Just another uninformed idiot idea. Fruit trees don’t bear fruit in the first several years, the trees need constant attention, to produce well, fruit trees are climate particular and in cold weather require warming to avoid loss of fruit and to maintain tree health. Some varieties require thinning of immature fruit to insure tree and crop health. Trees must be trimmed regularly to promote tree health and fruit production. Other than that, it’s a great idea. Oh I forgot. The trees probably don’t appreciate the high levels of pollution along city streets.
Maybe not on side walks and close to roads but in city parks and suburban green areas it would be nice. Actually where I come from in Germany there are many areas where you have fruit trees and nut trees and berry shrubs growing and people can come and pick up fruits and chestnuts and hazle nuts and walnuts that have fallen onto the fields and meadows. Also picking mushrooms and berries in the many little city forests that are accessible for everyone is a common activity.
How about hiring homeless, needy and able-bodied people on public assistance to work in a garden planting all kinds of food and managing it for themselves and others?
People would hoard the fruit then when demand developed for fruit people would blame the city for not planting enough trees. Eventually fruit would be outlawed and fruit cartels would develop. A sudden increase in crime would follow. Next thing you know someone would be trying to sell your kids kiwifruit on the playground. One day you’d come home from work to find your significant other “juicing”. Families fall apart, businesses that once sold legal fruit close, and the area becomes Detroit. All because someone thought it would be a good idea to provide free fruit.
In Md. there’s a farmer that grows fruit and vegetables for the homeless volunteers take care of picking everything. Maybe that would be better choice. First Fruits Farm Inc. Look it up on Facebook if your close volunteer.
here is the problem any fruit that rots will bring insects that sting animals that bite cars will slip on the rotten fruit on the streets people on the sidewalks the smell of all that rotten fruit will have you closeing you windows and when the fruit turns we will have drunk racoons, foxes ect.
I have a pear tree that’s 86 years old & we don’t do anything to it…we live in PA. The problem is that around August there are loads of bees & wasps around the tree! If the fruit drops before you get to pick it it’s a mess! Also the animals do come to eat the fruit that falls to the ground! So I don’t think it’s a good idea!
In Italy (Sorrento) fruit trees line the streets and I believe you can pick them as it’s govt sponsored to prevent hunger, also in Valencia (Spain).. .Google is great!
Every city village should plant it on public lands where their residents who are paying taxes could benefit from it.variety of fruit trees chosen what is conducive for each place and taken cared by street caretakers paid by the village. How about that…
I’m thinking the fruit would just rot off the tree, and then would have to be cleaned up off the sidewalks giving the city another reason to employ thousands of fruit pickers costing millions as we the taxpayer fund this, not much is free if your a taxpayer…
Fruit trees don’t produce all yr long, only in season. And who picks up the fallen fruit? Or does it just lay and rot? I have 30 fruit bearing trees/plants. You have to put in work to get a harvest.
Somebody is going to gripe about the leaves falling, the rotten fruit falling, the birds and on and on. But, i bet you never here of those people dropping off a sack of can goods at church or the food pantry. I always thought county and state prisoners could use some of the large medians along wide roadways to plant crops.
Yes, but many would prefer you plant tree baring drugs and the poor mentally ill wouldn’t care. Those groups are the majority of the homeless. Of course you have people who have falling on hard times but they would rather have an auto plant rather than a fruit plant so they could get a job!!!
What about short homeless people? And besides, somebody would fall to the sidewalk and sue the city for nine million for discrimination and negligence and get it. Chitty but true.
I imagine eating that fruit all the time would get old, then I’d probably be picking it and trying to sell it back to you and if that didn’t pan out I’d probably be out back trying to make hootch out of it. Just saying.đŸ¤”
Mankind is so most older homes have fruit trees in the front lawn so if you was hungry you can pick you a little snack they either remove the trees and plants non-edible tree or didn’t plant no tree at all I remember walking 2 the mall and picking plums apples oranges lemons peaches do anybody remember kumquats
I think that’s a great idea. However, I remember receiving a Citation in Miami Florida for picking up Piece of Fruit that had already fallen to the ground. This happened in “Biscayne Park” right across the street from the Hotel I was living in at the time. I was also 14 years old.
