PIcking up acorns and hickory nuts...suggestions requested

[testert]

Besides raking, is there an efficient way to pick up a few acres of hickory nuts and acorns?

I talked to the folks at Cyclone Rake and they told me that if your mower blades will pick them up then the Cyclone Rake would bag them. The acorns and hickory nuts on my property are unfazed by the spinning mower blades. I usually end up driving the nuts into the dirt when I drive over them with the mower.

Is there any method that you have found that works for picking up these kinds of nuts from a lawn?

 

[Shaneard]

We have a Trac-Vac behind the mower for leaves, it doesn't pick many nuts up at all, if any.

 

[dlctcg]

Our Cyclone Rake has a 9hp & will only grab the acorns that are on top of the grass... or if the Exmark pulls them up... The rest I gave up on...

Never tried one of these & they are pricey:

36" Pull-Behind Small Acorn Picker

Cyclone Rake list a product on their website but it doesn't seem to be available...

Gather Every Size Acorn | Cyclone Nut Rake | Cyclone Rake

Nut Rake & Collector | Cyclone Rake

If the Cyclone model was available I might lean that way only because of the experience we've had with their product & support...

 

[Diggin It]

Hire an army of trained squirrels.

 

[Oaktree]

Hire an army of trained squirrels.

I was thinking the same thing. Unless the OP was looking to harvest them, I'd just leave 'em for the squirrels and jays, especially with the acreage he's talking about. That's what I do with all the apples from wild apple trees here. By snowfall the deer have eaten most of 'em.

 

[MossRoad]

Other than hiring some squirrels, hand raking seems to be the only thing for acorns and hickory nuts.

 

[Diggin It]

Unless the OP was looking to harvest them,

If I thought there was a sufficient market for them, I'd look into it. I have a hickory tree that's probably 75 foot tall or more that deposits a few gazbliion of them on my back field. Kind of like walking on a field of large marbles at certain times.

 

[GeneV]

My agri-fab lawn sweeper picks them up not too badly. A couple years ago, I did a feeder pig and then let his brother out into the yard for a few weeks to fatten up on acorns before I did him as well...he cleaned up the place pretty good too.

 

[testert]

I was thinking the same thing. Unless the OP was looking to harvest them, I'd just leave 'em for the squirrels and jays, especially with the acreage he's talking about. That's what I do with all the apples from wild apple trees here. By snowfall the deer have eaten most of 'em.

I've left them before in parts of the yard and they choke out all of the grass. They are so thick that either they smother the grass or they have tannins (or some chemical) that kills the grass.

 

[2LaneCruzer]

I usually scalp my lawn, beginning after frost, about a half inch at a time, and by the time I get it down as close as the mower will go (in the Spring) the acorns are gone...Hickory nuts are probably another matter, but I don't have that problem here. Pecans, but the squirrels take care of them.