Are Urban Fruit Trees Healthy? Examining Health Indicators in Toronto’s Urban Orchard

Abstract

While urban fruit trees can provide food security and community, they are an understudied part of urban forestry. Using a Neighbourwoods© inventory (Kenney and Puric-Mladenovic, 1995), the purpose of this report was to examine how health varied across species, size classes, and neighbourhoods. Homeowners were requested to register their trees in the survey and 162 fruit trees were sampled in total. Each sample involved a Neighbourwoods© health assessment and a short interview with the owner where they were asked about the tree’s health and history. There was no significant difference in health rating between species, though apricots were the most likely to be extremely unhealthy. However, there was a significant difference in defoliation levels between species, with apricots being the most heavily defoliated. Additional findings from interviews suggest that homeowners are reluctant to care for their fruit trees due to a lack of knowledge, a perceived lack of time or energy, or the desire to remove them at some point. The most common reasons for removal were the mess of falling fruit or a new owner moving in after the tree was planted. Variance in health is important to examine in urban fruit trees to better understand which tree species might be the least healthy, the least productive, and the most likely to be replaced or removed soon. Interviewing homeowners is important to better understand where their frustrations and knowledge gaps lie, so urban forestry organizations and municipalities can tailor their services and educational programs.