Why not stop the illegal immigrants from coming in by the millions and take the money we are spending on them to get our own citizens educated and working and off the streets! Put a stop to the drugs and whiskey destroying people’s minds and them creating babies they don’t want because of their fornication and sins! America was better off 150 yrs ago than we are now!
You all forget to that all fruit trees have a season. Citrus is fall and winter, apples and pears usually summer and fall ,fruit with stones peaches and plums vary by area. You can’t grow all fruit everywhere and some of the people it is meant for will use green fruit for missiles. Not to mention the fruit rats that will be attracted to the trees.
I thought we are supposed to be getting people off the streets, not making it more environmentally friendly for em… Not a bad idea but I got a problem with the cause
If the city plants them and not necessarily on the sidewalk they could maintain them just like other trees or flowers. Yes and maybe hire some homeless or needy people to help. Trying something is actually better than just deciding it won’t work.
No,not,never..the ultimate objective is to get people off the street,not perpetually keep them there,sounds exactly like liberal welfare thinking at its best.
It would be too big of a mess from uneaten/rotting fruit that the city wouldn’t want to foot the clean-up bill, plus it would attract some varmints and other wildlife to populated areas.
However, planting them in parks and other grassy areas seems more realistic, as it would also feed the wildlife.
Sure and sue the towns/cities if they get sick from eating rotten fruit, slipping on an apple peel etc. Good intentions always seem to have unintended consequences as a result!
That’s a very nice idea but who is going to take care of them? They need to be sprayed. Who is going to clean up the sidewalks when the uneaten fruit is falling all over. Maybe community gardens that the homeless could help take care of in exchange for produce. We are getting far too many people who want to do nothing and get everything free. Pretty soon there wont be any people left working/ paying for things. Then what happens?
Somehow the “city fathers” would find a way to charge a tax for each piece of fruit. And costly permits would be needed. Arborists would weigh in with costs for their services. I guarantee it. Oh — and there would be lawsuits if some kid with allergies got sick. It would be a good idea that turned into a can of worms.
I know, have known, have helped many homeless and hungry people over many years. Specific to my homeland, San Diego, CA add this to the agenda to help this overwhelming issue here in our own backyards. Wake up San Diego government. Think forward – even though so far you have not done so if you even care or are capable – only flying by the seat of your pants to ONLY clean up the mess after a crisis – like Hep A outbreak in downtown San Diego where many people in the streets died, and infected many more who survived. Not to mention, no way to promote “Americas Finest City.” Often, the “back seat drivers” are the most informed — get off your” high horse” of CONTROL and work with those who are in the trenches that know much more than you.
Hemet, California had their streets lined with orange trees way back in the 70s. When we drove through there, the wind was blowing hard, and the sidewalks and gutters were covered with hundreds of beautiful oranges. We stopped and gathered a large paper bag full of them. I peeled one and took one bite. (!) I stopped and poured them out into the gutter. They were the most horrendously acidic, awful things I ever tasted. Only my kids could have eaten them. That is when I found that fruits need to be cared for to “sweeten the soil”, etc. But, when my kids were 2-8 years old, they ate the sourest white grapefruit directly from our trees, biting right through the rind. No fruit ever “ripened” in our yard. Our kids devoured them all when still green.
Oh, boy…..hard to judge but if you have fruit trees you know full well just how messy they are if not kept picked once they begin to ripen…..could be more costly than if fruit was given through food banks…..maybe…..but goodness the ripening stage would be lovely smelling up the place…..awful during “rott” stage……….
