From: bobnospam@gmail.com   
      
   I just posted this to a response elsewhere, and thought someone here is   
   more likely to find it useful   
      
   I have several tools I use to harvest fruit from trees. The commercial   
   basket on a pole with hook loops works Ok, but frequently the fruit   
   misses the basket and gets bruised. I created my own special tools for   
   Apples, pears, plums, etc.   
      
   I found  several appropriate types of reasonably stiff thin smooth wall   
   plastic tubing of appropriate sized that the fruit can loosely fit   
   inside the tube. These usually come from the hardware store, like thin   
   wall PVC, or ABS plastic pipe or lightweight drain pipe for larger   
   sizes, and can be found with one end that is enlarged to fit over the   
   smaller end of another, to make long lengths.   
      
   I cut one or more notches maybe 1/4" at the picking end of one of the   
   tubes. I can reach up in the tree with this tool, with one hand capping   
   the lower end to carry the weight and the other hand higher on the pipe   
   to guide it, slip the end over a fruit, and push it up and to the side a   
   bit while twisting the pipe until the notch finds the stem and breaks it   
   off. I keep my bottom hand covering the bottom of the pipe to not let   
   air escape. The fruit slides slowly down the pipe because the air ahead   
   of it compresses and slows it. The fruit drops softly into my hand, I   
   put it into my bucket, then go for the next fruit.   
      
   Never a bruise.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)