Helpful harvest tools

[Laura Hillier]

Hi everyone,

Looking ahead to the hopefully bountiful harvests later in the summer, we were just wondering if your recycling and DIY skills are used when picking your crops? There are lots of snazzy, specialist tools on the market to help, such as potato forks, telescopic nets for reaching those fruits at the top of the tree, berry pickers to save time consuming hand picking, etc. But have you found that any items around the house do the same job? Or have you made anything similar yourself?

Answers may be edited and published in the August issue of Grow Your Own.

Laura

[Fleurisa]

My husband!

[Nicos]

^^^^^..do you hire him out...or is he waaay too busy?


Nice thread Laura...looking forward to some new, interesting ideas!

[Laura Hillier]

Thanks Nicos - yes, we're hoping to pick up some new tips to use on our plots... just need a kind season for good hauls of berries as well!

Laura

[Fleurisa]

He's way too busy to loan out, he also does the cooking too!

[Fleurisa]

I've just remembered I bought hubby one of the knives for harvesting asparagus, he seemed to like it

[Plot10]

I find one of the most useful tools is my trowel. I got fed up with spearing or slicing the best tatties with a fork or spade so now I excavate with my trowel. It takes longer but I don't have nearly so many casualties and it's quite a pleasant task on a warm Autumn day.

[sparrow100]

I use a cheap sweetcorn fork for pricking out teeny seedlings, and my dad made a thick wire hook that he fastened to a long bamboo cane to haul blackberry canes to within reach. 30 years later it's shorter (or I am taller ) but still in use.

My boyfriend has promised me a sturdy version of his father's fab tin-onna-stick for harvesting figs as some very thoughtful Council worker planted what is now a HUGE tree along the river walk. It has thousands of figs on it and I am determined that some will be mine!

Pics of said useful but unglamorous tools can be provided!

[Laura Hillier]

sparrow100 - I love that idea!
Also figs... *dreaming of this year's crop*

Laura

[gardendancer]

I use my telescopic loppers ( which I normally use to prune with) to cut flowerheads of the elder, when they are to high to reach

[sparrow100]

sparrow100 - I love that idea!
Also figs... *dreaming of this year's crop*

Laura

In these days of mobile phones no one looks up anymore, so I might be the only one snaffling them.

[Nicos]

We use a nail knocked into a broom handle at an angle to hook over the top of a cherry tree branch to pull it down a few feet to be able to harvest the fruit.
Works a treat!

[WPG]

I use an old pair of hairdressing scissors to harvest beans, courgettes, flowers etc. they're less bulky than secateurs but sharp enough to give a clean cut.

Personally, I think some of the gadgets sold for harvesting look like more trouble than they're worth, especially potato scoops and berry strimmers. I prefer to use my hands!

[Jamesy_uk]

Not necessarily a harvesting tool but a basket with different sections to put the produce in as you harvest, it is very handy so you keep the different foods separate and don't get dirt in things.
E.G - Raspberry's are a pain in the ass to clean if you get dirt in them from your potatoes

[veggiechicken]

I pick soft fruit into a plastic jug as I only need one hand to hold it and can pile the berries in with the other hand.
Then I sit in the sunshine and strip the berries from the bunches with a table fork.............
I'm sure everyone does this