Nicolas Naranja

I finally made my first harvest of Kandrian(2 yrs after planting) I harvested 2 stalks and to be completely honest, I don't know how I am supposed to harvest fruit off a tree that big. The bunches are easily 50+lbs and are kind of scary coming down. Quite a few fruits break when it hits the ground.

So, how do you harvest fruits off of really tall plants, there must be some trick to it

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Some people go bananas, I went plantains.

sunfish

Can you notch the p-stem,with a machete, and let it slowly bend over ? If you know what I mean

momoese

That's how I harvest the talls, but I use a sickle like blade attached to an extension pole so I can keep my feet on the ground.

Dalmatiansoap

Its show nicely in S. Nelson video:


U can allways call me Nicolas

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Worm_Farmer

LoL, use a hand saw it will give you better control of how fast it falls.

I was watching Looney Toons once and the guy cut the tree so fast is kept falling right where he cut it and slowly dropped down one length at a time. You could try that, how ever I do not think it will work as good as it did on TV.

bananimal

Before I changed to mostly dwarfs I used to take down the Saba and Pitogo by knotching the pstem on the opposite side from where I stood to catch the bunch. The guys in the video do it perfect. Too deep a whack with the machete and you gotta move fast.

Oh yeah. When that happens drop the big sharp knife right away!!!!!

Nicolas Naranja

I harvest some of the varieties the way they do in the video, but with Kandrian, the male flower is a good 3-4' above your hands when you start so you have to get it to bend down first to grab the flower. I saw a video from australia where they use a 4x4 scissorlift. I wish I had one.

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Some people go bananas, I went plantains.

venturabananas

So, what are the Kandrian fruit like once you get them down to the ground? Or are they not ripe yet?

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Nicolas Naranja

They are still green.

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Some people go bananas, I went plantains.

varig8

Since I am only a hobbyist/collector and not a commercial grower, Ive found that its much easier for me to only cut a hand or 2 from the bunch at a time as I need them (starting from the bottom up from where the flower was). This way I dont seem to throw out too many of the bananas when they all ripen at the same time. The hands Ive removed ripen in a few days time, and then I still have fresh greener ones on the tree to cut and enjoy at my leisure! This would also solve your problem concerning the "weighty" removal of the entire bunch at once.

chasbear

I will be very glad to call you, Ante!!

I've also had the same poor luck with harvesting our tall and heavy varieties. They're MUCH taller than any shown in this video, as well as MUCH heavier. These can be a struggle for 2 very strong men to handle! No good solutions yet here, just the similar broken fruit problem after the huge bunch has come crashing down with its considerable weight from the stalk and fruit. If we had proper 3-legged orchard ladders and with some rope, we might try cutting it much higher and closer to the peduncle and then let it down more slowly with the rope draped over the top of the remaining pseudostem? Just my ideas so far.....

For sure your boom truck would be the best though!!

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chasbear

My problem with this approach has been that with a bunch that will weigh up to and well over 100 pounds, plus with the additional weight of the upper stem and all the leaves they will start out slowly bending over, but you can't catch hundreds of pounds of incoming fruit, stem and leaves after they pick up speed on their way down!

This works very well with the shorter and lighter varieties, just like in the video, but the Big And Tall fruits are beasts of another sort!