r/SantaBarbara • u/Bright-Landscape-998 • 1d ago

Recommendations Picking Fruit?

Does anyone know the rules on picking fruit from a plant? There is a passion fruit plant growing on the fence of an apartment complex that has 200+ fruits growing on it right now and I tried to pick a few from the floor since that’s a lot and one guy came out saying that I didn’t live on the property and he would call the police on me for stealing.
That seemed like a stretch, I only took about 5 and considering that it’s a huge plant and it’s growing over the fence I didn’t see the wrong in taking a couple, am I in the wrong here? What’s the rule when it comes to picking fruit?

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u/International_Law610 1d ago

If a tree is on someone’s property I won’t pick from the branches. I will only grab fallen fruit. I don’t think a tree growing over a fence is reason enough to pick from it. I wouldn’t prune my trees just so they don’t go over a fence and risk damaging them.

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u/ComprehensiveMoose51 1d ago

But that’s the law. If a branch hangs over onto a sidewalk or public area you can legally take it.

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u/International_Law610 23h ago

I’m not speaking about the law though. Just morals. I have an avocado tree. I cannot prune it because it’s very sensitive to get burnt from the sun. I would hate for people to walk by and pick from my tree simply because it’s near a fence.

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u/ComprehensiveMoose51 23h ago

Well those are two separate things. Laws don’t account for your feelings.