How to get apples at top of tree

maggiesoop

I'm absolutely delighted that I've got a bumper crop this year and quite frankly don't know what I'll do with the hundreds of apples I see growing.... BUT they are so high up that I don't know how to get them. Tried a pole and knocking them off gently but I fear as soon as they hit the ground they will get bruised.

I'm sure if I go to my local Garden Centre there will be some new fangled pole with cutting implement at £20 I can buy but wonder if any of you gardening people who of a way to do it in a money saving fashion.

podcake

My gran used to have some MASSIVE apple trees in her garden when she was still with us, and it was ladder and basket time every year when they were ready, if you can't get up into the tree maybe if there are two of you, one poking and the other with a kids seaside fishing net on a long stick to catch them in before they hit? just an idea?

wssla00

Shake and fall is a good way but you need somewhere for them to fall. A couple of quilts will help stop them from bruising. Might be worth a try?

RAS

if you have enough people - spread out a couple of old sheets, one either side of the tree, get six folk holding the corners (middle two holding adjoining corners of both sheets) and then shake the tree. You will keep most of the apples off the floor. Tip into baskets etc at intervals.

Use the fallers for chutneys, jams and frozen apples.

Patchwork_Quilt

I bought a walking stick at a charity shop to help reach awkward branches.

Be careful, though. I fell out of our tree last year. Luckily, our grass is so soft I just ended up looking silly.

Lotus-eater

Put "make a fruitpicker" into google.

maggiesoop

Interesting..... but WAYYYYYY too technical for me. Now, if you've got a idea for a gadget using something I have around the house (like vacuum hose or brush pole etc. )then we're in business.... So far the "shaking the tree with 4 people holding a blanket underneath" is the most likely but always open to new ideas - thanks all.

katholicos

My daughter just got back frm a weekend away in the countryside, with her mates. She literally has a car boot full to the brm with apples and pears that she foraged for me. She says she climbed a huge apple tree and shook the branches and her 2 friends gathered up the apples....kilos and kilos of them. As i have limited physical ability she knew i wouldn't be able to reach any of them so she and her friends did the foraging....i get the fun part of jam making!

When she came back she said that other people were taking fold up ladders out of their car boots and putting them against the trees so they could get the apples. I think you can buy or make an apple catcher, which is like a wicker basket on the end of a long pole...i thik the idea is that you put the basket up to the fruit and the fruit fall in it.

Last week while i was out with mum we saw a fisherman get up from his fishing pitch and hold his net (on the end of a long pole) up to an apple tree and he even got an apple for me and for mum!

quidsin

http://www.webbsdirect.co.uk/wolf_garden_limited-wolf-fruit-picker-+-extending-pole-prod343308/
i've got one onf these, they're fab, i can get 3-4 apples in one swoop, you can chane the tool at the end of the pole, I've got the apple catcher and a pruner, i'll be getting a saw next!!! .....can't wait

http://www.garden4less.co.uk/proddetail.asp?prod=ZM10-14-17
http://www.wolf-garten.co.uk/index.php?id=850

jackieglasgow

fishing net? loljust read the rest of the thread and saw katholicos'post!

Lotus-eater

maggiesoop wrote: »

Interesting..... but WAYYYYYY too technical for me.

A long stick with a plastic bottle stuck on the end, with it's end cut off? My 7 year old could make that.