Wood Chippers and Shredders

I am triming my trees to allow the sun to shine on more plants. I am thinking that if I could chip and shred these branches I could make some good mulch for composting.

I have devoted the east and south sides of my yard as woody areas, so the chips could be spread around to compost with the leaves which would eventually produce some nice rich soil. Living on a sand dune with ten or twelve inches of top soil, I could begin to gain more rich soil to work with.

Sears has a good one which takes up to three inch limbs, but it is $630 which my wife and I find a bit pricey.

Any comments, insights, or information would be greatly appreciated.

Fred

Is this something you will be doing often and regularly? Or a one time major job, followed by periodic maintenance?

If it's more of a one time thing, you could just rent a machine. Maybe rent one similar to what you are thinking of buying ... see how it works.

I was determined to buy one several years ago, to grind up ligustrum branches. I rented one instead and was horrified by how it struggled to chip those branches. Little did I know that ligustrum is really hard wood to chip. I decided after using the rentals (2 different ones) that it wasn't worth the effort. Now I just haul all the branches to the curb for trash day every year. (My neighbors hate me ...)

Cheri'

I have one in my smaller scale garden that will take 2" branches and I use it all the time and find it wonderful

It's a huge improvement on the one I had before
The difference is that the new one doesn't have blades but works on a crushing principle

I agree with sundry on renting if this is a one off. But if, like me, there are prunings to get rid of on a regular basis, then I thoroughly recommend one of the crushing type of shredders. Mine's a 'Brill' - a German make - but I'm sure there are others out there. I don't know which would be available in the US

My compost heap loves me LOL

Birdsall, I have an OLD chipper/shredder with a cast iron 4 cycle engine, chips branches only up to 2" well, but will do slightly larger ones. I haunted the want ads for months until I found this one for $50.

(We have a weekly $1 paper called 'Iwanna' that has over 100 pages of things for sale, from books to houses. Listing is free, you buy the paper, and I'd guess the paid auto ads pay for most of the production.)

My old Troy-Built tiller (which I sold years ago) had a Kohler cast iron engine, much better than the Briggs & Stratton engines used on most Troy-Builts when I bought mine.

You might consider finding a place that sells organic mulch by the pick-up load. In the long run, it may still be cheaper than a new $600+ chipper, although you'd still have to deal with trimmings from trees and shrubs. (I pay $12-18 per load, depending on whether oak, pine, mixed mulch, etc.)

I have one that does 2-inch branches. We got ours from Home Quarters about 6 or 8 years ago. To tell the thruth... I think chipping branches is a real pain-in-the-butt. It works great for shredding leaves and garden debris. The stuff makes wonderful compost. But I find the branches have to go in just right or they get stuck and clog the machine. If you have a lot of brush to do .... I'd take a weekend and rent a good industrial machine.

This message was edited Wednesday, Aug 13th 8:45 AM

I have a leaf-grinder that uses the same type string as weed-whackers. It works superbly on dry leaves, but that is all.

My brother rented a sturdy chipper (sorry, don't know the brand) last year and really struggled with it. The branches didn't grind well, the green fibrous stuff clogged it every few inches, and it shot the stuff out the chute so hard that it didn't pile up, it scattered! He flat refused to ever do it again for me. Definitely rent one before investing, see if it will work for your situation.

I scatter my yard-waste now until it dries to "straw" and use it as a surface mulch. Beats cutting it with my Felco pruners.

I have a SEARS 8HP which does a great job. It will take up to a 3" limb. I think it ran somewhere around $500.

Paul

Here is a photo of my BCS chipper and a pile of chippings in front of it. The tubs are covers for working parts for when it rains!!!!! behind are my 4 compost piles. One is what i call my large one framed with cement blocks, has rebar in the bottoms raised up on bricks so the air can circulate. To the right are two metal wire 36" square composters, that are filled then the frame pulled up and moved for next filling. In the back is stuff like daylily foliage (that won't shred well), weeds with large roots and dirst (we don't put dirt into the shredder) and other stuff put on the pile when the other frames are full. it rarely gets turned. Even this isn't enough compost for my garden. Donna

And here is a picture of my Compost tumbler. Usually I put layers of shreddings from the shredder, composted manure, green material, and dried leaves from last year, add kitchen gleanings whenever available. I try to remember to give it 5 turns each day. Have to check the moisture content also. Usually get good compost in 3 to 4 weeks. Donna

I looked at my woodsy areas on the other side of Mitski's chain link fence and found a couple of inches or so of composted leaves from as many years.

With my new chiper/shredder I plan to build on this in addition to the grass clippings.

I put our vegatble waste into our heavy duty blender and liquify it, put it in a bucket and spread in over the area. I do this so that I do not have to bury it and invite animals to come and dig it up.

A friend of mine who has a compost bin tells me the importance of "Letting the Worms Eat Your Garbage." but I think that that does not fit my style.

Now for some lasagna gardening and use some of this rich material.

My new chipper was delivered yesterday in a huge box. I assembled 90% of it without my handy dandy wife's help which came at just the right time. It is a heavy-duty bugger that I could not start myself. Fortunately I have an adopted neighbor who takes care of this older gentlemen.

Neither Bob nor his son were able to start it. Then upon examination it was discovered that I had filled the tank with stale two-cycle engine fuel which had been enhanced by Stabil. Bob, a psychologist, kept his cool and only in fun said that he should slap me.

He siphoned out the old stuff and filled it with fresh gas. It almost started. Then we sprayed some ether in the carbuerator which finally made it start.

We chipped away for quite a while. It works like a charm. I think the three-inch branches will need cutting up into short lengths for more efficiency. But the chips are marvelous for using as mulch.

Now it still remains if I can start the thing by myself, but I will give it a try. Life is fun even in my advanced years.

Paulgrow - I think that we have the same machine. If I can get the thing started, it works fine. The reason that I am having difficulty some times is the high compression and my advanced age.

Does your chipper start easily?