[David Bracey]

Changes in temperature and rainfall have caused apple trees to flower earlier , report Japanese scientists from the National Agriculture and Food Research Organisation.  The study over the last 30- 40 years shows that fruit has become less acidic and less likely to develop "watercore".   One of the apples " Fuji Apple" is on sale in supermarkets.

Are there other documented cases which members could report??

[Alisdair]

As there is quite a lot already in the scientific literature about observed effects on fruit quality as well as harvest date etc, what would be really interesting would be members' own direct experiences (rather than endless internet references dredged up from Google!).

[Umbrian]

I would think that 30-40 years is no time at all to come to conclusions regarding the effects of climate change on fruit production especially when the use of fertilizers and pest control has developed considerably in the same time span both of which must also have considerable effects.
After an abnormally wet spring and early summer, with fortunately, no destructive hailstones that usually accompany heavy rain here in that period,we are looking forward to our first reasonable Olive crop.  A happy prospect but no doubt next year will see us back to what is more "normal" - at the mercy of the vagaries of the weather.

[JTh]

We had a mild winter here, and lots of rain in the spring and early summer as well, but this year there are hardly any olives at all, but plenty of olive fruit flies. I can't complain, though, last year we had a bumper crop  and no fruit flies, so it evens out. Hard to say why we have such different harvest results, Carole, in spite of rather similar weather conditions.

[Alisdair]

Yesterday the regional French daily Sud-Ouest quoted Pierre-Louis Teissèdre, Oenology Professor at Bordeaux-Segalen University, as saying that the average alcoholic strength of wines in South-West France has increased from around 11° fifteen years ago to 13-14° now; in Australia, from 12.4° in 1984 to 15° in 2008; in California, from 12.5° in 1978 to 14.8 in this new millennium. This (basically increased sugar production by the grape vines) is put down to climate change, as well as to better production methods.
Research is proceeding internationally on several fronts to try to bring the alcohol content of wines back to their traditional values, as - says Prof Teissèdre - "It's difficult to go on like that; lots of wine-growers are unhappy."

[Alisdair]

Francesco Ferrini, a recent member Séan O'Hara's Facegroup group on Mediterranean Climate Gardening, told the group of a forthcoming article which he has co-authored, on the threat of climate change's probable greater and longer droughts in the Mediterranean area to that area's drought-adapted plants. In forests there, the greatest risk seems to be to tree species at the southern limits of their distribution. You can see an abstract of the article by clicking here, and Francesco tells me that on the ResearchGate website (which you can join for free) you can read the whole article here.

[Trevor Australis]

It's almost Christmas time and here in South Australia that means cherry time. This years crop id down to just 10% of previous years. The reason is that there was an insufficiency of frosty  days and nights so there was not enough chilling to trigger flower bud formation within the dormant growth buds. And the reason behind that is climate change.