Device for apples. Can apples be removed from the top of an apple tree intact? Yes, easily! What to do in severe cases

During the ripening season, a large number of apples fall on the ground, where the fruits begin to rot very quickly. In addition, apples that hit the ground spoil much faster than freshly picked ones. Therefore, it is best to collect them before they fall. To do this, you don't even need to climb a tree, you just need to use a special device for collecting fruits. It is very easy to make it, while spending practically nothing.

Our video explains in detail how to make a homemade collection of fruit from trees.

For the construction of this device, we need:
- plastic bottle 1.5-2 liters;
- knife;
- scissors;
- long stick;
- drill with drill;
- screwdriver.

We start making a fruit collector.
We take a plastic bottle, pierce it with a knife approximately in the middle, and then cut it off with scissors. If that part of the bottle is wrinkled with a neck, straighten it.

To make it convenient to use the device, we make sawtooth teeth at the cut site.

To keep the bottle on a long stick, we need to drill two holes in its neck with a drill. We take the diameter of the drill 3 mm. Place the holes opposite each other.

We take our long stick and strip it from the side so that it can be inserted into the neck of the plastic bottle.

We insert into the neck and take two self-tapping screws. We fasten a stick with them through the drilled holes.

Our tree picker is now complete.

Now, in order to remove the apple from the tree, you only need to go up to it, lift the fruit picker up so that the apple gets into it. Turn the device to the side so that the stalk hooks onto the teeth and the apple breaks off the branch. At the same time, it ended up in our fruit collector.

Every year we suffer with apple picking. The trees have grown tall, and it is inconvenient to use an ordinary puller - a "glass" with slots: it is difficult to "drive" the stalk into the gap. Maybe there are some homemade designs that can help solve this problem. Otherwise, the harvest season will come soon, and I would not want to "poke" the fruits with a clumsy puller again.
Anastasia Valentinovna PETRAKOVSKAYA, Vitebsk region, Novopolotsk

I offer a homemade design that will help you easily remove the fruits from the highest height.

Features of the fruit picker design

The main parts of the puller are two plastic bottles and an aluminum ski pole. The puller design is shown in Fig. 1.

Bottle 1 is selected according to the size of the fruit, for example 1.5 or 2 liters. This bottle has a cutout of half of the bottom and part of the side wall for the passage of fruit. In the rest of the bottom, 2-3 narrow slits are made for capturing and breaking the stalk. The cork is firmly fixed (glued) to the neck and a round hole is cut in it along the diameter of the stick.

Bottle 2 is selected with a smaller volume and the bottom is completely cut off. It has a removable plug with a hole for a stick to pass through. Both bottles are sewn with a string of approximately 0.2 mm diameter and held together to form a single rigid block. The bottle caps have holes along the diameter of the ski pole.

Method for sewing bottles for fruit picker

To sew bottles, you need to punch paired holes on both sides of the seam line with a hot awl. We bend the thin copper wire in half, twist the ends and make a "needle" in the shape of a fish hook (Fig. 2).

Using this flexible "needle" we push the line through adjacent pairs of holes and connect the bottles into a single block. With this method of stitching, the hands will always be on the outside of the bottles.

A block of two bottles is put on a ski pole, in which (after trying on) a hole is drilled and a pin is rigidly fixed (Fig. 3). The length of the pin should match the diameter of the bottle neck and the inner diameter of the cork. On the neck of the bottle, you need to make 2 small diametrical cuts to fix the block of bottles on the pin.

The illustration shows the cap removed from bottle 2. This allows the bottle block to be freely removed from the ski pole. When screwing the cork onto the neck of the bottle 2, the pin firmly fixes the block of bottles on the stick.

The figure also shows a ring that prevents slipping on the stick and the loss of the cork. The ring is made of scotch tape or electrical tape.

The entire construction of the puller is extremely light and easy to use.

How the apple puller works

Introduce the fruit through the cutout into bottle 1 and tear it off with its side wall or bottom. The stripper holds 3-4 apples (pears) or 15-20 plums.

