Fruit pickers?

[LurfysMa]

I have an orange tree that produces decent oranges. Every year, I have a battle getting the oranges from any but the lowest branches.

Two years ago, I bought one of those pickers with the wire basket, like this one:

It works more or less, but there are problems. The claws can be difficult to use, especially if the fruit is close to a branch or another orange. It doesn't really grab the fruit so I have to pull down pretty hard in order to be able to apply any twisting motion at all. Sometimes I end up tearing off part of the branch. This shakes the tree and causes other oranges to fall and get bruised.

I just did another search and the only thing I came up with is this one:

It looks like it might work better.

Has anyone used it? Care to share experiences? It gets good reiews on Amazon.

Does anyone have a better idea or pointer?

[aspasia]

Try posting on

[thetiler]

We pick fruit off our trees also. You can't force the fruit. If it doesn't want to let go, it's not ready so you should leave it. When the fruit is ready to pick, there will be plenty that will "let go" of the branch.

thetiler

[LurfysMa]

Ok, thanks.

[LurfysMa]

It may not be ready to let go, but it's ready to eat. I'm not going to go out every day and test each orange. I'm not picking for Harry and David. If I wait, many of them fall onto the ground.

[thetiler]

| >LurfysMa wrote: | >> It works more or less, but there are problems. The claws can be | >> difficult to use, especially if the fruit is close to a branch or | >> another orange. It doesn't really grab the fruit so I have to pull | >> down pretty hard in order to be able to apply any twisting motion at | >> all. Sometimes I end up tearing off part of the branch. This shakes | >> the tree and causes other oranges to fall and get bruised. | >

| >We pick fruit off our trees also. | >You can't force the fruit. If it doesn't want to let | >go, it's not ready so you should leave it. When | >the fruit is ready to pick, there will be plenty that | >will "let go" of the branch. | | It may not be ready to let go, but it's ready to eat. I'm not going to | go out every day and test each orange. I'm not picking for Harry and | David. If I wait, many of them fall onto the ground. | | --

[Norminn]

If citrus are ripe enough, they should come off in the basket. If they hit the ground, make juice.