On 10/23/2015 11:58 AM, Oren wrote:

Check into poles that harvest avocados. On the end is a bag, the loop
has two blades -- place the bag under the fruit, gently pull on the
stem and fruits falls into the bag with minimum damage to tree
branches

One sample: (pic)

http://www.spyderman.com/Agriculture.html

This seems similar to what Muggles posted. I don't know how avocados
grow but I can't see how I could isolate a *single* orange *and* gain
access to it's stem with such a tool.

I'm also not sure how willingly avocados jump off the tree. Picking
citrus "early" usually results in a fair bit of "wrestling" with the
fruit to get it to let go of the tree.

Picking them when they are ripe is never a problem as they will
almost *fall* off. Indeed, leave them on the tree too long and
you can "harvest" them off the ground -- that's how we handle
the pineapple guava (which you never want to harvest early as they
are too damn tart! Let the tree tell you when it thinks they are
ready : )