Kitchen Garden Forum

Watching a Discovery Science programme on satellite TV, vegging in other words and an advert has come up that is incredible.

Cordless electric Secateurs.

Right now I could be mistaken for Victor Meldrew.

Morning Peter, i think you are just the Man for the job, you could buy a pair, then you can report back to us all, just how useless they are.

Maybe my first comments were being a touch thoughtless, these might be handy for people who suffer with Rheumatism or the like.

My only excuse is that i don't like gagety things.

Powered Secateurs have been in commercial horticulture for donkey's years. They must be accompanied by the appropriate safety gear.
This really consists of a chain mail glove so that you cannot chop your fingers off. You have been warned!
I do not really think that they should be sold to anybody outside the trade because in the wrong hands they are quite lethal.
The reason they came about was for people who have to prune say fifty acres of apple trees or the like for days on end.
JB.

I can see they might be useful for people who have large amounts of regular pruning to do, or for weak women like me who find it difficult to prune through thick stems, but for the average gardener it's just one more thing to remember to keep it regularly on charge it it's to be any use. Sounds a bit like the cordless screwdriver we own which always seems to be flat on the odd occasions we need it. On the other hand, it's bound to appear on the Christmas present list for somebody who has a family member who likes gardening. How long, do you think, before the first ones start appearing on E-Bay?

Primrose

There already there

See HERE

OH has hit the nail on the head there, for arthritic or more senior hands they may well be a boon.
JB is sort of on target with the all day pruning.

But, what starts as an aid to people with problems becomes a prop to the lazy. If I was pruning all day I'd be sore on the second day, have calluses and a stronger hand / arm by the second week.

Those who have seen Wall.E, where the future humans ALL end up hovering around on what started as the stretchers for injured will know what I mean.