Hi all,

A few years ago we planted a peach tree on our property and the first year it produced a surprising bumper crop. They were also easy to pick since the tree was rather small. Since then the tree has grown significantly making the picking of peaches on the upper branches difficult. The tree is positioned at the corner of our house so using a ladder is not feasible. What tool would you recommend I make to pick those high ones? I found this tool on Amazon, but I don't know if I want to spend that much, or if the tines will break the skin of the peach. What do you use or recommend? Yes, I could prune the tree to make it shorter, but it's a nice shape in front of our house. Thanks.

Chris

When I was a young boy, they used ME to pick pecans and shake limbs way up in the trees.

quote:

Originally posted by SBrooks:
When I was a young boy, they used ME to pick pecans and shake limbs way up in the trees.

HA! Me too! We also had a peach orchard and used a step ladder.

My neighbors just climbed the tree and helped themselves sometimes breaking branches.

I assume you have a standard and not a dwarf tree. I would trim the branches for lower height and more open spread.

My daughter has that tool for lemons and limes, works pretty well...

really love your peaches, wanna shake your tree...

Truck Bumper?

You are really suppose to trim the hell out of all fruit trees
like apples ,peaches and fig trees in December
You open the top up on those trees ,the fruit is nicer as it gets sun
Fruit is larger and better.
Not to criticize ,just do not like you to fall of a ladder.

shotgun

You want the fruit picker in the linked video.

Our marvelous peach tree produced a total of less than a crate full over the 12 years we put up with it. Eventual crop: fire wood.

I now pick my peaches from the top waist-level shelf with the best looking fruit down at Grandpa's Fruit Stand.

Get a metal coffee can, attach it to a long pole, sharpen the edges on the open side.

Push it up where the peaches are, position it so the peach is inside the can and jab lightly. It'll cut the stem and the peach drops in the can.

$10 at WalMart

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Fru...rees-Fruit/468974660

I was going to say a small boy.

flashguy

I have a fruit picker just like the ones pictured. I used it on my apple tree. They provided a foam disk for the bottom so the apples had a soft landing.

Have you looked at light bulb changers on the poles at Home Depot?

As seen on the video linked in ZSMICHAEL's post above, and endorsed in other posts, you want something like this:



We had full sized apricot and plum trees in the yard back in California, and got one of those style fruit pickers from Home Depot, I believe. Worked great.

^^^We used to use that exact tool to pick citrus when I was a kid, granddad used his for peaches also, as he had a peach tree. But it hurt the figs he had, so he used a ladder for the higher up ones

I agree with what a few people have already stated. You should trim the tree to produce larger better fruit that can be reached from the ground. I dont think peach trees should be over 9 or 10 foot tall. The weight of the fruit will pull the branches down so you can pick without a ladder or any device