Blackberry crop threatened by record dry spring
Post categories: Phenology
| 14:19 UK time, Tuesday, 21 June 2011
Guest blogger Beverley Gormley from the Woodland Trust on why the warm, dry spring is not good news for this classic late summer fruit.
I've been blackberry picking every summer for as long as I can remember. As a child, a group of us would take empty carrier bags and plunder the local bushes. Still to this day, as we get further in to summer, I check out every bramble I pass looking for those first plump, ripened fruits.
Bramble and bryony (E Jane / WTPL)
This year, the pleasure of seeing that first ripe blackberry is likely to come earlier than in previous years. Data collected by the Woodland Trust's survey over the past decade shows has been the first week of August.
But with bramble already well into flowering, ripe fruit will not be long behind, so this year's crop could be much earlier. While this may sound like good news for blackberry pickers, an earlier crop is also likely to be a smaller crop.
Gatekeeper butterfly (Patrick Roper / WTPL)
This year's unseasonably warm, dry spring means that the blackberries haven't received all of the rain they need to produce the plump fruits we love so much. This could have a huge impact on the species that depend on them. Blackberries are a vital food supply for a wide range of such as badgers, dormice, hedgehogs and foxes; birds like blackbirds, , chaffinches, and ; and including butterflies, wasps and moths.
Ripe conkers (Margaret Barton / WTPL)
Blackberries are not the only natural icons of childhood at risk due to this warm, dry weather; could also yield a smaller crop this year. The Woodland Trust have looked back at records spanning the last 70 years for and found the average date for flowering in 2011 was earlier than in previous years. Like blackberries, this means that conkers are likely to be early but not as plentiful or high quality as in previous years.
We anticipate the first blackberries will ripen in the next few weeks. You could help us monitor exactly when by when you see first them. You can also 'score' the yield when you log your sighting. Your observations will help us track how is affecting blackberries and the species that depend on them. Find out where to spot blackberries and learn more about brambles with our .
Comment number 1.
At 26th Jun 2011, WildifePhotographerSmith wrote:Both conkers and brambles are yielding smaller crops?! ARGH!
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Comment number 2.
At 12th Jul 2011, jill diane garrod wrote:i have today already seen masses of ripe blackberries in Diss Norfolk. this is the earliest i have ever seen them it looks like a bumper crop here as well.
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Comment number 3.
At 26th Jul 2011, deco_holic wrote:I picked my first blackberries of the season earlier today. 26th July certainly seems on the early side to me for these sorts of goings-on (in a hilly area of Derbyshire, I might add). The same patch last year yielded a superb crop and I'm severely doubting that this year will anywhere near match that, despite (or is that a case more of 'because of'?) this early start.
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