Monty Don has issued an urgent warning to anyone with a fruit tree in their garden, but his message is one of reassurance: don't panic if your apple tree is shedding fruit. The UK has been hit by successive heatwaves, leaving trees in distress, but Don explains this is the tree's way of coping.
Why Trees Are Dropping Fruit
Five heatwaves, with temperatures reaching up to 36.7C at one point, have taken a toll on daily life, disrupting travel, forcing schools to close and causing wildfires. Experts say trees have become more vulnerable to pests and diseases during heatwaves, which can cause them to die or for dead branches to appear. In large mature trees, dead branches may not appear until next year or the year after.
Now, appearing on the BBC's Gardener's World, Monty Don has told people not to worry about a phenomenon currently happening - with trees shedding lots of their fruit. He said: “If you find your apple trees are dropping apples left, right, and centre, don’t worry. It’s a result of the drought, but the tree is looking after itself. All these apples, which are covering the ground, are not windfalls that have dropped because they’re ripe. These are apples that are half ripe that the trees have jettisoned. The tree is running out of water.
“The fruit are taking up a huge amount of that water. In order to save some fruit, they have dropped apples. Now, it might seem seem like a disaster, but actually it means that the tree is responding to drought and handling it.”
Broader Impact of Drought on Trees
Nicholas Wray, curator at the University of Bristol Botanic Garden, said: “This summer we’ve seen persistent water scarcity, lowering of groundwater levels, shrinking rivers and depleting reservoirs. All these stresses on ecosystems alter the hydrological regimes, which in turn affects wildlife and ultimately our long-term water supply.” The extreme heat has impacted the trees, said Wray, especially newly planted trees which have struggled to establish.
Alongside searing summer heat, the UK also experienced a particularly wet winter in 2025-26. Rainfall across England was 42% higher than the long-term meteorological average (LTA) for the season according to the Met Office, and with a warming planet these extreme conditions are more likely.
Hope for Recovery
The prospect of increasingly damp winter months does provide some encouragement that the landscape will recover, according to councillor Oli Henman, cabinet project lead for climate change at Bath and North East Somerset Council. “We’re hopeful with rain it should generally recover but if the dry weather is too extensive and there’s a lot of footfall then that can start to destroy some of the roots of the grass,” he said.
