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I have made several papaya pickers over the years, and this is my favorite. It is on the heavy side, but it is strong.
You get the papaya inside and just twist the picker around until the stem breaks. The fishnet provides some friction and as the bucket walks around the trunk it raises the fruit and snaps the stem.
The head is made out of a 5-gallon plastic bucket with the bottom cut off. It has a fishnet liner that catches the papaya when it falls, with very little damage to the fruit.
Papayas come male and female. The males have smaller flowers, in clusters. The females usually have larger, single flowers. When I find I have males, I just eliminate them since they usually don't fruit. The females will bear fruit without any males around, but some people still like to leave a male or two, if available space is not an issue.
Papayas make great smoothies. I sometimes add a ripe banana for sweetness, wheat germ, and cinnamon or curry, along with some vegetarian milk. I try to avoid refined sugar. Because of the estrogens in soy, being male and vegetarian, I tend to replace soy milk now with almond, oat, hemp, or other kinds of milk.
Some people, who don't like the flavor of straight papaya add a little lemon juice to it, instead of the other things I use.
You get the papaya inside and just twist the picker around until the stem breaks. The fishnet provides some friction and as the bucket walks around the trunk it raises the fruit and snaps the stem.
The head is made out of a 5-gallon plastic bucket with the bottom cut off. It has a fishnet liner that catches the papaya when it falls, with very little damage to the fruit.
Papayas come male and female. The males have smaller flowers, in clusters. The females usually have larger, single flowers. When I find I have males, I just eliminate them since they usually don't fruit. The females will bear fruit without any males around, but some people still like to leave a male or two, if available space is not an issue.
Papayas make great smoothies. I sometimes add a ripe banana for sweetness, wheat germ, and cinnamon or curry, along with some vegetarian milk. I try to avoid refined sugar. Because of the estrogens in soy, being male and vegetarian, I tend to replace soy milk now with almond, oat, hemp, or other kinds of milk.
Some people, who don't like the flavor of straight papaya add a little lemon juice to it, instead of the other things I use.
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Signing UpStep 1The Bucket Head
I made this picker years ago, and am not going to deconstruct it to show the individual components, so you will have to use a little imagination.
The full depth of the bucket was more than I needed to catch the fruit. Instead of cutting the bottom off in a straight line, I cut it with the wavy line shown. This let me mount the handle higher on the bucket, and also let me use the wavy line as a sort of hook to hang the picker from a horizontal overhead pipe in my shop for storage.
I used a saber saw to make the wavy cut.
The full depth of the bucket was more than I needed to catch the fruit. Instead of cutting the bottom off in a straight line, I cut it with the wavy line shown. This let me mount the handle higher on the bucket, and also let me use the wavy line as a sort of hook to hang the picker from a horizontal overhead pipe in my shop for storage.
I used a saber saw to make the wavy cut.
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As you twist the pole, the bucket tends to walk around the trunk, raising and snapping off the fruit as it does so.
It sounds to me like your two trees with flowers and no papayas are males. The males have smaller flowers, clustered together. The females have larger, usually single flowers. You have to plant many and weed out the males when they flower.
The males tend to make taller, more robust trees, and they do occasionally produce fruit; longer and skinnier. Some people keep a male or two around, but the females produce even without them. I always take out the males, because the space is valuable to me.
I'm going to include the points you mentioned in the instructable. Thanks.
For some reason, mine here tend to grow, bear a few fruit and then lose their leaves and die. Neighbors have much better luck with theirs lasting several years. The strange thing is that I love papayas, and they don't. Anyway, I just mount my picking pole to my vehicle and go pick theirs. I love the sharing that goes on out here.
You mentioned using sugar in your smoothies. I don't, for health reasons. Some of my neighbors, who don't like ripe papayas do like "lechosa con dulce", candied green papaya. I'm not sure how they make it; probably boiling green papaya slices with sugar syrup until the water boils away. Anyway, you might like to try it.
Anyway, it's all a matter of taste. A little sugar probably won't kill you. A lot all the time might deplete your B vitamins, which neurons like, and cause brain farts or have some other side effect. A Google search for "is sugar poison" brings up lots of food for thought.
I personally don't love papayas but i enjoy them sometimes. Good job!