I usually regard these as autumn fruits, picking
September/October, but this year some are ready now. I've been
picking a few off various bushes in the fields for a couple of
weeks now. There are still bushed just developing fruits and
even some flowers. Has anyone else noticed this or is it
peculiar to this area this year?


--
Roger T

700 ft up in Mid-Wales

In article ,
says...

I usually regard these as autumn fruits, picking
September/October, but this year some are ready now. I've been
picking a few off various bushes in the fields for a couple of
weeks now. There are still bushed just developing fruits and
even some flowers. Has anyone else noticed this or is it
peculiar to this area this year?

Lucky you. Ours are barely past the flowering stage, just little
green hard nubs. (Isle of Arran, west Scotland).

Janet

Janet wrote:

Has anyone else noticed this or is it
peculiar to this area this year?

I've noticed several people picking them from the hedgerows already
(East Midlands).

On 05/08/2017 22:58, Andy Burns wrote:
Janet wrote:

Has anyone else noticed this or is it
peculiar to this area this year?

I've noticed several people picking them from the hedgerows already
(East Midlands).

I have one patch with a heavy ripe crop whilst others are just finishing
flowering.
David@the wet side of Swansea bay

On 05/08/2017 22:30, Roger Tonkin wrote:
I usually regard these as autumn fruits, picking
September/October, but this year some are ready now. I've been
picking a few off various bushes in the fields for a couple of
weeks now. There are still bushed just developing fruits and
even some flowers. Has anyone else noticed this or is it
peculiar to this area this year?


Possibly a combination of some early cultivars escaping and an unusually
warm Summer so far? I noticed it last year as well in the South.

--
Tciao for Now!

John.

In message ,
Roger Tonkin writes

I usually regard these as autumn fruits, picking
September/October, but this year some are ready now. I've been
picking a few off various bushes in the fields for a couple of
weeks now. There are still bushed just developing fruits and
even some flowers. Has anyone else noticed this or is it
peculiar to this area this year?

Yes, mine are early but only a few here and there (Central Southern
England and Normandy) . However I remember from childhood holidays about
seventy years ago that blackberries were ripe in the West Country from
about the second week of August.

This year I noticed that some of my grapes growing against a wall were
beginning to ripen in the last week of July which is very early. They
normally begin to ripen in the last week of August. Plums also are much
earlier.

David

--
David Rance writing from Le Mesnil Villement, Calvados, France

On 06/08/17 08:10, David Rance wrote:
In message ,
Roger Tonkin writes

I usually regard these as autumn fruits, picking
September/October, but this year some are ready now. I've been
picking a few off various bushes in the fields for a couple of
weeks now. There are still bushed just developing fruits and
even some flowers. Has anyone else noticed this or is it
peculiar to this area this year?

Yes, mine are early but only a few here and there (Central Southern
England and Normandy) . However I remember from childhood holidays about
seventy years ago that blackberries were ripe in the West Country from
about the second week of August.

This year I noticed that some of my grapes growing against a wall were
beginning to ripen in the last week of July which is very early. They
normally begin to ripen in the last week of August. Plums also are much
earlier.

Yes, our Black Hamburg are pretty much ripe, even though outside and not
on a wall. The wasps will be pleased...

--

Jeff

Roger Tonkin wrote:
I usually regard these as autumn fruits, picking
September/October, but this year some are ready now. I've been
picking a few off various bushes in the fields for a couple of
weeks now. There are still bushed just developing fruits and
even some flowers. Has anyone else noticed this or is it
peculiar to this area this year?

Ours are ripe now, very ripe in fact, fat and sweet.

--
Chris Green
·

Chris Green wrote:
Roger Tonkin wrote:
I usually regard these as autumn fruits, picking
September/October, but this year some are ready now. I've been
picking a few off various bushes in the fields for a couple of
weeks now. There are still bushed just developing fruits and
even some flowers. Has anyone else noticed this or is it
peculiar to this area this year?

