Best way to remove Sweet gum tree pods

[psparaco]

I have a client who needs an job done in the next 3 weeks. They have a 10,000-20,000 Sweet gum tree pods all over their yard. See link for description I thought about either raking them up manually similar to dethatching OR riding over them with the ZTR and suckking them up and mulching them OR Renting a lawn rake to tow behind my ZTR and scooping up the pods. What is everyone's experience in the past with this type of work?? Let me know.

Lawn care business tips

I have never had to pick that many up, but I have used this. I just rolled it across the lawn picking them up. I strapped a 30 gallon Brute trash can to a 2 wheel dolly and walked around the lawn to empty the gumballs into. It's pretty basic but it worked quite well.

[stevef1201]

I have those damn things from my nieghbors tree and they just plain suck to clean up. Fortunatly I dont have a buch so I just rake and scoop. Doing a huge amount, I just shake my head and say thank god its not me. Sorry

[psparaco]

Well i inquired about what their price range was and he said if its gonna cost more then $50.00, that he'll just do it himself and i am fearing it would be more than 50 to manually rake up. we're talking 280 feet long by 45 feet wide area. this includes the driveway, gardens, lawns, etc. they are scattered everywhere. I know my leaf blower would have no issue blowing them into a pile on the hard surfaces, but if i were to mulch them. i run the risk of putting seeds where they don't need to be spawned. I am thinking just tell him I can't do it.

[Liberty Landscaping LLC]

What about blowing to one area and using a brrom/ rake and shovel less then fifty i would probably turn it down. I charge 45 an hour per person sounds like an hour min.

[CS-LawnService]

not sure what they are or how hard they are to get up but $50 does not buy him much clean up

[Chaz]

I would personally use the mower ( that is if you have a bagging system)

I would also try to sell some other work that way he would be willing to pay more then $50.

the time you spent trying to figure this job out is making it less and less worthwhile.

I would definitely try to upsell this guy. throw some seed down, fertilize, prune something.

$50 is a very low price to do something like that in my opinion

[psparaco]

This is the return email i sent the guy..



Yea sorry to say but I can’t foresee it being less than $50. I am thinking between $90-120 range. After talking with a few other colleagues online there is no quick easy way to gather them. A few tools I could purchase to make it easier but an area as large as yours would take 2-3 hours at best guess.

Check out this tool I found for help with it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KI4XYdiSoWw
If I purchased it, it would help speed the time up. (Home depot - http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1...&storeId=10051 ). Let me know what you want to do.


I sent the email out 9 am yesterday morning. He is currently out of town and isnt checking his messages often so i expect a reply back within the next few days.

I'll keep you all posted.