Acorn rake

[Clive HartlandParticipant @clivehartland94829]

I am a half owner of an Oak tree, that is half hangs over my garden. I seem to get more than my fair share of Acorns and spend time picking them up and sweeping the lawn with a broom to get rid of them as I now have a dog (Acorns bad for dogs)

So what I am looking for is a design or drawing of a rake that I can make to collect up these pesky things.

Initially I was thinking a bar with half round cuts along the edge and be able to drag through the grass.

Any ideas?

Clive

[Clive HartlandParticipant @clivehartland94829]

[Brian WoodParticipant @brianwood45127]

Hello Clive,

Why not run the mower across the area and compost the results? Catch them young and green, the mower should be able to cope with that

Brian

[Brian WoodParticipant @brianwood45127]

Double entry, one deleted

Edited By Brian Wood on 24/09/2017 15:22:50

[Dennis RaynerParticipant @dennisrayner52782]

I am the sole owner of a 200 year old oak. This year is (sadly) a bumper year for acorns. My Bosch rotary mower doesn't pick up many fresh acorns because (it seems) they are too heavy. When they dry out a bit the mower picks them up. In the meantime I have to use an adjustable steel spring tine rake to do the job which has the advantage of scarifying the lawn but is pretty exhausting. If anybody has a better solution to this problem I would love to hear about it.

[Tim StevensParticipant @timstevens64731]

You could possibly keep a pig on the ground for a few days around acorn-drop. But it does need real good fencing.

Tim

[Clive FosterParticipant @clivefoster55965]

Folding fan rakes with the thin sheet steel tines work pretty well. You need to play about with tine spacing to get best results. Fixed sheet tine and wire tine ones are invariably too widely spaced. I got mine from LiDL several years back.

Dennis types faster, looks like the amount of spring in the tines is important too.  Mine is fairly low force spring and doesn't scarify to any degree but still collects things well.  My wire one is much heavier sprung and really wants to scarify.

Clive.

Edited By Clive Foster on 24/09/2017 15:50:09

Edited By Clive Foster on 24/09/2017 15:50:25

[Dennis DParticipant @dennisd]

How about an electric lawn raker . You could hire one to see if its any good before splashing the readys. My problem is a bit bigger. Walnuts. You step on on of them even with shoes on and you feel it. Damn squirrels keep hiding them around the garden and I've got several shoots that need digging out and one that was hidden in a shrub thats now reached about 4 ft.

[mark costello 1Participant @markcostello1]

Would a leaf blower put Them in a pile?

[Cornish JackParticipant @cornishjack]

Leaf blower on BLOW to pile them up and on SUCK to pick them up – sorted?

rgds

Bill

[davidkParticipant @davidk]

SWMBO and I are the owners of a 150 year old oak. Dennis, you're absolutely right, this really is a bumper year for acorns. More this year than any time I can remember. Damn squirrels bury them everywhere, we're forever digging up small oak saplings. Spent 2 hours this afternoon raking acorns…

We've never had much success with the wire tine rakes, but some of the plastic rakes are quite effective. The ones with flat tines are the best. This kind of thing for example: **LINK** It's still hard work though. If anyone can think of an easier way, I'd be most interested!

David

[“Bill Hancox”Participant @billhancox]

Clive

How about one of these.**LINK**

One of the gun clubs that I belong to use them. They should work on acorns.

[Douglas JohnstonParticipant @douglasjohnston98463]

I can just see the look on my neighbours face when the pig turns up for acorn collection. I rather suspect you would be picking up more than acorns !

Doug

[Clive HartlandParticipant @clivehartland94829]

Tried the lawn mower on the lowest height setting and saved the dog cracking open the Acorns. The wire rollor looks good but still tedious back and forth, I will pursue a bar and cut serrations and will post results later.

Thank you lads for the input.

Clive

[Nigel McBurney 1Participant @nigelmcburney1]

mowing acorns makes a mess,a Honda ride on with collection bags will not pick them up, on a good lawn an electric leaf blower ,used in the suck mode works quite well,if you own the tree a chainsaw cures the problem for ever,plus a free supply of firewood and a happy neighbour who was so pleased as it shaded so much of her property, another neighbours tree over hanging our paddock is a right pain especially if you have horses,as the grass is longer and difficult to rake up the acorns,mowing or sucking on long grass does not work.

[Clive HartlandParticipant @clivehartland94829]

I have found my answer, I used the Snow shovel upside down and used it like a rake. The action of drawing it along makes the Acorns spring up out of the grass and sweep along in front of the blade.

Clive

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