If you don’t pick up the fruit that falls to the ground it becomes a nuisance and health hazard. It will attract rats, which will carry disease and attract snakes, etc. If the fruit suffers from any kind of canker or other disease then it will be a very hard problem to take care of. Then there is the liability of someone eating a piece and heaven forbid choking on it, or claiming such, or slipping on it, or being hit with a piece of fruit by someone, etc. Liability falls also on the entity that put the fruit there with dedicated effort. And what happens when the homeless start picking it en mass and selling it on the side of the road? Who bears responsibility for any contagion, etc. that may arise from the sale of this fruit?
Fruit trees need a lot of maintaining to keep them producing edible fruit…and you have to pick the fruit quickly when its ripe ..and you have to have a plan for picking distribution and or canning when its ready….your city needs to juice r can the excess or it just goes to waste and rots….i can see by the statements herein that most people have no idea about orchards or farming in general…a better idea would be to have your local high school set a side land for a garden and then have the children learn to manage it as a class…they can control access and production and run a farmer’s market and donate some of the produce and juice and preserves to the needy and homeless.
Yeah….like that would last! It would be destroyed by the same people who can benefit from it. Same people who throw their garbage out from their windows, who let their dogs crap all over the sidewalk, and turn their children and pets loose when they tire of them…
Dont think so. Who will clean up the mess the trees and the people will make not even mentioning the increase in the rat population. Good intention but bad idea.
I gave out fruit, apples mostly, to homeless on the street as part of my street outreach services. I got in trouble for the litter of apple cores tossed on ground, sidewalk, instead of garbage. I mean ppl were REALLY upset. So much so I would either wait while they ate it so I could take the core or not give out. It turned into a stressful activity due to the demands of the population at large.
In theory it’s a lovely idea. However, in reality, in warmer southern climates at least, it would create a fruit-rat infestation. Once the fruit is gone, they try to get inside your home. I know this from living in Florida for fifteen years. We had a couple of orange trees in our yard for awhile. We ended up cutting them down because they were too close to the house.
First of all like a person already said you cant just plant them without caring for them and what are you going to do when the fruit is ripe give the homeless ladders to reach the fruit. Most fruit would be in the higher part of the tree. And would not fall until it’s over ripe. And if not picked and it falls to the ground what would you do about the rats,mice and insects that the rotten fruit would draw.
While this sounds like a good idea, the reality of it is not. Even if people were kind and took care of the trees and only took what they would eat, what happens to the remaining fruit? The ones with spots on them, or the ones that fell to the ground and rotted? The fruit then becomes a liability to the city….I.e. someone steps on the rotting fruit, slips, falls and breaks a leg. We are such a litigious society, the ramifications would bankrupt a city!
That sounds like a good idea but whose going to clean up the mess left by All The Unwanted fruit because the homeless aren’t going to do it. it’ll cost the city money to do it so in reality it’s not really that good of an idea.
My parents planted lots of fruit trees in our back yard, when we were young. It was great we had fruit all summer long. My parents paid a water bill, but we got free fruit. I think if the world would work together on a project like this it would benefit all of us.
Fruit trees do not produce all year long. However, they do drop the produce and cause a mess on the ground. Parks and yards would be better for them instead of streets and sidewalks. The wildlife also enjoy the fruit trees.
I understand that in Florida. people are not allowed to have fruit trees on their own property because producing fruit in their own back yards hurts the fruit industry in Florida. This is no joke. My sister-in-laws neighbor had his grapefruit trees removed (full of fruit) and had to submit to this ordinance.
Here’s an idea to consider: good liberals should take the homeless into their own homes and provide “free” housing, schooling, healthcare, food, legal expenses and recreational facilities for them. Just as they’re demanding the rest of us do for illegals.
Terrible idea, sounds great but it really is a bad idea. We need a better solution. I’m not sure, maybe the one France is trying, distributing food from grocery stores that would otherwise be tossed.
