So my neighbor to my left has a huge old Shagbark Hickory tree about a foot over from my property line and of course the thing is now dropping tons of huge, heavy nuts. Think the size of a good sized lime, but made of wood and you have the size and weight of these things. So far I've not gotten beaned in the head and don't plan on it!

I've been raking them up into piles then bagging by hand to get into the trash and it's a royal PITA. I've had to do this a couple times in the past couple weeks now with our grass growing like crazy this year with all the rain we've gotten this summer. If you hit one with the mower it's like hitting a big rock. Although yesterday I watched this neighbor mow his grass and just run right over them on his side and it was quite loud and I can't imagine that's not beating his lawnmower and blade up pretty good.

From what I'm reading, these should not be allowed to lay and decompose as they have some kind of chemical in them that is not good for the grass, plus it's just a mess.

I'm looking at either of these nut gatherers to make life a little easier, but wasn't sure if anyone here had used them. I'm kind of liking the Stab-A-Nut one more, seems like that would work a little more effectively.

Does anyone here have one of these?

Stab-A-Nut:





Garden Weasel Nut Gatherer:

I've used the Nut Weasel to gather empty shell cases at the range. They work like a charm. There is a wire contraption that fits on a bucket that makes it easy to dump the empties/nuts into the bucket.

quote:

a huge old Shagbark Hickory tree about a foot over from my property line and of course the thing is now dropping tons of huge, heavy nuts.

I have one too. The squirrels love it. They crawl way out on a limb to grab the things. They drop some, of course, but for the most part the squirrels eat the nuts up in the tree and bomb me with the husks.

As for picking them up, I'd just gather them with a leaf rake. I use an old snow shovel as a dustpan to rake onto and then lift into the trash can.

I would think a rake would work fine, but the garden weasel type of roller works well.

I wanted to add that the husks, and any dropped limbs, work well for smoking wood if you like to grill.

I have the nut weasel I use for picking up brass.
You should get one and it can serve double duty. Nuts and brass...depending on the season

We use the Nut Weasels to pick up pecans. They do work pretty well for that. I’ve not tried them on hickory nuts.

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Originally posted by arfmel:
We use the Nut Weasels to pick up pecans. They do work pretty well for that. I’ve not tried them on hickory nuts.

You most likely have the medium sized one then, the large sized one is the one they recommend for hickory nuts. Is yours sort of ball shaped? The large is more football shaped.

Wish I had the problem of gathering those tasty hickory nuts. For over 25 years the local tree rats have edged me out.

For your high volume nut collection:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSIio49KmNw

 
I first heard about the basket type picker about 15 years ago from my brother who lived in LA (Lower Alabama), and used it for picking pecans. The brand he used was Nut Wizard, almost identical in appearance to the Nut Weasel. Not sure which came first. But you can easily stab (or roll) with the basket type. There is also an accessory wire hoop thingie that fits on a 5 gallon bucket. You stick the basket on the wire hoop and twist it, which opens the basket, allowing the contents to fall into the bucket.
 

I think you need more squirrels....

I think you will quickly learn hickory nut are not worth your time to crack and pick the meat.
Squirrels around will not eat the damn things.
A very good leaf blower to send them back home might be in order,but hell that is just an old man not putting up with shit.

I'm following this thread with great interest. There are some chestnuts that need cleaning up but they'll have to wait until it's a little less moist out there.

Dang Jim you went out in the rain just to show your mess.

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:

quote:

Originally posted by arfmel:
We use the Nut Weasels to pick up pecans. They do work pretty well for that. I’ve not tried them on hickory nuts.

You most likely have the medium sized one then, the large sized one is the one they recommend for hickory nuts. Is yours sort of ball shaped? The large is more football shaped.

Ball shaped.

So I figured out what my neighbor was doing at dusk running his lawnmower over all the nuts on his side, this mutherlover was shooting them into MY freshly cleaned and mowed lawn.

I’m going start dumping the 50 pounds or so I’m collecting before each mowing right back into his yard.

Damnit, I spent a good hour yesterday just raking and collecting the damn things and he shoots all his over to me.

I remember harvesting hickory nuts and walnuts when I was a kid. Mom used to use them in baking.i planted some. Pecans here at my house about 100 or 15 years ago. Still haven’t seen that first one. I also planted a bunch of persimmon trees. Saw a few small persimmons about 3 years ago and nothing since. Now that’s disappointing.

I've always used squirrels. Works pretty well but there isn't much to eat. I've had various walnuts and oaks with acorns in the past. I've never seen anything link my new place with the hickorys. These squirrels are APE SHIT for those nuts. Shake em right off the trees.

Have a tree trimming service draw a vertical line up your property line and cut off everything over your property?