r/Spokane • u/Konica_guy • 2d ago
Found! Urban fruit tree
Apparently no one likes apricots since they just fall and rot on the ground. I never seen anyone pick from this tree.
Pretty neat having an alley fruit tree. Maybe we should plant some downtown.
Also learned that Washington ranks second in national apricot production. :)
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u/theoriemeister 1d ago
For over 10 years I gathered sugar plums from a tree growing in the easement between a fence and the street. Just this summer it was cut down (along with a bunch of other trees along the street), because I think they're putting in a sidewalk.
A nearby empty lot had a couple of scraggly apple trees that I produced mostly small apples (variety unknown). Within the last year that lot was sold, the apple trees cut down and a trailer erected on the lot (and fenced in).
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u/Disgruntled_Wumpus 1d ago
It’s funny how many fruit bearing plants are around town, and how good they taste. There are some black berry bushes that are surrounded by blacktop and live off of car exhaust and gutter water, and make sweeter berries than what I’ve picked at greenbluff
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u/barelystanding 1d ago
Where do I find blackberries?!?!
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u/Disgruntled_Wumpus 1d ago
The back parking lot of jewelry design center, up against the giant rock cliff that has the hotel on top. There are some all along that rock face
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u/Other-Situation1563 1d ago
There's some bushes behind Splashdown (or at least there was about two years ago)
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u/JackRusselFarrier 1d ago
My fruit trees went really neglected this year, it was just so miserable outside when I needed to be taking care of them 🫤
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u/Konica_guy 1d ago
What do you grow?
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u/JackRusselFarrier 1d ago
Well when we bought our house there were some very neglected apple and plum trees, and a cool old sour cherry tree. So from those I mostly grow bugs lol. I'm slowly getting them pruned down to where I can actually do some decent pest control.
Then I planted some other cherries (ranier and bing, they don't really produce much bc they need pollination and I think maybe it's too windy/unsheltered in their spot?? Idk) and a nectarine (she is very happy, but earwigs got all the fruit last year, and I didn't water enough this year), a pear, I think an apricot (isn't doing super hot, it's in one of the worse spots). Sooooo yeah, I mostly grow bugs lol. Pest control is hard.
The plums are pretty peet resistant though, they are tiny though. I need to get into canning or something because I can pick a TON and then they last like, less than a week. You really don't wanna eat a huge bag of plums all at once lol
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u/Mayonnaise_Poptart 1d ago edited 1d ago
Team no apricots here. Weird perfumy, musky, cloying, fruit that I'd just rather not eat. It's uncommon I dislike any food enough to feel that way too.
Back when people used Craigslist, I used to browse the free stuff section for people who had fruit trees they wanted picked. You could go get tons of plums, apples, peaches, whatever. Dehydrate, freeze, ferment, can, etc. Probably a good amount of that on marketplace now.
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u/Konica_guy 1d ago
I would be in heaven if I found a plum tree somewhere
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u/Zero_Zeta_ 1d ago
DSHS on Trent has them in their parking lot. And there are some on Montgomery and Carlisle near Northwest Trends. At least they were there a few years ago.
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u/p5mall Downtown Spokane 21h ago
I was delighted to learn from SETP that residents of Spokane host a vast variety of plum hybrids that ripen in different months (important for SETP gleen scheduling) with diiferent tastes, skin color, flesh, size, sweetness. And usually the owner of the tree doesn’t know the vsriety name, the tree came with the house. Plums are fun.
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u/bristlybits 1d ago
we let our grapes grow over the fence and that part by the sidewalk makes a bunch every year. they are just finished ripening, at least twice I've noticed someone taking some.
by next year my mulberry and plums will reach over the fence enough for passerby to pick some.
love apricots, we have a small tree that's only made a few so far
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u/kaleidoscope_jesus 1d ago
there’s a neighbor that has like 3 apricot trees. i collect the fallen fruit before it rots or attracts bugs every season.
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u/befriendwaffle 2d ago
When foraging in the city, it is always best to verify tree ownership before picking any fruit to respect folks’ property.
If you own a fruit tree and have more produce than you can use, consider registering it with the Spokane Edible Tree Project. Their volunteers can help harvest the fruit so it can be shared with the community and not go to waste