acorn time - bag a nut?

[GAV64]

its that time again and it looks like it is going to be a big acorn year, it has been a little light here in new england the last few years. does any own or have used a  bag a nut machine, they look cool and like they should work good. I have tried everything, raking, sweeping and blowing, there has to be better way. My yard is full of red and white oak and hickory trees. any advice, no i am not cutting the trees down. thanks glenn.
     

[Tom]

Well!  I'll be DanG'ed !   A company right here in my backyard, Jacksonville, Florida.


I've seen the things used to pick up Pecans.  (That's pea-cans around here.)

They work good too. 

I see that they list acorns as something it will pick up.  It might be worth contacting them to make sure that you get the right "broom" and "basket", if those options exist.

Having seen them work on Pecans, I wouldn't hesitate a minute to try one.

[DanG]

I have one.  It works great if your nuts all fall on perfectly smooth and clean astroturf.  Otherwise, it's more trouble than it's worth.  More expense, too.  It will fill up a plastic grocery sack with leaves and twigs in about 6 steps, then you gotta sort through it and find the half-dozen pecans in there.  Meanwhile, it has left every nut that was in the slightest depression, or buried between two sprigs of grass.  I paid $250 for it, and wouldn't give you 50 cents for a truckload of'em.  In fairness, though, it will pick up nuts if you give it ideal conditions.

[metalspinner]

DanG,
I helped my uncle set his up at the farm in LA.  He was very excited to get it in, but soon was as disappointed as you.  The grass was to high for the tines to grip the pecans. >:(  If he mowed and raked the four acres of pecan trees the week of the big drop, it may have worked. :-\

[DanG]

It might work well on a manicured lawn, but my trees are in a pasture, with pasture type grasses.  Even when I have cleaned around the trees, which helps, the nuts still tend to settle between the grass clumps and the brush just rides up over it.  The machine might work better if it were made of metal and was heavier.  It isn't built strong enough to just add the weight, though. :-\

[Bibbyman]

We have six big red oak trees in our yard and over the years I've managed to train these rodents to come into the yard and pack them off.   I've not been able to train them to put them in a sack.  They're kind of slow at it but by fall the next year they've about clean them up - by the time they fall again. Right now they're working on walnuts. 

[SwampDonkey]

[Looking up at Bibby's pet  : ] Since I haven't many oaks or walnuts, I have to get on the ball if I'm gonna have any acorns left to plant this fall. :D :D :D

[jkj]

I used to use a big shop vac to pick up acorns and it worked very well.  I had trees that periodically produced a huge crop of very large acorns and if I didn't get them up it was hard to walk and I had little oak trees sprouting all over the yard.  I'd dump hundreds of pounds into a big pile - this sprouted into a verdant carpet but turned to compost by the next year.

JKJ

[DanG]

GAV, I had a lot better luck with a lawn sweeper.  You know the kind that has a wheel-driven brush up front that kicks everything into a bag that trails behind.  I built a boom that attached to the side of my riding mower and let the sweeper trail behind that, so I didn't run over the nuts before it picked them up.  I would just start at the drip line and work inwardly on a spiral.  It got a lot better percentage of the nuts, didn't clog up as bad, and the hopper was about 10 times bigger.  I got it at an auction for $15, and the Bag-a-nut cost me $250.

[GAV64]

Thanks to all that replied, I bagged the bag a nut idea and went back to the blower. It is a 13 hp Little wonder and it does a good job once they get rolling as long as they don't sit too long in one place, since my yard is sloped gravity helps alot. glenn

[IndyIan]

If you do have squirells around find where they are stashing the acorns and take some.  I imagine doing this earlier in the season is better since the squirells would have a chance to stock up again.
I have a couple Butternut trees left at my place and I raided the squirell's cache to plant the nuts.  I replaced some with Black Walnuts and the squirells were still there in the spring .
Also I have heard of people build little structures so that squirells would cache the nuts where they could be easily collected.
Ian

[SwampDonkey]

I had an empty box in the grainery and went looking for an empty box and found about a pale full of butternuts that had been placed in it by a chipmunk. ;D The tree was in the yard. Mom and dad had a sack of pumpkin seed a mouse lugged each one from the basement up the stairs and put them inside a pot 4 feet up on a ledge from the floor. This had to be at night when they were asleep. :D

[GAV64]

Just wanted you all to know that I found something that really works well to get rid of the acorns. It is certainly a bumper crop year and thanks for the squirrel suggestions but these a americanized squirrels and they don't want to work very hard, obvioulsy they are not forum members. They are just going to wait till that tall sucker ;) puts them in a big pile for them. I am surprised that I did't think sooner of using the power broom that I use  in the spring to get the sand off the front yard that the snowplow dumps every year. I do not own one of these but can borrow one from work, it is a echo powerbroom with the rubber paddles and it really moves the acorns 8)! . The brush attachment does not work well for this application, Thanks for all your suggestions. glenn

[limbrat]

I use the company truck all week and only use my personal truck on the weekend. Last winten i open the air can on my tacoma to change the air filter and there was two or three hand fulls of water oak acorns in there.   I have seen gray and fox and flying squirrels here and roof rats or wood rats. I dont know what critter did it but he got a cussin.