Turns out the 30' tall tree in our backyard is an avocado tree! It's covered in avocados, and it only took climbing up and getting stuck once to realize that I don't know how to harvest it.
What's the best way to go about harvesting fruit from a very tall tree? We don't have a ladder quite tall enough, and I'm only able to climb about halfway up before the branches get too thin to support my weight (and frankly I realize that I'm afraid of heights and don't want to climb back down).
You can probably make a pole with a hook on it to lower the branches and pick them. I think they make them now, but my mom made them from all the fruit trees she has in the yard.
This thing is, as Katie said, somewhere around 30 feet tall. It's a big, mature tree that towers over her house. So bending branches lower enough to harvest is not an option. The lowest branches are more than 10 feet off the ground.
Hope someone has a solution, because I want me some grandbaby avocados.
Margie
We use something like this when picking pears. It's work.
Rent a tall landscaper's ladder? Rent a cherry picker (boom lift)? Find a landscaper to help and split the crop?
What you need is a pet monkey.
Sounds like it's time to add a bucket truck to the fleet.
No brainer.
I'm in Canada right now, so the links may not work, but a $15 fruit picking basket plus a $40 extending 24' pole. I probably picked eleventy quillion bushels of apples this way on Grandpa's orchard and dozens of bushels on a Florida orange grove with these.
If you get the larger basket, you can likely fit 4-5 fruits at a time.
I was going to suggest a fruit-picking drone, or an ultralight hot air balloon, but Viny B has your answer (can't imagine why he is not selling plans)
I'm also just a tiny bit jealous (just a wee bit) that you have an avocado tree that produces.
Here I am in PA paying $1 each for those little bombs of glory.
My in-laws had an avocado tree in their back yard (along with a mango tree) up until the most recent hurricane- when they were stripped out due to falling, again.
As far as I remember, they never "harvested" them- they just collected them off the ground. So maybe rig up some tarps to catch the falling avocados? For sure, if it takes real effort to take them off, they are not ripe.
They will make a mess, BTW. I once went up on the roof to clean once, and the decaying avocados and mangoes were pretty disgusting. Cockroaches loved them. Especially the sliver dollar sized beasts.
My wife's favorite was to take a half loaf of bread, hollow it out, and fill with an avocado. Just that.
edit- plan on giving a lot away. It was a real beast along with that mango tree.
In reply to alfadriver :
Ive said I wanted a tree but someone I know said they are messy - mice, rats and they do come in at once.
I read a story recently about a guy who kept finding avocados in his yard and wondered who was leaving them there, until one day he looked up and realized he had an avocado tree.
They make three legged stepladders specifically for picking fruit, so you can get in between the branches.
Clearly you need to buy a bucket truck.
I think I'm gonna try out one of those fruit picking basket sticks, thanks for the suggestion.
Though the bucket truck idea makes me wonder if we should attempt some shenanigans using the company forklift....
And here I was sure you'd opt for the pet monkey.
Katie Wilson said:I think I'm gonna try out one of those fruit picking basket sticks, thanks for the suggestion.
This is absolutely the correct answer, stay on the ground to collect your food. I bought one for my peach tree just in time for late freezes to wipe everything out (2022 and 2023) or squirrels and birds to make off with every single fruit (2021 and 2024).
My grandparents had an avocado tree out in Hawaii. They never picked directly off the tree, and instead collected the ones on the ground. Avocados seem to know when they are ready, they will not be soft when they fall, it will still take a number of days after before they are good to eat, at least in my experience.
However, it looks like as long as your timing is correct, you can harvest directly- https://gregalder.com/yardposts/how-to-harvest-avocados/
We just bought one of those basket on a stick things for our apple tree this year.
But I'm curious, how thick is the trunk of the avocado tree? Could you just shake it?
Well, now we know who's bringing guac to the Challenge.
We've tried shaking the tree, but it's about 6" diameter and the shaking doesn't do much good.
The problem with waiting for Avocados to fall is that we're in FL in July. Any that fall turn into insta-rot with how hot it has been.
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