You're a bit early ... is it Mast Year already?

Out walking yesterday I was struck by how much ripe fruit there was in the hedgerows already. Many blackberries have already turned black. I also noted that much of the blackthorn already has well-formed and plump sloes. These are really early. When I was a boy you picked sloes - for use in jams and gin - after they had been 'bletted'; in other words, after the first frosts had split their skins and taken the edge off their sourness. Considering the fact we had a heatwave last week and we're unlikely to see frost for a good few months yet, the likelihood of any bletting is very low.

I suppose, in the grand scheme of things it's not a particularly big deal. However, as I posted a couple of days ago (here), this is the time of year when birds enter a period of rest and recuperation in order to moult. It takes them a good few weeks to get their feathers back to peak performance and then they can start to build their energy stores throughout Autumn in order to get through the Winter. Traditionally, blackberries don't ripen until the end of August and throughout September. I hope there are still plenty of berries around for them when the birds need them.

There also seems to be a lot of tree fruits this year. My garden Bramley tree is absolutely covered in apples, some already the size of tennis balls. My corkscrew hazel has a good crop of filberts. And there are lots of juvenile acorns on the oaks and big clusters of 'helicopters' on the sycamores too. We're still in July.

I wonder if we're having another Mast Year?

Every few years, some species of trees and shrubs produce a bumper crop of their fruits, seeds or nuts. The collective term for these is mast, so we call this a Mast Year. The term 'Mast' comes from the Old English mæst meaning 'food'. The etymology is also related to the origin of the word 'meat' which is probably why we call the insides of fruits and nuts 'the flesh.' Mast Years normally happen every five to ten years but the cycles are irregular. The last one we had was only two years ago in 2020. 

We used to puzzle over how the trees all 'knew' when to crank up their production. However, we now know that trees 'talk' to each other by sending chemical signals through a fungal mycelium network under the soil. It's known rather brilliantly by scientists as the Wood-Wide Web (if you want to know more about it, click here). Incredibly, trees can even recognise their own offspring and send nourishment through the network if the sapling needs it. Our ancestors already knew this of course - they just didn't have the science to explain it. They anthropomorphised the trees and gave them spirits and intelligence instead. 

So that's how trees coordinate a Mast Year. But why do they do it? 

It's basically a survival mechanism. Take the oak for example. Over 2,300 different species live in, on or around oak trees and over 300 of those are entirely dependent on the trees for survival. That's a lot of mouths to feed. So, every so often, the trees produce an abundance of fruits. This 'predator satiation’ means that there is more food than the animals can eat, which hugely increases the chance of some acorns turning into seedlings and the next generation of trees. In addition, all those extra acorns can be, if you'll pardon the pun, squirreled away which enables new oaks to sprout even in a lean year. Meanwhile, in years when the tree doesn't produce many acorns, the predator population diminishes. Then, with fewer animals about, more acorns survive the following year. It's a clever balancing act between predator and prey that's evolved over millions of years.

But what decides whether it's a Mast Year or not? To be honest, no one is entirely sure. It’s likely that the weather plays a part. Having the perfect conditions at the most crucial times for seed development will increase the chances of a Mast Year. This can include weather cues such as spring temperature, summer drought, and spring frost. These weather variables are associated with critical times for fruit maturation and fertilisation.

Does that also explain the early ripening soft fruits like blackberry and sloe? I don't know.

All I do know is that things are a month ahead of normal. I took that final photograph yesterday of  bramble growing over a garden fence. You might wonder if maybe it's an early ripening cultivar. I'm pretty sure it isn't. Because that's my fence and I've never planted blackberries. It's 100% a feral wild plant that's growing behind my garage.

I'm not one for scaremongering but it is a concern.