Just another uninformed idiot idea. Fruit trees don’t bear fruit in the first several years, the trees need constant attention, to produce well, fruit trees are climate particular and in cold weather require warming to avoid loss of fruit and to maintain tree health. Some varieties require thinning of immature fruit to insure tree and crop health. Trees must be trimmed regularly to promote tree health and fruit production. Other than that, it’s a great idea. Oh I forgot. The trees probably don’t appreciate the high levels of pollution along city streets.
Maybe not on side walks and close to roads but in city parks and suburban green areas it would be nice. Actually where I come from in Germany there are many areas where you have fruit trees and nut trees and berry shrubs growing and people can come and pick up fruits and chestnuts and hazle nuts and walnuts that have fallen onto the fields and meadows. Also picking mushrooms and berries in the many little city forests that are accessible for everyone is a common activity.
How about hiring homeless, needy and able-bodied people on public assistance to work in a garden planting all kinds of food and managing it for themselves and others?
People would hoard the fruit then when demand developed for fruit people would blame the city for not planting enough trees. Eventually fruit would be outlawed and fruit cartels would develop. A sudden increase in crime would follow. Next thing you know someone would be trying to sell your kids kiwifruit on the playground. One day you’d come home from work to find your significant other “juicing”. Families fall apart, businesses that once sold legal fruit close, and the area becomes Detroit. All because someone thought it would be a good idea to provide free fruit.
Well I liked the idea. I liked the picture. But after reading just a few of these comments, I seriously wonder if there is any hope for America.
In Md. there’s a farmer that grows fruit and vegetables for the homeless volunteers take care of picking everything. Maybe that would be better choice. First Fruits Farm Inc. Look it up on Facebook if your close volunteer.
here is the problem any fruit that rots will bring insects that sting animals that bite cars will slip on the rotten fruit on the streets people on the sidewalks the smell of all that rotten fruit will have you closeing you windows and when the fruit turns we will have drunk racoons, foxes ect.
Trees do not produce all year long 1 and 2 greedy people will take the fruit and they won’t leave it for the homeless people
I have a pear tree that’s 86 years old & we don’t do anything to it…we live in PA. The problem is that around August there are loads of bees & wasps around the tree! If the fruit drops before you get to pick it it’s a mess! Also the animals do come to eat the fruit that falls to the ground! So I don’t think it’s a good idea!
In Italy (Sorrento) fruit trees line the streets and I believe you can pick them as it’s govt sponsored to prevent hunger, also in Valencia (Spain).. .Google is great!
Every city village should plant it on public lands where their residents who are paying taxes could benefit from it.variety of fruit trees chosen what is conducive for each place and taken cared by street caretakers paid by the village. How about that…
I’m thinking the fruit would just rot off the tree, and then would have to be cleaned up off the sidewalks giving the city another reason to employ thousands of fruit pickers costing millions as we the taxpayer fund this, not much is free if your a taxpayer…
Fruit trees don’t produce all yr long, only in season. And who picks up the fallen fruit? Or does it just lay and rot? I have 30 fruit bearing trees/plants. You have to put in work to get a harvest.
Somebody is going to gripe about the leaves falling, the rotten fruit falling, the birds and on and on. But, i bet you never here of those people dropping off a sack of can goods at church or the food pantry. I always thought county and state prisoners could use some of the large medians along wide roadways to plant crops.
Well I lived in Brisbane for years. There mango trees on some streets.
I now have a lemon tree, a lime tree and an orange tree. They rely almost completely on rainfall.
Yes, but many would prefer you plant tree baring drugs and the poor mentally ill wouldn’t care. Those groups are the majority of the homeless. Of course you have people who have falling on hard times but they would rather have an auto plant rather than a fruit plant so they could get a job!!!
What about short homeless people? And besides, somebody would fall to the sidewalk and sue the city for nine million for discrimination and negligence and get it. Chitty but true.