We lower the entire puller to a horizontal position. In this case, the rest of the bottom of the bottle 1 keeps the fruit from spilling out. Having unscrewed the cap 2, remove the bottle block from the stick, and pour the fruits through the cutout into a bucket or basket.

When picking fruit from the lower branches of the tree, the tenant walks freely on the ground, and when picking from the upper branches of the tree, he climbs a ladder.

Drawing of a puller for apples and pears

Anatoly G. YARUSOV, Minsk

When the trees are large and spreading in the garden, reaching down the stairs, trying to get another ripe fruit in the interweaving of branches, is not the best and not the fastest thing to do. Such a harvest can take hours, and the result will not be the best, because if it is not, apples cannot be reached from the top. But since ancient times, if someone could not reach the upper branches, he took a stick in his hands. She will help us out again.

Picking apples with a pole

So, you need a long pole, on the basis of which we will combine the main functions of a nail puller and a basketball hoop: from the first - to hook, from the second - to pass a round object through us. This seems like a daunting task, but in reality we need 2 pins perpendicular to the pole axis at the top of the rod (which can be telescopic, for example, an old fishing rod). An apple stalk should easily pass into the gap between these protrusions.

Below we attach a smaller copy of a basketball hoop made of wire, for example, from a thick aluminum core from a cable. Only the usual end-to-end mesh will replace a linen or the same mesh bag. We raise the device as high as possible, fingering it with our hands, until you grab the lower end of the pole. We bring the ring under the apple so that the stalk gets into the “nail puller”. We pull on ourselves, the fruit breaks off and falls through the ring into the bag.

In the old days, it was a very fashionable game when a wooden cup or glass of the same material, or a small wicker basket was attached to the top of a stick with a handle. A ball was tied to this device, which was called bilbock, with a long cord, which had to be thrown higher and caught in the hole. We propose to do something similar in order to pick apples from a great height, when it does not give a maneuver with a stepladder.

The easiest option is a plastic bottle. We cut off the bottom of it and, turning it over, put it with a neck on the upper end of a long pole, specially cut to the desired diameter, so that both parts are connected tightly.

Stick with a plastic bottle for collecting fruits

Next, we make slits from the edge of the resulting glass to a quarter of its length with a step of 2.5-3 centimeters so that they divide the bottle into equal sectors. Moreover, the resulting slits should be wedge-shaped, that is, taper downward. Now it is enough just to reach for the apple, bring the device under it and catch it in the container so that the handle is in the slot. We pull aside, and the fruit is trapped, we catch the next one. When the bottle is full to the cracks, tilt the tool and pour the collected apples into a basket or box.

Another option is a bar-mounted wicker basket, which can be made from rod or wire. The second type is preferable, since in this case several vertical rods can be made longer and their ends bent inward, so you get a hybrid of a hole from a bilbock with the previously used nail puller function. You can, on the contrary, simplify the tool, and put a two-liter plastic bottle on a pole, without cutting, but making a round hole in the middle of its wall with a small wedge-shaped slot of 2 centimeters directed towards the bottom.

Any device listed above is suitable only if the apples break off easily and even fall by themselves with a slight shake of the tree. But what if the stalk is firmly attached to the trunk? You can accidentally damage the pulp with the "nail puller", and the "bilboke" itself can break or deform with a strong jerk. Tin cans will help you out here.

The first option is the simplest. We simply fasten a large and deep tin can with a wire on a stick, making small holes in the wall. Next, in the edge, cut a wedge-shaped slit under the handle and slightly push it apart from top to bottom, getting a semblance of a spout for a coffee pot. The sharp edge of the tin will easily cut the apple off the branch.

Fruit picker

The second option is from a large-diameter plastic pipe, like those used for gutters or sewers. We cut a segment about 40 centimeters long on one side with petals, which we bend inward, thus creating a closed end (even with slots). In the upper part we make a slot, which should be bent to the side, and then slightly upward, that is, in the shape of a fish hook. At the end of it with two screws, we fasten the blade from a pencil sharpener or just a sharply sharpened strip of metal. Now it is enough to catch an apple stalk in this slot, bring it to the blade, and the fruit will fall into the tube.

