Stick Removal

[TimberXX]

My large hickories drop twigs, branches, nuts, and nut shells. My front mount 60" broom windrows them nicely followed by my 72" front deck connected to the trailer leaf vac behind it. Collects 100% of what remains. Make nice firepit fuel.

I wanted a front broom, but some folks said it wouldn't work. the twigs are small, under 8 inches long for the most part.

 

[Eagle1]

Little twigs are abrasive for cleaning the underside of the mower. Helps keep the grass from sticking and building up. My story and I'm sticking to it.
Beside it adds organics to my crappy clay soils.

 

[fatjay]

I mow small stuff, it makes mulch. Larger stuff that can't be mowed usually I pick up and toss on the burn pile.

 

[zzvyb6]

I wanted a front broom, but some folks said it wouldn't work. the twigs are small, under 8 inches long for the most part.

My JD 60" broom has replaced my 7' snow pusher box and my 8' plow for my long concrete driveway snow removal. Plow & pusher were on my JD1070. Broom is on my JD 1435 front mower. It serves year-round, too, for dust, dirt, mud, branches, evergreen needles, and weeds. Can make a LOT of dust in the Summer. Just did a 6" snowfall without any problems. Some much more effective. It gets right down to the surface no matter how irregular it is.

 

[5030]

Can the kids do it unsupervised?

Just kidding, to some extent, but when I got married and moved out of my parent's house, they bought a lawn tractor, leaf blower, snow blower, and plow for their truck. I asked why they waited so long.... "We had you!"

As others have mentioned, anything over 1/2-1" gets picked up by hand on our 1 acre of lawn. Anything under that size just gets mowed over with the finish mower and it disappears. It would get sucked into a bagger if I had one.

Only 'Bag' here is me and I never allude that to my wife because I know which side my bread is buttered on.

 

[bigtiller]

When I pick up sticks, I usually start out picking up any stick bigger than a pencil.

After 10 minutes of that, my pencil gets pretty big.

 

[TimberXX]

Thanks everyone! I think I will try the pine needle rake first!

 

[mikester]

expensive option - hay windrower

cheap option

 

[JCoastie]

its over an acre.

so pretty small. Wife and I do about 4 of 6 acres with these, works pretty well, way better than bending over, and with enough practice, you can chuck sticks and pinecones 20-30 feet to the edges

Amazon.com

 

[CliffordK]

Bigger chainsaw?

My trees trees also drop twigs with every storm. Most of the twigs are 4" to 8" in diameter, and 20 to 30 feet long.

I should have a year's worth of firewood from the twigs dropped in the last storm.

 

[bigtiller]

so pretty small. Wife and I do about 4 of 6 acres with these, works pretty well, way better than bending over, and with enough practice, you can chuck sticks and pinecones 20-30 feet to the edges

Amazon.com

I bought that one and I do not like it.

It would work good for reaching up high, but it sucks for picking stuff up off the ground. One with a pistol grip would be much better.

The one pictured puts a lot of pressure on my arthritic wrist because the grip is in-line with the shaft.

 

[doneill127]

I got a pistol grip grabber from harbor freight to pick up all the trash people toss out the window along my stone walls but also found out it was great for picking up all the branches in the spring

 

[kenmbz]

so pretty small. Wife and I do about 4 of 6 acres with these, works pretty well, way better than bending over, and with enough practice, you can chuck sticks and pinecones 20-30 feet to the edges

Amazon.com

Same one, saves a lot of back aches

 

[tmcj]

I have a fencerow/treeline on one side of my 1 acre yard. Every spring I go through the yard and pick up the larger sticks and toss them back into the tree line. Then I just use a leaf rake to gather the small stuff. Rake it into piles then scoop them up and toss them back into the tree line as well. Like others, the longer it takes the less particular I am with it. Anything that I miss isn't going to hurt the mower. I do the same for my parents yard next door, and my aunt's yard on the other side of me. I also rake out the majority of the Chestnut hulls. It typically only takes a few hours altogether.