Cobble Hill - In regards to William Reeves letter "Stolen fruit a huge disappointment", and suspecting a fellow human stealing and breaking branches from a nectarine tree.
I would look at the trunk and possibly the ground below to see if there are any scratches and tracks that might belong to a four-legged thief - mainly raccoons. This discussion has come up before in one of my gardening groups as well as an acquaintance of mine who said that every year, someone was stealing their fruit, even before it's fully ripe!I told him it was raccoons; put some trunk guard around the base and voila, the fruit was there that year!The broken branches is a definite clue for me as I've caught the rascals in my fruit trees over the years and they always manage to get things before they're fully ripe, and the snapping branches at night woke me up.Gord HutchingsCobble Hill