Fruit Picker Tool Buying Guide

[ 0 ] July 2, 2019 | Contributor

Picking off fruits from your tree or anywhere else ideally should not be a dangerous venture. You climb a ladder, balance precariously to try to grab a fruit that is slightly beyond your reach. You stretch and your fingers begin to touch it so you stretch some more, until you are now standing on your toes like a ballet dancer.

Just as you begin to get a hold on the fruit, you suddenly discover that while you were getting a hold above, you were losing your hold below. Many have sustained varying degrees of injuries simply because they wanted to enjoy the fruit of their labor.

The most amusing scenario is stoning a fruit to get it down. All of these can be avoided with a simple but efficient fruit picking tool.

Eating lots of fresh fruits and vegetables has a lot of benefits. For this reason, our focus in this article will be to show you how to choose the right fruit picking tool.

Consideration Factors

When choosing your tool for picking fruits, there are a few things you should put into consideration because they will help you make the right choice. Some of these include:

Reach

This is an important consideration. This should be based on the height of the tree from which the fruits will be picked. While most of the tools you will find in the market have telescoping poles, be sure to find out the maximum length the pole can get to.

It is better to get a pole that is much longer than your needs since you can adjust it downwards than to get one that will again require that you climb unto a stool or ladder.

You can see a demonstration in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AYOXW5PSbs.

The Basket

All fruits are not the same size. The type of fruit or fruits you intend to pick should determine the size of the basket you go for. You basically need to be sure that the basket attached to the pole will comfortably hold the fruit’s size.

Weight

Check the weight of the entire picker setup. Remember that you will be extending it upwards and then picking fruits with them. This can be a tiring affair especially when you have a lot of fruits to pick. Having a heavy picking tool will only make your task doubly difficult.

Stability

One thing you want to avoid is a wobbling picking tool. Aside from the fact that it will make your task a lot more difficult especially when picking from higher trees, it could also be dangerous.

To test this, extend the pole fully and ensure that all the joints can be securely locked to avoid instability.

Pole Material

A number of the factors we looked at above will largely be affected by the material used. Top quality products are therefore not made with heavy materials. You will find that most of these higher quality fruit pickers are mostly made of aluminum, carbon fiber and chromoly.

These three materials are strong, durable and lightweight. It’s these characteristics that make them very ideal for this.

Ease of Use

There are a number of important issues that have to do with the actual use of the equipment. The first is how easy it is to install. Some of the picking tools come partially installed and so require very minimal setup. Some others require complete installation.

One thing to watch out for is how well the basket attaches to the pole. If it is not attached very securely, the basket could detach from the pole while you are picking the fruits.

In some cases, the basket could get entangled in the tree branch, requiring that you climb up the tree to retrieve it. In some other cases, it could detach and then send a rain of fruits down on your head. This could be dangerous depending on what fruit you are picking.

Another thing that can make it easier to use is a hand grip. The body of the pole is usually very smooth. You need to choose a pole that has sections that have been fitted with hand grips to provide your hands with suitable points that it can grip firmly to perform the business on hand.

Conclusion

Choosing the right fruit picking tool is quite easy once you know what to look out for. With the factors listed above, you should be able to easily choose the right tools which will help you safely enjoy gathering fruits from your trees.