- Southwest Michigan Grower
Invents Pruner for Blueberries
Associate Editor
That arrangement made Akehurst nervous because the chemical was too close to his daughter’s face and clothing. Akehurst, a grower of 20 acres of blueberries in Breedsville in southwest Michigan turned this problem into his invention - Kut-N-Kill, a hand pruner in an economy and a heavy duty model.
Since he bought the blueberry farm from an older grower in 1992, Akehurst has been fine-tuning his hand pruners. What started as a small plastic container wrapped around a pruner with duct tape has turned into a special plastic, shrinked wrapped around the pruner handle and a plastic bottle with a screw lid with a small opening.
“It saves time and money and helps the environment. You only put the chemical exactly where it needs to be,” said Akehurst. There’s no waste, as one drop of Round-up kills the unwanted growth, and none of the chemicals get on the blueberry bushes in this selective kill. The pruners can be carried in pockets while doing field jobs like soil sampling, insect scouting and weed killing.
Akehurst said Kut-N-Kill gives growers the ability to kill weeds, trees, flowers or diseased plants with one hand. With his system the blade of the pruners never comes in contact with the herbicide.
Akehurst has been using his pruners for three seasons now and has taken care of his problem of offending growth in his blueberry bushes. “Poison ivy was really hard to kill with other systems,” he said. Akehurst noted that trees like sassafras can grow six feet per year and a lot of unwanted trees grow because of seeds like the helicopters from soft maple trees. He uses Roundup but he said several types of herbicide can be used.
Akehurst demonstrated his pruners to attendees of the trade show at the Southwest Hort Days in Benton Harbor, Mich. in February. He is working with Butch Greiffendorf from Blueberry Equipment Inc. (BEI) to market and sell the pruners. Greiffendorf helped Akehurst with an advertising handout for the pruners.
Akehurst said he sold some of the heavy-duty models of his pruners at the hort days at the BEI booth. “We’re always looking for new inventions. A lot of these farmers have great ideas but don’t know where to market,” said Greiffendorf.
The pruners are available from BEI as well as Stokes Blueberries in Grand Junction, Mich. or directly from Akehurst. Akehurst can be reached at (616) 637-5303.
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