I imagine eating that fruit all the time would get old, then I’d probably be picking it and trying to sell it back to you and if that didn’t pan out I’d probably be out back trying to make hootch out of it. Just saying.đŸ¤”
Mankind is so most older homes have fruit trees in the front lawn so if you was hungry you can pick you a little snack they either remove the trees and plants non-edible tree or didn’t plant no tree at all I remember walking 2 the mall and picking plums apples oranges lemons peaches do anybody remember kumquats
I think that’s a great idea. However, I remember receiving a Citation in Miami Florida for picking up Piece of Fruit that had already fallen to the ground. This happened in “Biscayne Park” right across the street from the Hotel I was living in at the time. I was also 14 years old.
Why not stop the illegal immigrants from coming in by the millions and take the money we are spending on them to get our own citizens educated and working and off the streets! Put a stop to the drugs and whiskey destroying people’s minds and them creating babies they don’t want because of their fornication and sins! America was better off 150 yrs ago than we are now!
You all forget to that all fruit trees have a season. Citrus is fall and winter, apples and pears usually summer and fall ,fruit with stones peaches and plums vary by area. You can’t grow all fruit everywhere and some of the people it is meant for will use green fruit for missiles. Not to mention the fruit rats that will be attracted to the trees.
I thought we are supposed to be getting people off the streets, not making it more environmentally friendly for em… Not a bad idea but I got a problem with the cause
If the city plants them and not necessarily on the sidewalk they could maintain them just like other trees or flowers. Yes and maybe hire some homeless or needy people to help. Trying something is actually better than just deciding it won’t work.
No,not,never..the ultimate objective is to get people off the street,not perpetually keep them there,sounds exactly like liberal welfare thinking at its best.
It would be too big of a mess from uneaten/rotting fruit that the city wouldn’t want to foot the clean-up bill, plus it would attract some varmints and other wildlife to populated areas.
However, planting them in parks and other grassy areas seems more realistic, as it would also feed the wildlife.
Sure and sue the towns/cities if they get sick from eating rotten fruit, slipping on an apple peel etc. Good intentions always seem to have unintended consequences as a result!
That’s a very nice idea but who is going to take care of them? They need to be sprayed. Who is going to clean up the sidewalks when the uneaten fruit is falling all over. Maybe community gardens that the homeless could help take care of in exchange for produce. We are getting far too many people who want to do nothing and get everything free. Pretty soon there wont be any people left working/ paying for things. Then what happens?
Somehow the “city fathers” would find a way to charge a tax for each piece of fruit. And costly permits would be needed. Arborists would weigh in with costs for their services. I guarantee it. Oh — and there would be lawsuits if some kid with allergies got sick. It would be a good idea that turned into a can of worms.
I know, have known, have helped many homeless and hungry people over many years. Specific to my homeland, San Diego, CA add this to the agenda to help this overwhelming issue here in our own backyards. Wake up San Diego government. Think forward – even though so far you have not done so if you even care or are capable – only flying by the seat of your pants to ONLY clean up the mess after a crisis – like Hep A outbreak in downtown San Diego where many people in the streets died, and infected many more who survived. Not to mention, no way to promote “Americas Finest City.” Often, the “back seat drivers” are the most informed — get off your” high horse” of CONTROL and work with those who are in the trenches that know much more than you.
Hemet, California had their streets lined with orange trees way back in the 70s. When we drove through there, the wind was blowing hard, and the sidewalks and gutters were covered with hundreds of beautiful oranges. We stopped and gathered a large paper bag full of them. I peeled one and took one bite. (!) I stopped and poured them out into the gutter. They were the most horrendously acidic, awful things I ever tasted. Only my kids could have eaten them. That is when I found that fruits need to be cared for to “sweeten the soil”, etc. But, when my kids were 2-8 years old, they ate the sourest white grapefruit directly from our trees, biting right through the rind. No fruit ever “ripened” in our yard. Our kids devoured them all when still green.
Oh, boy…..hard to judge but if you have fruit trees you know full well just how messy they are if not kept picked once they begin to ripen…..could be more costly than if fruit was given through food banks…..maybe…..but goodness the ripening stage would be lovely smelling up the place…..awful during “rott” stage……….
