Found a different type of DIY fruit picker for those who don't dig the PVC or bent-cage types and don't want to spend the $25-40.
For those of us with piles of "I could use that" and tools, it's savings.
It can be accomplished with duct tape if you're aiming for a quick-and-easy trial run on Monday morning after KWN posts the idea.
http://www.grit.com/farm-and-garden/fruit/a-quick-easy-fruit-picker.aspx#axzz3E2oR5GcQ
This one inverts the bottle, so the neck is the picker. I don't like it as much after one testing session:
http://www.motherearthnews.com/diy/how-to-make-a-fruit-picker-zb0z1211zmar.aspx#axzz3E2pIzVa3
It works, it's just harder to get into position sometimes and we ended up reaching forward with the lower lip as often as we did tugging with the upper edge. Plus, the bottle neck likes to snag branches more often.
These are also fab-o for telling the person with the saw or pruners which branch you want to take down for the bunnies, birds and goats, and directing the branch away from the human-canine audience/helpers.
Cheers,
P
Yes the one secured with two screws looks like a fail to me. I wonder if the one that attaches by the bottle neck would be even easier and lighter weight mounted on bamboo?
Funny you mention bamboo...
One of the first trials we did, we whacked down some of the neighbor's bamboo (they let us have as much as we like, always, anytime). We actually shoved the neck of the bottle into the void and duct taped it. Long term, I don't think that one would hold up, but it worked okay in 7-9' lengths.
It was too wobbly at 12', even with such a light "tool head":
- you could only grab 2 apples or pears if you wanted control on the way down,
- It was difficult to get it to hold firm enough to get the picker over some of the fruit
- it was harder to snag a branch to hold for the pruner and almost impossible to guide down
However, it was green. Possibly when it dries it would be a little more rigid and work better?
Once we used a screw on the bottleneck-down version and shortened the length a couple of times, I was really, really surprised by how selective you could be with pressures and how easy it was to select which fruit you wanted even working down a loaded branch.
They were good enough that we didn't get out the little claws or the lacrosse-shaped metal one from the store, or the basket version we made from a rake a couple years ago.
We actually only used an old mop handle for about 5 minutes, toward the end. The thing about that is that ours was only about 5' long. With the bottle, maybe 6 feet. While it worked for the lady I was helping and it totally worked for the older two kids we shanghaied, I was just as happy working at an angle for lower stuff and being able to reach higher stuff without a bucket or step ladder.
I will say this for the mop handle over the bamboo:
When you get stabbed in the ankle or knee by somebody lowering theirs, the solid, rounded mop handle is way better than a sharp green bamboo stick.
I will 100% make a duct tape pad or find some chair or curtain tips, the plasticy-rubbery cups to keep you from scratching up floors, if the bamboo survives to next time.
(Bad as it sounds, I'm so sick of picking and processing apples at this point, I almost hope it's next year.)
I also want to try it with some small, narrow water bottles and a shallower, semi-padded opening as a berry and cherry picker, something to reach upper sections of gooseberry and into seaberry brambles.
Not perfect but it does look like a handy tool