To say oak trees produce a lot of acorns would be an understatement. Depending on the species, an oak tree may drop over 10,000 acorns per year.
Assuming you have a half-dozen oak trees, you can expect about 60,000 acorns to cover your landscape during the fall and winter months.
While you can’t prevent oak trees from dropping acorns, there are ways to maintain a clean and tidy landscape during this stage of reproduction.
Rake Them Into a Pile
Perhaps the most common solution for dealing with fallen acorns is to rake them into a pile.
It’s recommended that you wait until all your oak trees have dropped most of their acorns.
Once the acorns have made their way onto your landscape, you can remove them by raking them into a large pile. Using a rake, push the acorns into the middle of your landscape, at which point you can then bag and dispose of them.
Use an Acorn Picker
Raking thousands or even tens of thousands of acorns into a pile, followed by bagging and disposing of them, is tedious. If you have a large landscape, it may take multiple days to clean up all the acorns.
An alternative solution, however, is to use an acorn picker. Also known as a nut roller, an acorn picker is a handheld tool that’s designed to automatically pick up acorns.
It consists of a long rod with a caged bucket at the bottom. As you roll the acorn picker across your landscape, it will automatically pick up acorns as well as other nuts and yard debris.
Use a Leaf Vacuum
Another easy and effective way to deal with fallen acorns is to use a leaf vacuum.
As the name suggests, leaf vacuums are designed primarily to remove fallen leaves. Using a suction vacuum, they “suck up” leaves to promote a cleaner landscape.
While you can always use a leaf vacuum to remove leaves off your landscape, you can also use one to remove fallen acorns.
Catch Them With a Tarp
Arguably, the easiest way to deal with fallen acorns is to catch them with a tarp.
Assuming the oak trees in your landscape haven’t dropped their acorns yet, you can lay a large tarp – or several tarps if necessary – directly underneath the oak trees.
When the cool weather arrives, the oak trees will drop their acorns on the underlying tarp. After all the acorns have been dropped, you can pick up the tarp to dispose of the acorns.
The Woodsman Company offers tree planting, tree pruning and shrub trimming, tree removal and stump grinding as well as a tree wellness program.
If we can help with any of your tree care needs give us a call at 512-846-2535 or 512-940-0799 or
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