Anybody have one of these? Do they work?
Looks interesting. Collects the fruit and all.
Sold at Raintree.
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I don’t personally have one, but that’s basically how commercial blueberry harvest happens. I have a friend in Maine who grows dry harvest organic cranberries, and she uses a hand rake to harvest the bog.
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Went down a rabbit hole, and here’s how to make one out of a wine box and a broken metal rake.
http://www.jonsbushcraft.com/making%20a%20berry%20picker.htm
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I was more concerned they would damage the fruit ripping it off. Or the bush.
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Not really. It’s about as disruptive as hand picking, except for more leaves come with the berries.
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southeastern Maine blueberry barrens are picked with a bigger version of that. the quality ones are made of aluminum. i did it for a few seasons after coming out of the Army. work was hard but was worth it for the $1000 a week a good picker could make back then tax free. used to work for Wymans out of Cherryfield, ME before they were a big company.
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I was given one as a present and very much enjoyed it. It made picking flower heads way easier.
Mine was made by some hungarian lady and is wood and stainless tines.
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It works on Blueberries fine but it “picks” a lot of unripe berries, stems and leaves.
Although its possible to sort the good berries from everything else the, we found it more effective and faster to just pick the best fruit by hand.
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Yeah, I think I have one that I bought in anticipation and don’t use.
Use of rakes or similar tools has historically been discouraged in the wild huckleberry fields of various PNW national forests.
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While up in the mountains we do have wild blueberry bushes as far as the eye can see, and this does come handy (you can be gentle, give it a shake so the ripe fruit fall on it, take it out without pulling everything out). I bought mine to mortify my daughters as our cherry tree was busy ripening a singular cherry, and I told them we needed it for that.
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just curious,. what state you in Don?
there is a technique to using the rake to cause minimal damage. kind of a flicking motion once the tines engage the fruit . its been a long time but i vaguely remember that.
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I picked one of these up on Temu for about $12. Has anyone else had good results with theirs? What species/ varieties do you use it for?
works great on lowbush where the bush is evenly trimmed. not as good for half high or highbush as they aren’t a consistent height.
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Thanks for the input Steve! I’ve seen the articles in the local newspaper in Blue Hill where people have gone in the lowbush fields and illegally raked farmers fields at night.
I was also curious if these would be a viable for currants, gooseberries, aronia, other berries/fruit? I bet cherry tomatoes could be plucked with these things too…
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smaller rakes would work on the outside. ive used mine like that. i used to pick for Wyman’s in Cherryfield back in the early 90’s. good money but hard on the back if you’re tall. the natives that worked the fields didnt like us coming down to their turf so we stayed at a gravel pit in a tent near Tunk lake.
I eat Wymanns blueberries almost every morning in my oatmeal. We go through a LOT of blueberries. Very fortunate that I can source locally so I don’t have to ship Allen’s from Maine!
Hoping my own production and honeyberries can replace a good amount. I’d probably need 50 lb/yr but I would eat more if I grow them!
Another variation you might like is black currant and raspberries. I’ve been adding that to my yogurt in the morning lately instead of blueberries.
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I’ll definitely try that out. I should have enough currants this year to save. My Titanias are getting shrubby instead of twiggy.
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