The third device is the most difficult to implement, but will last the longest. So, you will need a piece of metal pipe, a washer or a circle of large diameter (about 3-4 centimeters) and a dozen metal rods of a centimeter cross-section and up to half a meter long. We weld a washer or a metal circle to the end of the pipe (a stick will be inserted into it on the other). Further, with an equal step, we weld the rods at a slight angle so that they diverge from the center upwards.

From the side, you get the classic shape of the janitor's broom. Welding must be done very securely so that the rods can be slightly bent if necessary. Now we just grab the apple so that it is inside the structure, we turn the device, and the fruit will come off. For any device, it is better to take not a long wooden pole, but a telescopic or assembled bar from several separate sections in order to adjust the length as needed.

In stores they sell special attachments for collecting fruits, made in the form of a crown facing upwards with teeth, to which a bag is attached from below... They are quite reliable, but short-lived, since thin galvanized metal is usually used. In addition, the prongs can easily damage the fruit, therefore, a large number of protruding parts on the collector is undesirable. However, such devices are used in a small country house, where there are no large harvests, and you can work slowly.

Fruit Crown Attachment

If you don't feel like messing around, a net can be made to quickly collect apples from a regular fishing net (old). At its farthest point from the handle, you need to make a bend so that the shape of the beak is obtained, it will replace the wedge-shaped slot in this device. Now all you need to do is catch the apple and pull it right into the landing net. Can be repeated until the mesh is full.

If the harvest of your apples is in every sense "on top", this cannot but rejoice! But getting ripe juicy fruits from this height is not an easy task. An ordinary garden stepladder can help in this matter, but modern gardeners are used to saving time and effort. Therefore, today we will learn together how to make a device for removing apples from a tree, which will help you quickly and without loss to harvest the entire crop from any apple tree.

If you have only one or two trees with apples on your site, then there is no point in making a "capital" fruit picker, it is enough to make a simple device from a plastic bottle. Well, if there is a whole apple plantation at your dacha, then it is best for you to buy a ready-made fruit picker

In the markets for garden tools, we have seen ready-made devices for harvesting fruits more than once. According to their principle, we will create a fruit picker with our own hands. Our future fruit picker must meet the following requirements: reach high and hold the fruit firmly, be comfortable to use. Let's take a look at the options that experienced and resourceful gardeners offer us.

As a rule, fruit pickers are made of plastic, but there are options from metal. For example, the fruit picker, which is shown in the photo, costs in stores around 700 rubles, is quite expensive, but the purchase will justify itself and will serve you for more than one year.

But such a device for removing apples from a tree will cost, on average, 1200 rubles. Its advantage is that it is made of plastic and does not require special care, just store it in some shed and it will serve you for more than a dozen years.

Option number 1: the tenacious hand of the farmer

The device will consist of a grab and a holder. You will need:

• old plastic bottle;
• long fishing line (2.5-3 meters), awl, scissors;
• handle from an old plastic mop (can be replaced with a PVC pipe).

The manufacturing process of this fruit collector in the program "Crazy Handles":

So, let's start our light work.

Step 1. We had enough craftsmanship (two-liter plastic bottle). We cut off the bottom of the bottle in a crown-like manner to form “petals”. We make 2 holes in each of the petals. To do this, you can use a small hole punch or a regular awl.

Now let's give the bowl a grip. Take the line and pull it through the neck into the bottle so that the latter is just below the middle of the line. We pass the upper end of the fishing line in turn into each hole in a circle and bring it back out through the neck of the bottle. Thus, we have a plastic bottle without a bottom with two long ends of the fishing line protruding through the neck.

Step 2. We fix the holder. As a holder, we take a hollow PVC pipe or a handle from an old plastic mop. A double line from a plastic bottle is threaded through the hole of the holder and exits from its back. If your mop handle comes with a removable handle, you're in luck! The ends of the line should be fixed to this part of the holder. Make 2 holes in the handle, through which you pass the fishing line, fastening the ends to each other tightly. Put the handle back on the squeegee handle.

We have a plastic bottle fastened with a fishing line to a holder with a removable handle. Now try to remove the cap again by pulling the line slightly towards you. The cut edges of the bottle are squeezed together with a grasping motion. Now not a single apple will leave you!

