Good news for Halloween fans as NT says 2025 is a good year for fruit harvest
Despite a record breaking summer of heat, this year is a good year for the fruit harvest – with The National Trust saying apples and pumpkins are in abundance across many of its properties.
The charity adds fruit and vegetable crops are ripening and ready for harvest weeks earlier than usual.
Despite the UK experiencing the hottest summer on record, with drought conditions recorded in many places, gardeners are reporting an unusually abundant year for orchard fruit and pumpkins.
Experts say it might be due to a combination of weather factors including last year’s wet conditions, the warm and dry spring and plenty of sun.
It’s a stark contrast to last year when wet weather reduced fruit harvests and increased slug and snail activity.
The result was some fruit crops being decimated. Kingston Lacy, in Dorset, managed to save only half of its usual crop and Dunham Massey, near Manchester, lost all its pumpkin plants.
‘Climate change has brought us some very challenging growing conditions over recent years with extremes of wet and dry weather and many storms,’ explains Rebecca Bevan, the National Trust’s Plant Health and Sustainability Consultant.
‘It’s heartening however that sometimes the conditions lead to good outcomes and certainly fruit harvests are a success story for 2025.’
‘This year’s apple and other tree fruit harvests – including much of the abundance in hedgerows – is likely due to the wet conditions last year which meant trees were in good health when they began to make their flower buds in late summer.’
‘We had to make the decision to put on an extra weekend of apple picking’
‘This was followed by a dry and sunny spring resulting in abundant flowers being pollinated by insects and forming fruit. Lots of sun over the summer was then ideal for ripening the fruit.’
‘Last year’s wet weather also recharged ground water levels, resulting in the soil staying moister for longer in many areas which probably helped plants like pumpkins get established despite the lack of rain.’
Cotehele House, in Cornwall. Photography: Rolf E. Staerk / Shutterstock
Cotehele House, in Cornwall, saw its trees produce thousands of apples far earlier than expected. The site hosts three orchards, including the charity’s only Mother Orchard which is home to 125 varieties of apple tree.
‘Despite the record-breaking temperatures we have had an amazing crop of apples, due to the combination of last year’s weather and the warm, mild spring resulting in bountiful blossom,’ says David Bouch, Head Gardener.
‘Our apples ripened around three weeks early, so we had to make the decision to put on an extra weekend of apple picking to ensure the apples didn’t go to waste with visitors able to pick their own to enjoy at home.’
‘A month ago, I wasn’t overly confident because the fruit was very small which is usually the case in very dry summers, but the apples have swollen quickly over the last couple of weeks, thanks to the rain we’ve had.’
At Buckland Abbey, near Plymouth, in Devon, the apple harvest is also running ahead of schedule, while the kitchen garden is overflowing with squash and pumpkins.
‘We have a very busy harvesting period ahead of us’
‘We have about 50 per cent more squash and pumpkins than usual,’ says Sam Brown, Head Gardener.
‘We’d normally harvest them in mid-October but are about to start now – around six weeks earlier. There are 20 varieties this year, alongside apples that we’ve been picking since August.’
Buckland Abbey, in Devon. Photography: Marcin Jucha / Shutterstock
And it’s not just the south west where gardeners are reporting good yields of fruit. Staff at National Trust properties across the south are gearing up for a busy for weeks as gardeners start the autumn collection.
‘Typically 40 per cent of the trees fruit each year, but this year it is almost double that which means we have a very busy harvesting period ahead of us!’ says Claire Primett, Head Gardener at Hughenden in Buckinghamshire.
‘We only have a few pear trees, but these are fruiting well and the ‘Aylesbury Prune’ was prolific.’
At The Vyne in Hampshire the orchard of 40 heritage apple varieties is seeing its best harvest in recent years.
‘Crops have arrived a little earlier than usual but it’s the volume of apples that’s extraordinary,’ says Emma Greenwood, gardener at The Vyne.
‘‘Autumn Pearmain’, ‘Frogmore Prolific’ and ‘Golden Reinette’ are all old varieties that have delivered huge crops in recent days, as have local Hampshire apples including ‘Benenden Early’ and ‘Hibb’s Seedling.’
‘They have loved the heat over the summer’
‘Varieties that traditionally have produced very little fruit are performing strongly too, such as Flower of Kent, reputed to be the apple which inspired Newton’s theory of gravity. The Vyne’s single peach and apricot trees have also fruited, which is rare.’
‘Staff and volunteers have risen to the challenge, with extra support drafted in to help hand-pick the fruit, once we’ve done ripeness checks. The apples are then ready for visitors to take home, for a small donation.’
Sissinghurst gardeners say it’s the best apple yield they’ve experienced in six seasons with two traditional varieties enjoying an exceptional year with a resulting harvest which happened three weeks earlier than usual.
‘Our pumpkins are thriving too, especially the heritage varieties like Marina di Chioggia and Rouge Vif d’Etampes,’ says Kent Gardener Olivia Steed-Mundin.
‘They have loved the heat over the summer, but they are also very thirsty plants so might have yielded even better if we’d had more rain. Some are already ripe, and they store beautifully for up to six months if cured properly.’
The National Trust says there’s been a bumper crop of vintage apples at Erddig in Wales.
‘We’ve already picked the same amount as our full harvest last year and we have lots more trees to go,’ says Andrew Degg, Head Gardener.
‘We’ve drafted in an army of apple pickers including volunteers and staff, and we’ve even invited members of the public to join in to help us maximise this year’s harvest.’
‘Usually, we pick about two tonnes and this year we are on target for four tonnes. It’s been an amazing year for apples here in north Wales.’
‘No autumn at Wimpole would be complete without pumpkins’
‘Apple picking at Erddig is always a highlight the whole team and all our great volunteers help pick over 180 different varieties of apple trees we have here which include some great rare Welsh heritage varieties such as St Cecilia and King of the Pippins.’
More than six tonnes of apples are expected to be collected by teams at the Wimpole Estate in Cambridgeshire where staff say their apples and pumpkins are ripening far earlier than normal.
‘Most of our apples will be pressed into juice, but you’ll also find them on our produce stall, and we’ll be sharing them with our local Food Hub – just as a quarter of all our Walled Garden harvest always is,’ says Ciaran Taylor, Head Gardener.
‘No autumn at Wimpole would be complete without pumpkins. It looks like we’ll have a magnificent crop with plans for colourful displays to light up the Glasshouse and Hardwicke Gate, before many of the pumpkins are shared with visitors and local foodbanks towards the end of October.’
James Carnell, Head Gardener at Wolverhampton’s Wightwick Manor and Gardens, feels the summer sunshine has really helped to boost the fruits’ sugar content.
He adds that the garden’s three orchards have yielded a bumper crop and are ripening sooner than expected with trees that don’t normally produce fruit becoming fully laden.
And the success isn’t being confined to gardens in the south of the country as a similar story is told at Beningbrough Hall in North Yorkshire – with its trees yielding at least 25 per cent more fruit than normal.
The success hasn’t been confined to southerly gardens. has seen a “really good year” for apples and pears, with commented: “
‘One apple tree, Irish Peach normally gives just one or two apples, but this year it has produced around 40. And the fruit is “well ahead” and ready for picking two to three weeks early,’ says Sam Shipman, Head Gardener.
Breaktime News has previously reported on pumpkin harvests being adversely affected by the weather.