how to gather pecans?

[travis91]

we have 20 some pecan trees and we have the pecan gathers that you stab at the ground and the nut wizards that you roll that look like footballs. is there any other really good way to pick them up? any homemade devices

Ps mods feel free to move this if there is a better spot

[TexasArtist]

put video cameras up. Once you've figure out where the squirrel is hiding them go rob the fuzzy varmint!

[GrannyG]

Place sheets under the tree, or old blankets....shake the limbs with a rake....the nuts drop down on the cover and you can then dump them into buckets.

[Old Vet]

I used to grow pecans 1,000 trees. The only thing I have found to get them is a pecan harvester but you can get most of them with a lawn sweeper. You will get all kinds of things with it but you can float them and run them over a screen to get rid of most trash.Use the screen first with a shop vac with the blow end under the screen to get rid of light trash then float them in a tank of water to get rid of most everything else.

[Jolly]

Originally Posted by Old Vet

I used to grow pecans 1,000 trees. The only thing I have found to get them is a pecan harvester but you can get most of them with a lawn sweeper. You will get all kinds of things with it but you can float them and run them over a screen to get rid of most trash.Use the screen first with a shop vac with the blow end under the screen to get rid of light trash then float them in a tank of water to get rid of most everything else.

People's ingenuity never fails to amaze me.

This one I've got to try, because it's much better than anything I've done...

[danielsumner]

The football looking pickers are the easiest and quickest to use. I picked up over 1000 pounds last year from my trees. The trees are loaded this year also. Get a leaf blower to blow away the leaves and get to it. The picker has a metal thing that hooks on the side of a 5 gal bucket. You turn the full picker basket sideways and press down and the nuts fall into the bucket. Don't store your nuts in plastic bags, they go bad fast. I use 50 lb onion bags if I can get them. If you have a northern tool store, they have these yellow bags that are perfect for about $1 each. If I remember right a 5 gal bucket is right at 25 lbs of nuts.

Daniel

[travis91]

what floats and what sinks. id like to see pics of your screens and float tank

[Alice In TX/MO]

Hubby has 300 young trees. He bought a pecan picker upper called Bag A Nut.

http://www.baganut.com/how_it_works.asp

[FlatlinesUp]

I always did pretty well w/the jabbing style stick/picker upper thinggie, but it would be MUCH easier if I pointed my leaf blower over the area first to push the leaves and small sticks out of the way of the nuts

[francismilker]

I'll second Alice in TX|MO's idea of the bag-a-nut gatherer. My neighbor uses one and it works great! He picks up about 100 trees with it. You do have to clean up well and mow under the trees for it to be efficient. It even helps if you spend the time in summer before they begin to fall and use a boxblade under the trees to smooth the ground up well. Most amateur harversting machines leave nuts that fall into small ground crevices. If you're on smooth ground they do pretty well.

[MoonRiver]

You could always see if Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, etc want to make some money. Contribute money to the troop in return for them spending a few hours picking up pecans.

When I was a little kid, many growers would give you a percentage of what you picked. Then you would sell your portion yourself. Some paid so much per can or bag.

[ronbre]

some great ideas (as i have baby nut trees, no nuts yet) i like the boy scout/girl scout suggestion..maybe they could even earn themselves a badge doing it

[Ed Norman]

Originally Posted by 4animals

is there any other really good way to pick them up? any homemade devices

My parents had 5 kids who did a good job. As far as I know, we were homemade.

[Old Vet]

Originally Posted by 4animals

what floats and what sinks. id like to see pics of your screens and float tank

I don't have it now but what I was talking about is a chain with wire in it that were about 1/2 inch apart like the one in a pizza cooker. With a blower that would lift all the light trash. The good pecans will not float but the bad ones will along with any stems and branches. All you have on the bottom are good pecans and things that won't float like rocks and such.