A picker spindle bar includes spindles oriented on the bar to offset the spindle picking ends relative to each other. In an exemplary embodiment, adjacent spindle axes are rotated six degrees relative to each other about the upright spindle drive shaft axis so that the picking ends of adjacent spindles are offset and enter the doffing zone at different times to reduce peak loads on the harvester row unit. The angled spindle configurations also space picking ends fore-and-aft in the picking zone and improve harvesting efficiency, especially where green bolls are present. The staggered spindle ends reduces cotton pinching in the picking, doffing and spindle wiping areas to thereby reduce row unit plugging.