Funny incident from this weekend...
We had half a dozen citrus trees that were in decline. They were showing signs of greening and needed to come out. I fired up the tractor, put the grapple on and got to work. The first three were smaller and in the worst shape. They pushed over easy, no problem at all.
Next one was pretty stocky. The base of the trunk was about six inches in diameter. This tree was in better shape and still firmly attached. No problem, I thought, and started pushing on it a few feet up for leverage. Like most citrus, this one branched out low, so there were multiple trunks at the level I was pushing on. I had them all pushed back a couple feet when one of them twisted off the end of them grapple and snapped back towards me.
I wasn't too concerned because the action was all unfolding a "safe" distance away in front of me. I failed to take into account the fruit that was still on the tree...
When the trunk snapped back, faster than I could see, all the fruit on it made a tight arc back towards me and pulled loose from the tree! Thankfully they pulled loose at an upward angle so there were no direct hits on me, but half a dozen oranges rained down on the canopy.
I completely failed to spot that hazard. Learn from my mistake and watch out for trees with fruit... they fight back!
-- Carl
We had half a dozen citrus trees that were in decline. They were showing signs of greening and needed to come out. I fired up the tractor, put the grapple on and got to work. The first three were smaller and in the worst shape. They pushed over easy, no problem at all.
Next one was pretty stocky. The base of the trunk was about six inches in diameter. This tree was in better shape and still firmly attached. No problem, I thought, and started pushing on it a few feet up for leverage. Like most citrus, this one branched out low, so there were multiple trunks at the level I was pushing on. I had them all pushed back a couple feet when one of them twisted off the end of them grapple and snapped back towards me.
I wasn't too concerned because the action was all unfolding a "safe" distance away in front of me. I failed to take into account the fruit that was still on the tree...
When the trunk snapped back, faster than I could see, all the fruit on it made a tight arc back towards me and pulled loose from the tree! Thankfully they pulled loose at an upward angle so there were no direct hits on me, but half a dozen oranges rained down on the canopy.
I completely failed to spot that hazard. Learn from my mistake and watch out for trees with fruit... they fight back!
-- Carl
