SELFE HOOK

06/09/2020

We are effectively using Selfe Hooks to tie down vigorous upward-growing branches (lote) in mature trees to encourage them to spur-up in this coming year, rather than just pruning them off. These trees tend to grow vigorously.

08/07/2020

I was on a farm today demonstrating the Selfe Hook TM and my customer was saying he was looking forward to JP producing a gadget for attaching the stem of a fruit tree to trellising where a grow stake had not been used. He then cut a short length of materiaalstrokie (koolkop) that was hanging down and took two Selfe Hooks and in a jiffy the tree was tied! Is there an end to the usefulness of this little hook? I know I'll be doing this from now on!

24/05/2020

I'm now well past 5000 hooks used on Weathertop, and doing it myself means ideas crop up as I go along. Ever wonder why JP designed the little curve at the end of the branch side of the hook? I wonder if he has!? I'll tell you, it's for those very thick branches that really need pulling down hard (that some would have cut off anyway as a 'tappie' at the stem) and which tend to open the hook up a bit. With the tail end of the string, having passed it twice through the notch, I've been feeding it under the branch to the other side of the hook and back into the notch again. The little 'tail' prevents the string from slipping off the end of the hook!

23/05/2020

Just some pictures from today and yesterday of the vigorous Granny Smith I'm working through at the moment. Will the row ever end? Partly by mistake, today I stapled 5 strings to the stem in one go, and still used up all 10 ends on branches!

20/05/2020

Still experimenting, still with the jute strings. I said before I seldom attach one long string for two branches, but today, where there are a lot of branches to pull down, I've been experimenting with 4 long strings, stapled midway anywhere on the stem, and simply walking around the tree with the 8 ends pulling and hooking, pulling and hooking, till all 8 are used up! I just drape the unused bunch over a branch and pick the next one from it. It's quick! The four strings on these trees could also have been looped around the wire. Count the strings! :-) Tomorrow I've been asked to do a demo in Villiersdorp.

17/05/2020

Point-of-Sale information board

16/05/2020

When Cobus Coetzer first saw our demonstration unit in the shop, with its branch and choice of tie-downs, he immediately suggested the 'double-decker' tie-down: using the tail end of the string to pull down the branch above with another Selfe Hook. On Norham in this week, one of the workers who immediately took to the hook and its advantages, went one better and tied three down, above one another, with one string from the stem! One needs to decide which side of the lower branch to pull the tail-end of the string, so that the upper branch doesn't pull the hook off the lower one.
I'm almost never just attaching the middle of a single string to the stem, it's at least two, for four ties, or three for six!

16/05/2020

Here are some pictures of the Selfe Hook using the white 'Tamatietou', it was quite satisfactory. I'm just a bit worried it will won't biodegrade in the sunlight:

15/05/2020

I have been experimenting with different kinds of tie-down. I've always used 'Materiaalstrokie' aka 'Koolkop' which is a ball of cotton offcut strip from tee shirts, I think. It doesn't degrade and if tied around a stem, it will throttle the tree eventually. I started stapling the lower end of each strip to the stem, anywhere convenient below the branch I wanted to pull down. I've tried white 'tamatietou', the reel is convenient to use. We are told it's biodegradable, but I'm not sure, and it's a bit slippery for the vee of the hook and needs a second pass through the vee quite often. My favourite now is the jute string, which comes in a skein. Many people cut the skein twice for a shortish string. I'm cutting the skein once only, then attaching the string half-way along its length, either stapled to the stem or looped around the trellis wire. One can attach several lengths at the same time, giving twice that number of ends to use with the Selfe Hooks on the branches. It's all saving a lot of time!

15/05/2020

https://youtu.be/dZTiOVbwjoc

Game changing time saving with the Selfe Hook