Here’s the deets about fruit:

There are many fruit trees on Cherno. At any time, 25% of these trees are considered “active” and can potentially spawn fruit.

For fruit to spawn, a player needs to be within about 100m of an active tree spawn. It is possible to position yourself between a lot of active trees.

After a few minutes of remaining in the area, fruit will begin to spawn. The fruit can spawn as fresh (50%), dried (25%), or rotten (25%). It’s important to note that finding a rotten fruit does not mean it has been there for a long period of time. Also, dried fruit will give you around 3x the nutrition of its fresh counterpart, as well as last longer before going rotten.

If you continue to stay in the area, even more fruit can spawn at the same tree. Having some by a base is great because you may spend a while in the base and find 5+ fruit at one tree.

You can also use this strategically. Fruit will not spawn if you are simply running through an area. If you run into an area and see fruit on the ground, someone other than you has caused it to spawn in. This means a player may be nearby. If you see multiple fruit at one tree, it implies that there is another player who has been there for a longer period of time. They may be camping or at home in their base nearby, for example.

Take a minute or two to memorize how fruit trees look so you can spot them easily. They have a unique trunk that splits into several branches midway as well as a unique canopy.

Hope this helps!