Amount of fruit

This is a subjective assessment of fruit crop. Give the shrub you record a fruit score from 1 to 5 using the scale below. Only record amount of fruit on untrimmed shrubs.

If you are not used to looking at the amount of fruit, don’t record this until you feel confident to do so. It may take a couple of years of observing a shrub to get an idea of what is a ‘good’ or ‘meagre’ crop compared to previous years.

If you have recorded blackthorn events before, continue to record on the same tree.

1 = no fruit

2 = meagre

3 = moderate

4 = good crop

5 = exceptional 

Why do we record amount of fruit? 

It’s an indicator of winter food availability for birds and mammals, as well as the seed source available for natural regeneration of trees and shrubs. Amount of fruit may be linked to climate variables in preceding seasons.

Available historic data: our dataset begins in 2000