Blackthorn spotting

[Quixoticgeek]

Noticed while out and about today that there are lots of Blackthorn trees in bloom. They are very obvious, even from a distance with their distinctive white blossom.

Anyone else go out at this time of year with a GPS and log the locations of the blackthorns when the are so obvious to find ?

J

 

[lannyman8]

nah, its more fun to walk your areas and learn the locations of all the plants and animals and remember them,i find it much better, and i dont have to faf about with GPS or even maps...

thats just me though...

 

[Mesquite]

You might find that what you think is blackthorn is actually Cherry Plum as they're easy to mix up. Cherry Plum usually flowers before Blackthorn and that's the case around my way at the moment, loads of cherry plum out but the blackthorn buds haven't even broken open yet.

To tell the difference check the anthers at the end of the stamens and if they're yellow then it's cherry plum and if they're a browny shade then it's Blackthorn.

Also Cherry plum is slightly creamy petals whereas blackthorn is pure white

The other dead giveaway is that Blackthorn has thorns on its branches, cherry plum doesn't

 

[Nice65]

Yeah, but the Blackthorn is easy to recognise. In a hedgerow you can see them coming out at different times over a couple of weeks, but it's a little early yet. Plus they're dense and very spiky. Cherry Plum isn't spiky.

edit: repeating the above really

 

[21st century pict]

Just seen the weather forecast for next week , it's going to be cold at night so I hope the frost don't get the blossoms.

 

[Nice65]

Just seen the weather forecast for next week , it's going to be cold at night so I hope the frost don't get the blossoms.

Frosts over the next few weeks will decide if it's a good or poor plum year. Fingers crossed for hedgerow fruit, the creatures that depend on it had a cold 2012 winter. And I could do with some sloes, bullace, or damsons for steeping in gin

 

[Clouston98]

nah, its more fun to walk your areas and learn the locations of all the plants and animals and remember them,i find it much better, and i dont have to faf about with GPS or even maps...

thats just me though...

Me too!

 

[ozzy1977]

Why would you want to log them on a gps? I really am struggling to work this one out.

 

[John Fenna]

If I had the technology I would find the task of logging them all beyond me - the hedges around here are full of blackthorn!

 

[British Red]

I would have to walk around my own paddock hedges with a GPS

 

[21st century pict]

I have 4 sloe patches 1 of them is massive and I'll tell anyone about if they ask me where i get my berries and in the last 15 years word has spread and now gets picked when the berries are still green one of the other patches is very well known and also way over picked, 1 patch I'm sworn to secrecy and the last patch is absolutely superb and i was still picking in january, like the last patch I went looking for and found it with my picking buddy and apart from my brother and decause of the amount of pickers around I wouldn't tell its location to another living sloe.
I don't have a GPS but i would love one for Geocaching.

 

[John Fenna]

The main problem around here is not other folk picking them but farmers trashing the whole crop with "Hedge Rapers" - just as the crop comes ripe!
It would seem that the "Guardians of the Countryside" like to deprive wildlife of all berries and autumn fruits by making sure the hedges are beaten to a shredded pulp and "neat and tidy". If a modern farmer cannot make a profit from something they seem to enjoy denying it to wildlife and foragers!
I lost most of my Rosehip and Blackberry crops from the lanes and local fields, as well as the sloe crop, to mechanised mayhem farming last year (barely had enough left to do my Rosehip wine and jelly and only enough sloes for 4 bottles of Sloe Gin, 4 gallons of blackberry wine and a dozen pots of bramble jelly).
Is this a country wide problem - or only around here?

 

[Quixoticgeek]

Last year I went out to pick some Sloes, only to find that every tree for about 3 miles had been stripped to a height of about human reaching height. We are talking *every* blackthorn tree I could find. I am pretty certain it isn't people picking for personal use at that level, but more likely someone who's supplying a commercial enterprise. Hence the trip out with the gps when they are easier to spot, so I can go back in September to get the harvest.

J

 

[slowworm]

Yep, very understandable. In the past I've also found blackthorn trees quite variable, some producing larger and juicer fruits. I would be tempted to note those areas as well.

Although I have plenty of blackthorn on my land, and not many frosts, they don't seem to produce much fruit sadly.

 

[British Red]

Is this a country wide problem - or only around here?

Plenty of them around here. Opportunities to flail cut are not that great for Farmers. If they do it in the Spring they destroy blossoms and birds nest, if they do it in the Summer they kill unfledged birds, do it in Autumn they remove fruit, do it in Winter they tear the ground up because its wet. There really is no "good" time

 

[Mesquite]

Is this a country wide problem - or only around here?

Nope, I have the same problem.

The farmer destroyed the entire crop of Damsons a couple days before I was going to pick them

 

[21st century pict]

One thing I see a lot off around bushes is snippet branches people using a walking stick and a set of garden shears to pullndown branches and chop the bush to bits to get at the berries , dont get me wrong I'll take a good shillelagh now and again but I have never cut a branch with snips or hacked a bush to bits just for the berries.

 

[treadlightly]

I enjoyed a bumper harvest of sloes last year and then sloe gin and vodka over Christmas. It's a bit early for blackthorn blossoms but then we've had a very mild winter.

 

[John Fenna]

Plenty of them around here. Opportunities to flail cut are not that great for Farmers. If they do it in the Spring they destroy blossoms and birds nest, if they do it in the Summer they kill unfledged birds, do it in Autumn they remove fruit, do it in Winter they tear the ground up because its wet. There really is no "good" time

The soft ground argument does not work for the roadside hedges where the tractor is on tarmac (wrecked tarmac admittedly but that is the councils fault...) but I can see the other arguments are fair.

 

[British Red]

I prefer Winter pruning John - but I know the big guys want to get it all done in one go when they set the tractors up with the cutters - its too inefficient otherwise. That said, I had one tall hedge (not by a road), where the choice was hand cut it at the cost of three man days or work, or wait to Summer and flail cut it in 15 minutes. Really brought it home to me.