The invention discloses a hand-held water chestnut picker. The picker includes a holding rod, a grip, a handle, a connecting shell, a U-shaped shell, a sleeve shell, a lower stabilization disc, a griprod, a stem cutting device and a driving device. One end of the grip rod is fixedly connected with the connecting shell, the end, away from the holding rod, of the connecting shell is fixedly connected with the U-shaped shell, the U-shaped shell is internally provided with a sleeve shell, the two sides of the sleeve shell are communicated with the two ends of the U-shaped shell, the bottom of thesleeve shell is internally and rotatably connected with a rotating shaft through a bearing, one end of the bearing passes through the sleeve shell and is fixedly connected with the lower stabilization disc, the inner wall of the top of the sleeve shell is fixedly connected with a support rod, the side, near the rotating shaft, of the support rod is slidably connected with a rack, the outer side of the rotating shaft is sleeved with and fixedly provided with a gear column, and a gear is meshed and connected with a gear column. When the picker is used for picking water chestnuts, the picker isconvenient and fast to operate, the picking efficiency is increased, the picking range is increased, and some water chestnuts which are difficult to reach or pick manually can be conveniently picked.