If you don’t pick up the fruit that falls to the ground it becomes a nuisance and health hazard. It will attract rats, which will carry disease and attract snakes, etc. If the fruit suffers from any kind of canker or other disease then it will be a very hard problem to take care of. Then there is the liability of someone eating a piece and heaven forbid choking on it, or claiming such, or slipping on it, or being hit with a piece of fruit by someone, etc. Liability falls also on the entity that put the fruit there with dedicated effort. And what happens when the homeless start picking it en mass and selling it on the side of the road? Who bears responsibility for any contagion, etc. that may arise from the sale of this fruit?
Fruit trees need a lot of maintaining to keep them producing edible fruit…and you have to pick the fruit quickly when its ripe ..and you have to have a plan for picking distribution and or canning when its ready….your city needs to juice r can the excess or it just goes to waste and rots….i can see by the statements herein that most people have no idea about orchards or farming in general…a better idea would be to have your local high school set a side land for a garden and then have the children learn to manage it as a class…they can control access and production and run a farmer’s market and donate some of the produce and juice and preserves to the needy and homeless.
Yeah….like that would last! It would be destroyed by the same people who can benefit from it. Same people who throw their garbage out from their windows, who let their dogs crap all over the sidewalk, and turn their children and pets loose when they tire of them…
Dont think so. Who will clean up the mess the trees and the people will make not even mentioning the increase in the rat population. Good intention but bad idea.
I gave out fruit, apples mostly, to homeless on the street as part of my street outreach services. I got in trouble for the litter of apple cores tossed on ground, sidewalk, instead of garbage. I mean ppl were REALLY upset. So much so I would either wait while they ate it so I could take the core or not give out. It turned into a stressful activity due to the demands of the population at large.
In theory it’s a lovely idea. However, in reality, in warmer southern climates at least, it would create a fruit-rat infestation. Once the fruit is gone, they try to get inside your home. I know this from living in Florida for fifteen years. We had a couple of orange trees in our yard for awhile. We ended up cutting them down because they were too close to the house.
First of all like a person already said you cant just plant them without caring for them and what are you going to do when the fruit is ripe give the homeless ladders to reach the fruit. Most fruit would be in the higher part of the tree. And would not fall until it’s over ripe. And if not picked and it falls to the ground what would you do about the rats,mice and insects that the rotten fruit would draw.
While this sounds like a good idea, the reality of it is not. Even if people were kind and took care of the trees and only took what they would eat, what happens to the remaining fruit? The ones with spots on them, or the ones that fell to the ground and rotted? The fruit then becomes a liability to the city….I.e. someone steps on the rotting fruit, slips, falls and breaks a leg. We are such a litigious society, the ramifications would bankrupt a city!
That sounds like a good idea but whose going to clean up the mess left by All The Unwanted fruit because the homeless aren’t going to do it. it’ll cost the city money to do it so in reality it’s not really that good of an idea.
My parents planted lots of fruit trees in our back yard, when we were young. It was great we had fruit all summer long. My parents paid a water bill, but we got free fruit. I think if the world would work together on a project like this it would benefit all of us.
Fruit trees do not produce all year long. However, they do drop the produce and cause a mess on the ground. Parks and yards would be better for them instead of streets and sidewalks. The wildlife also enjoy the fruit trees.
I understand that in Florida. people are not allowed to have fruit trees on their own property because producing fruit in their own back yards hurts the fruit industry in Florida. This is no joke. My sister-in-laws neighbor had his grapefruit trees removed (full of fruit) and had to submit to this ordinance.
Here’s an idea to consider: good liberals should take the homeless into their own homes and provide “free” housing, schooling, healthcare, food, legal expenses and recreational facilities for them. Just as they’re demanding the rest of us do for illegals.
Terrible idea, sounds great but it really is a bad idea. We need a better solution. I’m not sure, maybe the one France is trying, distributing food from grocery stores that would otherwise be tossed.