Harvesting high hanging fruit

[highinthesky]

My parent's fruit tree is bearing the most beautiful bounty, that is ready to be picked. I've taken what I can reach with the tallest ladder we have, but there is so much of it and the tree must be over 50' at its highest point. I can't help but see all the fruit on it and think how it is much better picked and eaten by family, friends, neighbours, strangers etc than going to waste.

AIBU to want to pick it all before it ends up as windfall? Is there an easy way of going about this? I'm fine with the picking element, but to pick it I need to be able to reach it. Any agricultural solutions?

Yes! What we do, is get a long stick of usually bamboo. Lash a knife and little basket onto the end. Send it up, up, up, and lop the fruit off. We have to do this a lot with tropical fruit. Beware the weight of it all as you lower it back down. I've seen people wrap one arm of some secateurs onto the end, and attach strong to the other, but personally I think it's too hard to snip with any strength. Depends on the fruit really. Something like papaya just sort of glides off. Apples you can sometimes just knock them off. What have you got?

Attach string, not strong!

Shake the tree. (Agadoo had some wise advice.)

Put a tarp or similar down on the floor first.

My dad has got one of these

Tarp and shake is my preferred method i do it every day or so

Any agricultural solutions?
Most fruiting trees nowadays are on dwarfing stocks to make them easier to pick. I remember picking apples in the olden days before we had heard of health and safety. As we were on piece-work, we took stupid risks balancing on the top rungs of ladders etc. Usually at least once accident per season. I think there comes a time when you have to weigh up the risks against the potential gain, and just wait for windfall.

Put "telescopic fruit harvester" into amazon for a variety of tools to help you with this.

Not that I'm recommending it , but one of my neighbours has a novel way of doing it .... him and his wife are in their nineties , and he stands her in the bucket on the front of his tractor with a tub trug bucket , and she shouts "higher " and "lower" as required . I daren't watch .

If it was sturdy enough to climb...

I was going to suggest a tractor with a bucket on the front. Maybe not if you're in your nineties though!

Some brilliant suggestions, thank you! I had no idea that telescopic fruit pickers were an invention . The tree is so heavy with fruit I think it would keep me going for at least a year!

Shaking isn't an option as its hard fruit, I got caught in the crossfire of the windfall earlier. Our preferred method this afternoon was to lop skinnier lower branches off and retrieve the fruit. The best way is twisting gently, too much traction and you risk a head injury. The tree is still well-stocked with large and unblemished fruit (strangely the birds have taken no interest in them, probably because they're not fully ripe yet) but I now have blisters on my index finger as a result of peeling several pounds. The stewed result is well worth it, though.

What is this mystery fruit, I hear you ask? The tree has grown from a single pip planted by my granny on 1973 to a wonderful bounty of D'Anjous. She was very fond of pears but back in those days they were a real treat - she'd be proud of her efforts if she were alive now!

Not in our nineties but I get in the safety frame on the JCB forklift , saying up a bit, down a bit, with the trug to put the fruit in. Our adult children find it concerning - what if he wanders off &
forgets you?

Can't you just borrow next door neaighbour's helicopter?