Practical Gardening: Best Homemade Apple Fruit Picker Tool

In part 1 of this article, the design, materials and tools for a cheap apple fruit picker were discussed. I call it the best homemade apple fruit picker because this DIY project implemented an apple fruit picking tool with old discarded household items and scrap construction materials. The only materials that were purchased are small hardware items like nuts, bolts and washers.

The fruit picking tool can pick not only apples but many other fruits like oranges, grapefruits, mangoes, guavas and other similar-sized fruits. Here are the steps in the procedure to making an inexpensive yet functional and effective apple fruit picking tool.

Procedure

With a metal hacksaw, cut the drawer guide rail to 7.5 inches starting from the end with the plastic roller. Cut away the plastic roller part. With a flat file, remove the burrs on the newly-sawed end. Shown below is the cut drawer guide rail.

This metal component is the stem part of the apple fruit picker. It joins together the catch prongs and fruit basket, and then fastens them to the fruit picking pole.
With a metal pipe, bend and form the 11-inch long steel rod. Insert the steel rod inside the metal pipe and use the end of the metal pipe as fulcrum to leverage your pushing and pulling the rod. Shown below are 2 photos. The first shows how a part of the rod is inserted and positioned inside the pipe.

Shown below how the rest of the rod outside the pipe was pulled in an arc. Doing this will bend and form the rod without pliers and vise-grips to the desired shape.

Bend and form the rod so the dimensions in the photos are achieved. The 2 prongs are bent in 3 segments: 2 inches, 2 inches and 1.5 inches as shown below.

The distance between the 2 prongs at the narrowest is 1 inch and 1.75 inches at the widest.

Match the fruit picker's catch prongs with the holes in the fruit picker stem to allow you to tie the catch prongs. Drill additional holes on the fruit picker stem as required.
With the metal wire and a pair of pliers, tie the catch prongs to the back of the fruit picker stem as shown below.

Here's the catch prongs tied to the fruit picker stem as shown from the front.
With a pair of heavy duty scissors, cut out the bottom part of the plastic water bottle. This will become the fruit basket of the apple fruit picker tool where the fruits will drop upon picking.
Punch holes in the fruit picker basket by dipping a nail held by a pair of pliers in a candle flame for about 1 to 2 minutes.

Then, with the nail still hot, pierce it on the fruit picker basket. Make 2 of these holes and ensure they have a 1/8-inch diameter. You could also use a power drill for the holes, but this technique is faster and would create smooth holes. The holes will be used for bolting the fruit basket to the fruit picker stem and fruit picker pole.

With washers, bolts and nuts (1/8"), fasten the apple fruit picker basket to the fruit picker stem in the 2 holes. You can improvise bigger sized nuts for easier handling. This is the front of the stem.

This is the back of the fruit picker stem.

Each fastening hole has 1 bolt, 2 nuts and 2 washers. The first (inside) nut in the hole fastens the fruit picker basket to the fruit picker stem. The second (outside) nut will fasten both the fruit picker basket and fruit picker stem to the fruit picker pole. The first washer is on the inside surface of the fruit picker basket and the second washer is on the back surface of the fruit picker stem.