Diagram of another device for collecting fruits from trees: it will take a lot of time to create it, so we do not recommend that you take on its creation. They just showed what other home-made devices can be made

If the mop does not have a removable part, you can simply cut off its end by 15-10 cm. Make 2 holes on the sides of it, where the ends of the fishing line will be held. Then fasten them by tying together.

We repeat once again: if you have a lot of fruitful trees, then it is better to spend a certain amount of money and buy a ready-made fruit picker that will serve you for more than one season.

For PVC pipes, several plastic bottle caps can be used as a handle. For example, take 10 caps and make a hole in the center of each with an awl. Pass the free ends of the fishing line into the caps one by one and fasten to the last one. For stability, glue the caps together or make a knot of fishing line from the inside of the first cap. It turns out a convenient removable handle from the caps. Use it in the same way as the mop handle.

Video version of making a fruit picker with your own hands

And one more option for creating a capital fruit picker

Option number 2: the simplest device for picking apples

1. Fruit collector with bowl

Step 1... And again, we cannot do without such a necessary thing in the household as a plastic bottle. We cut it in half, separating the bottom part from the neck. We don't need the bottom anymore. Cut deep teeth on the cut edge, and drill 2 opposite holes in the neck.

Step 2... We are preparing a wooden pole, one end of which we adapt to the opening of the bottle. A handle from an old garden tool will do. Now we put the bottle neck on the pole and fix it with two self-tapping screws.

Collect apples with this device as follows: bring the device to a branch with an apple; place the apple inside the bottle and rotate the device for removing apples from the tree clockwise. The prongs cut the fruit, and it ends up inside the bottle. You can pick 2-3 apples at a time.

2. Closed collector

You don't have to cut off the bottom of the bottle, but just cut a round hole on the side. On the side of the bottom, make several teeth in the hole. Then put the bottle on a pole in a known way and start picking apples. The fruits are placed inside the bottle and plucked in one motion. A closed collector picks apples more easily, but can pick up no more than two fruits at a time.

With the help of such a device, it will not be possible to collect many apples at one time, but the advantage of this device is in the speed of its manufacture: with all the materials at hand, you will need a maximum of five minutes, or even less

The scheme of the device is simple: cut a hole in the shape of a heart on the side of the plastic bottle, use a screw or electrical tape to attach the bottle to the holder and we can start picking apples or other fruits

Now you do not need to master the science of climbing trees and endless maneuvers with garden stepladders, and the question of how to remove apples from a tall tree is no longer possible. The juiciest apples will be harvested without difficulty thanks to your skillful hands and will. A bowl of these homemade fruit pickers will last you a couple of years. Once worn out, it can be easily replaced using a new plastic bottle. Well, it remains for you to wish that the fruits of your skill will definitely help you get all the fruits from your apple trees!

During the period of the garden harvest, the apple picker with a telescopic handle is in the greatest demand.

Although many gardeners prefer an apple picker with a regular wooden holder. In this article, we will look at the characteristics of fruit pickers. What they are and how to use them.

A fruit collector for fruits is a very convenient and necessary thing in the household. Such gardening tools are in any case necessary if there is a fruit-bearing garden on the territory of the dacha. Typically, fruit trees grow tall and branchy. And the largest fruits ripen at the top or at the ends of the crown. It is hardly possible to cut such pears and apples without using a fruit collector with a telescopic handle.

Orchard Fruit Collector - Classification

The tools developed for harvesting fruits in today's market are enough to make a good choice. All of them simplify the removal of fruits from trees, as well as protect them as much as possible from damage. These two points are very important. Since with large harvests or areas, it takes a lot of time to harvest. And damage, even completely invisible, will not allow an apple or plum to withstand the most correct storage conditions.

Already rarely does any of the gardeners do without auxiliary tools. Most of them have been working for more than one or two seasons. Therefore, some summer residents use such an acquisition for a very long time. Of course, this is not a mechanical harvester and you also need to be able to use these devices. But the simplest design allows you to quickly adapt and figure out what and where to press or in which direction to turn. Of course, there are more or less complex designs, but they all do not complicate, but on the contrary help in harvesting a garden crop.

