How to Harvest the Fruit of a Sycamore Tree

Most people don't eat the fruit from a sycamore tree, but if you'd like to get them down, harvesting them is fairly easy and prevents your yard from being littered with them. Some types of animals eat sycamore fruit, which allows the seeds to be transported to a new location for growing. The fruit looks like a brown ball covered with seeds and hangs down on stalks in groups of two or three. They ripen in October and often hang on the tree through the winter. Harvesting them when they get ripe prevents the seeds from being scattered.

Ladder
Small knife
Basket
Gloves

Instructions

- 1
  Position a ladder under the hanging sycamore fruit. Be sure that it is extended enough to prevent you from having to reach too high, which increases your risk of losing your balance and falling off the ladder. Climb the ladder to the fruit.
- 2
  Protect your hands by wearing gloves. This will prevent you from scraping your hands as you move through the tree branches to pick the fruit. Garden gloves are a good choice because they aren't so bulky that they will interfere with your work.
- 3
  Pick the sycamore fruit with your hands. Any stubborn fruit can be removed with a small pocketknife. Cut the fruit stalk where it meets the tree branch. Bring a basket with you to put the sycamore fruit in or tie a bag to your belt loop to collect your harvest. An alternative is to toss all the fruit to the ground and rake it up when you are done. Alternatively, lay a tarp under the tree to make it easy to collect all the fruit.
- 4
  Discard the fruit. Place it in a trash bag and get rid of it, which prevents the seeds from spreading and causing new sycamore trees to grow where they are not wanted.

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