Sweet Gum Balls😬

[OrangeKrush]

Yikes.. The clean up will be here before long! How many of you deal with this, I know I'm not the only one. I've been tempted to cut these trees down but honestly their one of the best looking/shaped trees I have.

There's 2 of them and it gets worse every year.. fully mature. After last year I had planned to cut them down but just couldn't do it, it's where their located that makes it tuff to get rid of them, Bare with out em!

Soo..I found this but the price is Crazy! for what it is. I guess this just shows how desperate people are to get these up.

Bag-A-Nut Sweet Gumball Picker Upper - 36" Pull-Behind Harvester

Pick up sweet gum balls and mow in one step! Easily hook up the Bag-A-Nut sweeper to your ATV, small tractor, or riding mower. As you ride, your basket will fill up with those pesky sweet gum balls; empty them quickly and keep on cleaning up...in less than half the time spent raking.

baganut.com

The thing about this is it just looks flimsy.. "watched a YouTube video" pull or push.. Made in the USA

Has anyone on here found a better way?? PITA to rake 1000s & 1000s and multiple times.. any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[old and tired]

Never heard of "Sugar Balls"... Sweet Gums balls on the other hand... PITA.

 

[radas]

I think cyclone rake makes a nut/acorn rake that you should look into as well.

 

[OrangeKrush]

Never heard of "Sugar Balls"... Sweet Gums balls on the other hand... PITA.

Fixed.. thanks.. O&T

 

[Nicfin36]

I have one in the backyard. While they are a bit annoying, I just try to ignore the sweet gum balls. They do land on the back patio. I just blow them off with the leaf blower.

 

[OrangeKrush]

I have one in the backyard. While they are a bit annoying, I just try to ignore the sweet gum balls. They do land on the back patio. I just blow them off with the leaf blower.

Tried to ignore once or twice but they are so bad that it's hard to keep grass under these trees. Not to mention if mowing over them it sounds like one of those toy Gumball machines kids push around with balls flinging. I have mulching blades but they are no match for these.

I'm not sure how old the trees are but I have been here 25 years and they were mature when I arrived here. Can't believe I have dealt with them this long but they just seem so much worse the last couple years.

 

[old and tired]

Had a friend that was a professor, a little OCD... at lunch we would hear the number of sweet gum ball that he picked up! @#$% He would count everyone that he picked up. In the hundreds.... 200 to 300 hundred.

On the other hand, he smokes cigars all the time and still going strong at 82 so the exercise must be doing something...

He has since moved to a treeless lot!!!!

 

[imnukensc]

Several sweet gum trees in and around the yard. I hate sweet gum trees. Not worth a crap for anything.

 

[OrangeKrush]

Had a friend that was a professor, a little OCD... at lunch we would hear the number of sweet gum ball that he picked up! @#$% He would count everyone that he picked up. In the hundreds.... 200 to 300 hundred.

On the other hand, he smokes cigars all the time and still going strong at 82 so the exercise must be doing something...

He has since moved to a treeless lot!!!!

I get plenty of exercise picking up limb's, Ha.. I could do 2-300 in my sleep, wish it were that simple.

 

[Flintknapper]

Yikes.. The clean up will be here before long! How many of you deal with this, I know I'm not the only one. I've been tempted to cut these trees down but honestly their one of the best looking/shaped trees I have.

There's 2 of them and it gets worse every year.. fully mature. After last year I had planned to cut them down but just couldn't do it, it's where their located that makes it tuff to get rid of them, Bare with out em!

Soo..I found this but the price is Crazy! for what it is. I guess this just shows how desperate people are to get these up.

Bag-A-Nut Sweet Gumball Picker Upper - 36" Pull-Behind Harvester

Pick up sweet gum balls and mow in one step! Easily hook up the Bag-A-Nut sweeper to your ATV, small tractor, or riding mower. As you ride, your basket will fill up with those pesky sweet gum balls; empty them quickly and keep on cleaning up...in less than half the time spent raking.

baganut.com

The thing about this is it just looks flimsy.. "watched a YouTube video" pull or push.. Made in the USA

Has anyone on here found a better way?? PITA to rake 1000s & 1000s and multiple times.. any help would be greatly appreciated!

I would consider buying that harvester at maybe HALF that price, but it doesn't look any too sturdy and you can bet your behind it takes several passes over the same area to collect enough to make a difference.

Like you, I have several trees that I don't want to remove that produce thousands of the sweet gum balls each season.

 

[Henro]

When I saw your thread title “Sweet Gum Balls” all I could imagine was little kids getting tooth cavities.

Gum balls locally refer to sweet chewing gum in the form of a ball. Probably also a choking hazard. Saying that, it is probably obvious I am a grandparent. LOL

 

[D2Cat]

Olathe Sweeper was bought out by Toro in the mid '80's and you'd only be able to find on at auction now days, but these things were beast. Used by universities and commercial landscape companies. Several versions were made.

I have one with a 3 pt hookup and a modified box on the back. They have a couple rows of rubber fingers that rotate to pick up whatever it passes over. Watch the video. Notice when he dumps you can see the working fingers. Those gum balls wouldn't have a chance !!

 

[OrangeKrush]

Olathe Sweeper was bought out by Toro in the mid '80's and you'd only be able to find on at auction now days, but these things were beast. Used by universities and commercial landscape companies. Several versions were made.

I have one with a 3 pt hookup and a modified box on the back. They have a couple rows of rubber fingers that rotate to pick up whatever it passes over. Watch the video. Notice when he dumps you can see the working fingers. Those gum balls wouldn't have a chance !!

Yeah boy that'd be nice to have, bet those were pricey back then.. high tech for what it is! I'll keep my eyes open.

 

[NCL4701]

Always kind of wondered if a golf ball picker would work on these.

 

[PoTreeBoy]

I'll begrudgingly agree that a sweet gum tree is a pretty yard tree except, of course, for the porcupine eggs.

I can't vouch for it, but there is an injectable serum available that's supposed to prevent the balls from forming. It has to be injected every year at just the right time. It's too late for this year, I'm pretty sure.

If you choose the nuclear option, you'll need a herbicidal stump application within minutes of cutting it to prevent new shoots. This I can vouch for. You can also kill it standing, but I'd rather deal with a live tree than a rotten one.

 

[OrangeKrush]

Always kind of wondered if a golf ball picker would work on these.

I had to go look it up.. looks like it could work, exact same concept, looks better built and less expensive.

 

[PoTreeBoy]

mowing over them it sounds like one of those toy Gumball machines kids push around with balls flinging.

Wanna trade? I've got three walnut trees.

 

[lugbolt]

i wait til a wet early spring day, then pull the lawn roller around. It packs the gum balls into the mud and they disappear.

Every once in a while I'll find a few, and I don't mind raking them into a pile, of which will also get some cardboard, pine needles, leafs, and diesel (or other flammable fluid) before the torch kisses it.

 

[Grateful11]

I've had a couple of those Sweet Gum balls to wedge into the mower deck pulleys. About a month ago my wife was mowing and calls and says there's something wrong with the mower, JD X720. Well I had her start it up and turn on the mower and I see the V belt bouncing like crazy and I had her turn it off. Looked at the pulleys and sure enough there was one wedged in the V, popped it out with my pocket knife and all was well.

 

[chim]

Friend of mine once told me a wreck happened on the road right in front of his house. Without thinking he dashed out to help without putting his shoes on. Didn't sprint very far till he discovered the error of his ways. Had a sweetgum tree between the house and road.