The material from which fruit pickers are made today is light and durable. First of all, these are:

• plastic,
• metal.

In addition to the basic structures for such garden tools, additional auxiliary parts.

Additional parts for fruit collectors

As an additional detail, various kinds of fabric materials are used for the manufacture of bags or, as they are also called, bags, for the accumulation of fruits. They are needed in order not to remove a peach or any other fruit one by one. Such additional bags are very well adapted for these cases for some fruit pickers.

Telescopic handles are made of durable plastic. They are usually made in the form of a pipe. That is, their middle is hollow. In which a wire or other material cord is located to bring the gripper mechanism into operation.

Commercially available as the simplest time-tested designs of feeders. So it is completely new - lightweight, comfortable, with a long service life.

Plastic tulip for fruit picking

Let's consider for a start the simplest, known to everyone:

The appearance of such gardening tools corresponds to their common name - tulip. And the telescopic fruit collector for cherries and cherries cannot be confused with it at all. Since these are completely different designs.

Working with tulips is easy and simple. You just need to grab the fruit so that it gets into the glass. And place its tail, that is, the twig that connects it to the tree, between the petals. Next, you need to turn the handle holder to the side most convenient for you until the apricot or nut is completely detached from the tree. Once this has happened, the fruit will be in the glass. With such devices, you can harvest from a wide variety of fruit trees.

Different types of collet pickers

The material of manufacture and design of such garden tools allows them to be divided into three groups:

• made of durable wire material,
• the main mechanism of which consists of exciting elements,
• having in addition to the basic design of the bag a bag.

All collet structures in their lower part have a place for fastening the rods. They can be wooden or telescopic. It is only necessary to provide for the diameter of the rod. So that it fits the size of the mount.

Wire pickers for apricots and other fruits

The material of manufacture speaks about the appearance of such a fruit collector. Its principle of operation is to capture the fruit and close the wire frame. What is done with a thick string or a small diameter of strong wire threaded into the loops located at the ends of the wire arcs of the device. Then again turn to the right or left with effort. After tearing off, you can put the crop in baskets.

Fruit picker with gripper for small fruits

The principle of operation of such fruit collectors is, of course, adapted not only for cherries. They can also shoot large apples. The main part of the movement is made of plastic parts. It is often a telescopic collector with a grabber. Since adjusting the length of the handle is quite an advantageous fixture. Having placed the fruit between the gripping parts, it is necessary to press the lever or pull the rope in order to close the cavities or parts. Such details may look like a three-fingered hand. When the mechanism is triggered, they are connected in the upper plane. And the fruit is captured, as it were. Now it must be torn off the branch. The method is the same - by the way of a spinning motion.

Collet pickers with bag

Devices of this type consist of the pouch itself and the main part to which it is attached. The mount is pretty reliable. Since it can support the weight of more than one heavy fruit. And as you understood, this design is designed to pick up several fruits at the same time. The part to which the bag is attached is round. With tin petals in a circle. Which act as knives. If the moldings are made of plastic material, then an additional metal knife can be attached to the rim. It makes the construction heavier, but it can be adapted for grapes. By clamping the tail of the bunch between the knife and the petal of the rim, the sturdy stem can be cut. A handle holder is also attached to such devices. Which is purchased additionally. And it can be installed both fixed length and telescopic.

Fruit picker with telescopic handle for collecting fruits

This type of garden harvesting device must be distinguished separately. The telescopic apple fruit picker is one of the latest developments in gardening tools. In addition to the convenient main part, the fruit basket, this tool has a telescopic rod. It is a kind of handle extension, the length of which is adjustable. It can be adjusted to a specific height. And change every time when the fruits need to be removed below or above the previously fixed value.

The telescopic apple picker can be used to harvest the following trees in the orchard:

• apple trees,
• pears,
• plums,
• apricots,
• hazel,
• peach,
• and others.

Before you start harvesting with such a collector, you need to determine the distance to the plum or other fruits. Set the length of the handle and if it is determined correctly, then you can start working. If you misunderstood the distance a little, then you can always correct it. One of the most convenient ways is that using it there is definitely no need to stand on a stool or climb a ladder.