I saw this on You Tube, so I decided to make one. I didn't really use it much for cherries, but it has been really useful for plums. The size of the fruit is better with plums. You can reach out to places that are way too far to hand pick. Even if you're on your ladder, you can get a lot more fruit.
I just finished up my Asian plums. Shiro and Howard Miracle were just a bit later than Hollywood. I made a plum sauce that I've been thinking about for years. I canned the sauce, with the help of my wife (the brains behind the operation). The sauce looks great. I mainly wanted to save it for the winter or January through May, when fruit variety isn't so great. I think it will be fun to put some plum sauce on my vegies and rice/oats/quinoa/beans etc. Add some variety to the winter flavor profile at a good price, especially for organic and permaculture quality.
I think I'm going to use the fruit picker for the European plums too, which haven't started yet for me. Probably apples as well. Maybe even medlars.
Do any of the rest of you use something like this?
John S
PDX OR
I have a couple of this one from Lee Valley:
https://www.leevalley.com/en-c.....item=HK300
I've seen some similar ones now. Key for me are gentle but strong fingers and cloth bag.
I see another that is a pole pruner with a bag under it which would be better for persimmons that don't let go with a moderate tug.
Some of the ones on you tube placed razor blades at the top to cut the stem. I haven't had to do that yet.
John S
PDX OR
I used this fruit picker a lot for apples also this year. I guess I could have used it for pears. I didn't get as many pears this year as last year, partly because I donated a pear tree to a school garden. It was so much easier to harvest the fruit and it was really fun. Other people can play video games. I like this game. This one I use primarily for picking the fruit off the tree. I also use it for gathering fallen apples off of the ground.
I use this one primarily for picking up apples that have fallen on the ground, but I will sometimes use it for picking them or knocking them out of the tree.
