Far reaching - extendable pruner saves the day

Although nearing completion, orchard work is still part of the weekly routine.  This involves cutting out any diseased or dead branches and reducing the length of the upright annual growth to a few buds, creating short ‘spurs’.  These shoots have been formed over the course of last year and can be up to a metre long.  Most of the time we’ve already cut them back by about a third in late summer allowing sunlight to get to the ripening fruit, but more often than not some have been missed or have added more growth since that time. 

But this is isn't really about pruning, more, what to do when you don’t have a  ladder.  This happened this week when we discovered the ladder was on loan leaving us to decide what to do.  Rather than put off the pruning we turned to the extendable and trusty telescopic secateurs.  Fully extended they're approximately three metres long and with outstretched arms a further 2.5 metres can be added to that, bringing most stems within reach.  Stand on a step-up aluminium platform and you can increase your reach even further.

The long reach of these secateurs suits most of our requirements but thicker branches can either be dealt with by those extendable pruners where you pull on a toggled rope or saws that screw into an extendable pole.  We use these telescopic secateurs on Wisteria too.   Anything as an alternative to climbing a ladder must be a good thing.