Ours are ripe now, very ripe in fact, fat and sweet.

(In South Suffolk by the way)

--
Chris Green
·

In article ,
John Williamson wrote:
On 05/08/2017 22:30, Roger Tonkin wrote:
I usually regard these as autumn fruits, picking
September/October, but this year some are ready now. I've been
picking a few off various bushes in the fields for a couple of
weeks now. There are still bushed just developing fruits and
even some flowers. Has anyone else noticed this or is it
peculiar to this area this year?

Possibly a combination of some early cultivars escaping and an unusually
warm Summer so far? I noticed it last year as well in the South.

The latter. Some wild ones are doing it round here, and I ate one
a week or so ago.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

On 05/08/17 22:30, Roger Tonkin wrote:
I usually regard these as autumn fruits, picking
September/October, but this year some are ready now. I've been
picking a few off various bushes in the fields for a couple of
weeks now. There are still bushed just developing fruits and
even some flowers. Has anyone else noticed this or is it
peculiar to this area this year?

Walking near Bristol today, a few blackberries were
edible, while a short distance away (100m horizontally,
20m vertically) some had flower petals. The vast majority
were in between: most green, some verging towards ripe.

On 05/08/2017 22:30, Roger Tonkin wrote:
I usually regard these as autumn fruits, picking
September/October, but this year some are ready now. I've been
picking a few off various bushes in the fields for a couple of
weeks now. There are still bushed just developing fruits and
even some flowers. Has anyone else noticed this or is it
peculiar to this area this year?

They do seem very early this year. We have a large crop of ripe brambles
right now too - and they are too early to use with apples as the latter
are slower than usual this season (as are the beans).

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

On 07/08/2017 11:57, Martin Brown wrote:
On 05/08/2017 22:30, Roger Tonkin wrote:
I usually regard these as autumn fruits, picking
September/October, but this year some are ready now. I've been
picking a few off various bushes in the fields for a couple of
weeks now. There are still bushed just developing fruits and
even some flowers. Has anyone else noticed this or is it
peculiar to this area this year?

They do seem very early this year. We have a large crop of ripe brambles
right now too - and they are too early to use with apples as the latter
are slower than usual this season (as are the beans).

My cultivated thornless (about 15 years old) are fruiting well - about
6lbs so far from one root. Timing is about the same as last year but
the yield is slightly down as there was less new growth. I expect to be
picking for about another week

Malcolm
on the South Coast close to Portsmouth

Martin Brown wrote:
On 05/08/2017 22:30, Roger Tonkin wrote:
I usually regard these as autumn fruits, picking
September/October, but this year some are ready now. I've been
picking a few off various bushes in the fields for a couple of
weeks now. There are still bushed just developing fruits and
even some flowers. Has anyone else noticed this or is it
peculiar to this area this year?

They do seem very early this year. We have a large crop of ripe brambles
right now too - and they are too early to use with apples as the latter
are slower than usual this season (as are the beans).

Our apples seem quite early as well as the blackberries. Our 'not
Bramley' cooking apples are ready and the Bramleys are just on the
verge of being ready.

--
Chris Green
·

Roger Tonkin wrote:
: I usually regard these as autumn fruits, picking
: September/October, but this year some are ready now. I've been
: picking a few off various bushes in the fields for a couple of
: weeks now. There are still bushed just developing fruits and
: even some flowers. Has anyone else noticed this or is it
: peculiar to this area this year?


It is the same in S.E Essex. The local woods are full of brambles
which usually produce little if any fruit but are laden this year.
Our cultivated garden blackberries (Fantasia) are full of ripe fruit.

Tom.

Ps. The email address in the header is just a spam-trap.
--
Tom Crane, Dept. Physics, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham Hill,
Egham, Surrey, TW20 0EX, England.
Email: T dot Crane at rhul dot ac dot uk