Pine Needles

[Anonymous Poster]

Anyone have an easy way of picking up pine needles? I have about 20 pines in the yard and they're giving me 'Rakers Shoulder'!!! Do those $400 Sears/Yardman vac's work? will a back-pack blower move them? A sweeper on the tractor??

 

[Thomas]

John,
I tried a blower,sweeper,vacuum really no luck yet,and if the grass little high or the needles are damp no luck for a nice clean job.
The best way I been told,cut your grass short and have a rear bagger on your mower.
What have you found out for the best way to pick up pine cones,other than by raking?

Thomas..NH /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

 

[heehaw]

i bought a used 11hp snapper lawn mower, with the high vac deck and a rear grass catcher; it picks up pine needles. pine cones, gravel an anything else i run over; except wet/damp grass..it really does a great job on the pine needles..and cuts grass pretty good too
heehaw

 

[cowboydoc]

I do the same thing. I bought the dual grass catcher system for my jd mower mostly to pick up leaves and pine needles. It works like a charm. Alot of dumping but it beats the heck out of raking them up. I just park the pickup by the lawn and when full go dump in that and then when I'm done go spread it on the pastures.

 

[hess]

John,
We have about 20-30 white pine in our backyard area as well, and my wife used to clean up the needles and cones. I eventually convinced her that pine needles and cones make our property look so natural, next to the manicured gardens and lawn. I know this doesn't help you any - but now my wife actually likes the looks of a thick bed of needles under our tree's.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

I use the largest Craftsman lawn sweeper (42 or 48 inch, I'm not sure) to pick up needles, cones, twigs and even large sticks. It does a great job. When I mow, I put the deck on mulch which helps grind the needles smaller and at the same time drag the sweeper behind. This removes the needles, cones and twigs so well that I can mulch without the sweeper on the next cut. I even use the sweeper to sweep up the straw off of my driveway. Of course if your yard is not very even the sweeper may not work as well. So, if in doubt,rent or borrow one first to see how it works on your lawn. The only downside is when the lawn is heavy with straw (large yard 2 acres with 30 pine trees) I am constantly making trips to the back field to dump pine straw. This problem is not so bad in the spring and summer unless a storm or wind comes through.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

The sweeper works great on wet grass and pine straw too.

 

[jyoutz]

John, I've been thinking about buying a 3 point implement that I have seen advertized called a "pinestraw rake". This item is made in Winston-Salem, SC by a company called Leinbach Machinery. They are reasonably priced ($150). Sounds like they would work fairly well.