orchard ladder

[bigtiller]

Lowe's sells orchard or tripod ladders in sizes from 4 to 12 foot tall made by Werner. They are special order but any Lowe's can get them for you.

 

[forgeblast]

Handy Farm Devices - Cobleigh - ToC
has some links on making them.

 

[CompactTractorFan]

20 feet high reaching for cherries.. no way unless you rent a bucket truck

a.k.a. "Cherry Picker"

Sorry, I couldn't resist.

 

[JDgreen227]

a.k.a. "Cherry Picker"

Sorry, I couldn't resist.

Good one....:laughing: as for me I was wondering if OP had a tractor with a loader that he could have someone operate while he stood in the bucket and picked...he could not get 20 feet high but a good distance using that method.

 

[forgeblast]

A place we lived at in college called the slums had an old station wagon with a cherry picker bucket mounted on top so they landlord could fix the siding but we never saw him considering I had a tar paper window for 2 years. It looked like the car from the ghostbuster movies echo1.

 

[Gil A]

If you have just the one fruit tree it is not worth the investment of an orchard ladder. But if you have other fruit trees, yes it is a good investment. I have small orchard and purchased an 8 ft orchard ladder many years ago. It was worth it, only wish I had purchased the 10 ft. The 3 leg ladder may be used for other uses, such as painting, cleaning out gutters, etc. Mine is aluminum and easy to move about. Some suggested building out of 2x4s. Have they considered how heavy the ladder would be if build for safety?

Gil
1973 John Deere 2030, John Deere Gator, John Deere GX345 mower

 

[pacerron]

Good one....:laughing: as for me I was wondering if OP had a tractor with a loader that he could have someone operate while he stood in the bucket and picked...he could not get 20 feet high but a good distance using that method.

Bill,
Even though some folks use their FEL buckets for man-lifts it is one of the prime things the FEL mfg.'s warn against for many reasons.
A few I know about from operating FEL's for years.
1.Operator inexperience in adjusting curl with lift smoothly could cause a fall.
2.Most buckets do not have a shape profile for safe standing on/in when raised to max.
3. Uneven/sloped or soft ground in orchards often has the tractor base on an angle which is multiplied at the elevated bucket level.
4.There is no interlock in case a hydraulic hose breaks.

As far as the purpose.
Unless he has a very large tractor the bucket bottom is only going to be around 12 feet off the ground or less.
To reach the cherries the bucket is probably going to have to push in on the limbs at the bucket height and the front of the tractor will push into limbs with the bucket at max height. A lot of the cherries will be damaged as well as limbs may be split. He has never trimmed this tree in 15 years.
Much time will be spent moving the tractor around the tree so the picker can reach the cherries.
Don't ask how I know all this; it wasn't from reading a book

He is wanting to go 20 feet high on an extension ladder that has a 16" wide base leaning against springy tree limbs and knows that's not safe.
I always try to think safety and the possible consequences at least before trying something.
I must admit, I started wearing my tractor seat belt again while mowing fields,
just last evening, after reading the post yesterday about the senior farmer falling off his tractor and being killed by the mower on the back.
Ron

I'd like to see a picture of this 20 feet tall loaded cherry tree and it's surroundings.

 

[tpulley]

As for pruning your trees. It would behoove you to take a pruning class or have someone who you know that could teach you. Some of the reasons you prune the trees are to keep diseases down, , to train the tree to make it more easy to harvest the fruit, to invoke more growth, to take out limbs and suckers that are not productive and rob your trees of nutrients and lastly to imporve the over all quality of your fruit.

In a nutshell since you waited until the tree is 15 years old to do any pruning it may be too late. Not trying to bash you about it. I too didn't undertsand the benefits of pruning until this year. Our coop offered a fruit tree pruning class. I learned so much from that.

Some trees you would want to prune like a vase (when you go by a peach orchard often these are in this shape. Apple and pear trees are pruned differently than peaches or nectarines. You prune a tree the first year you get them believe it or not.