How much mulch will a chipper yield?

[peter]

I'm looking to buy/rent a chipper to go through my pile of dead branches I've collected this year. I'd say I have 20 10-foot untrimmed branches up to 2 inches thick to feed the monster. How much mulch will that yield (ballpark)? Will it fill a wheelbarrow?

Thanks,

Peter

[Wolf K]

Use your high school math (if you can remember that far back :-))

Assume 1.5" average thickness, then volume is pi * 0.75^2 * 120 * 20 -->

4239 cubic inches, not counting the untrimmed bits. A cubic foot is 1728 cubic inches. So you have at least 2-1/2 cubic feet before chipping. Chipping will easily double volume because of air entrainment. How big is your wheelbarrow?

HTH

[peter]

Thanks for your reply. My wheelbarrow is 6 cubic feet. I figure I have at least as much untrimmed branches still attached that I could probably fill the wheelbarrow. Doesn't seem to cost effective to rent as they want $133 for gour hours at the local Home Depot. I can buy a lot more than 6 cubic feet of mulch for $100.

Peter

Wolf K wrote:

[Sparky Organic]

"Doesn't seem to cost effective to rent

Peter, I'd suggest checking out chipper rental at other locations if they are available in your area. Although many home chipper/shredders claim to be able to chop branches that are up to 2" thick, I've never met one that could. Most of them are very disappointing. But if you find one that's good, let the rest of us know.

Sparky.

[Carl 1 Lucky Texan]

Some cities will take your branhes and trade you chipped mulch I think. Call around some city offices starting with parks dept. or sanitation

Carl

[Sparky Organic]

I don't mean to be a party-pooper, but IMO taking other people's chipped branches is a very bad idea. One never knows what kind of diseases one is importing, and this mulch is typically fresh, meaning any virus that was in it is live.

[George.com]

If you have a wood fire you use in winter, cut the branches down in size and use them on the fire. Thats where 1/2 my prunings go.

rob

[sylvan butler]

If you want to be able to chip 2" branches, get a chipper than claims to handle 3" or 4". I've got an old troybilt (when they were troybilt) Super Tomahawk (8hp, 4" spec'd) that does great.

If I was buying today, I'd probably start by looking at Bearcat's products. They seem most like my old Troybilt, and a lot better built than most on the market today.

[rancher]

AND, I always get a bumper crop of poison ivy....

rancher