“A woman, a dog, and a walnut tree, the more you beat them the better they’ll be!” – that old country proverb is NOT recommended. Taken literally, beating people and dogs has negative consequences, but some people still believe that beating a walnut tree can improve the harvest of nuts which can be gathered, usually from the ground beneath the tree around late October and early November. It’s not a good idea to try to knock the nuts down with a stick, as they will not be ripe until they fall off the branch when they are ready. The velvety green covering over the shell splits naturally, making it easy to harvest the nuts without having to take the covering as well.
It’s like the way children try to get conkers down from Horse Chestnut trees by throwing things at the tree or tugging at the branches. They will be more likely to be disappointed than rewarded, as the conker inside its spiky green covering won’t have turned brown, and will be soft and white. The covering tends to split when the ‘pod’ falls to the ground but is not easy to open before the conker is mature.
There may be some justification for stressing fruit and nut trees, because it is likely to remove dead wood and long bare shoots, and when trees undergo a threat, they can respond by producing more seeds so that, if they die, the seeds can grow to replace their species. Of course, a random beating is less effective than careful pruning.
Many fruit trees need to have a period of freezing temperatures to trigger the setting of blossom in spring, which leads to the fruit later in the year. In 2025 we’ve had a wet and warm spring, and some trees did not have enough frost for the best blossom. Then, as we know, we had drought and heatwaves which further challenged the trees. Some species of trees lost saplings, and others bore less fruit, or produced smaller than usual output. The Arrowsmith orchard had a prolific number of apples, but they were smaller and ripened almost two months earlier, turning red by the end of August as climate change created a false autumn. Down in the Abbey Grounds there were acorns falling from the oak by the lake, but many were tiny, and useless as food for squirrels.
Not only was so much maturing ahead of time, presenting problems for the birds and animals that would normally rely on food such as haws later in the year, but so many trees were behaving as they do in what is described as a ‘Mast Year’ – putting out loads of seeds.
It may seem a fairy story, but trees communicate with each other. They pass each other messages through an underground network of fungal threads – a mycorrhizal ‘Woodwide Web’ and even by airborne chemical signals. Some indigenous American tribes certainly seem to have believed in this phenomenon before it was scientifically discovered. When they planned to fell a tree they’d first speak to a particular tree stating their intention, and other nearby trees would apparently lose consciousness. They would then chop down a different tree which would not feel pain, being unconscious.
It is reported that certain trees pass warnings to each other and can avoid being grazed upon by animals such as giraffes (Not a problem in Ciren) – when attacked by the animal they emit ethylene gas which discourages the animal from continuing to eat, and also stimulates other nearby trees to produce their own ethylene, preventing the animals from simply moving on and eating more.
As the Americans say, “How d’ya like them apples!?”
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