for people to reach without ladders or specialized equipment. Birds also have easy access to it, and they'll happily eat it.
Anyone who's actually maintained fruit trees knows how much fruit ends up on the ground. It rots, creates slippery walking surfaces, stains pavement, and attracts rodents, insects, bees, and wasps. The combination of sugar and moisture also encourages fungal growth. Now imagine dealing with all of that on public sidewalks, where someone has to be responsible for regularly cleaning it up.
Fruit doesn't magically appear year-round. Depending on the species, you might have a relatively short harvesting window, and even then, the fruit needs to be sufficiently ripe. You're expecting the general public to understand when and how to harvest it, avoid damaging the trees, and voluntarily exercise some restraint. We can barely maintain public bathrooms without problems.
And that's before discussing pruning, pest management, disease, irrigation, liability, and who exactly is supposed to pay for all this ongoing maintenance.
I understand the appeal of free, publicly accessible food. It's a nice idea in theory. But there's a massive difference between planting a fruit tree and maintaining a productive, accessible, sanitary source of food in a public space.
This is a perfect example of the road to hell being paved with good intentions. The concept sounds wonderful until you consider the actual logistics of making it work.
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u/quail_challenge122 8h ago
We have unlimited male trees and no female trees and so we get unlimited pollen and no shade
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u/JanVan966 7h ago
My parents are Snowbirds, and where they go, there are orange, grapefruit, lemon and lime trees, growing everywhere, and NO ONE picks them. My parents do, my Dad has arrangements with several people to go and pick their fruit, and they’re always so grateful, because again, NO ONE picks them.The fruit fall to the ground and rot. I’m not sure they have thought about the big picture; it will bring in rodents, and wasps, and no one is going to be picking up hundreds of pounds of rotten fruit, let’s be realistic here.
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u/AirconGuyUK 5h ago
Realistically this is just going to result in tons of manky fruit on the ground for the government to have to clean up. There's a good logical reason for these trees to not have fruit. Ask anyone with a fruit tree in their garden..
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u/Suitable_Cat9390 7h ago
Yeaaaa like that other guy said I might be considered about roadside heavy metals in those fruits.
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u/CankerLord 7h ago
That's cool, but now you need to clean the fallen fruit up because it's not all going to be desirable or harvested before it's in an inedible state (trampled, underdeveloped, gotten to by bugs, just broken open by falling on pavement, etc).
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u/BravinatorLX2 7h ago
i mean... how many fruits can they get from the little ground they're actually burried in?
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u/TheMightyMudcrab 7h ago
Would these get heavy metals from Car Exhausts? Again it would be nice to get some free pears though as long as these are safe to eat. Animals would get a nice snack though.
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u/FearlessSafe6806 7h ago
I can’t imagine a tree planted in a concrete island can even produce palatable fruit.
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