The situation I’m dealing with certainly is a huge factor. I have huge piles of invasive strawberry guava trees that were pulled up by the roots with an excavator, and I’m cutting them into pieces for feeding a chipper. These trees grow dense, tall, and thin and are full of springiness and twist, especially when they’ve been pulled and piled.
Our pile is very roughly 220’ long, 20’ wide, and 20’ high. These are 20‘ to 25’ tall trees, 6” to 8” at the base, pulled out of the ground in big clumps with roots attached. We were told 2 weeks with a 20” chipper, predicated on feeding them in with a excavator. All the root balls have to be cut off first, because they are full of dirt and big chunks of lava rock. A more “professional” tree service said they could do it in a week, but it would cost $20,000.
Perhaps call a mulch company? Around here they would grind that most likely for far less than $20k, and haul it all away to resell!
I just looked up pics of those trees. You are right to cut them up to feed with a chipper but need to be sure to leave the pieces long as possible. Often people cut everything too short and it makes it difficult to feed.
I second that. Stumps and all could go through a tub grinder.
Hahah! That defeats the purpose, since I intend to use every cubic centimeter of the resulting mulch. Anyway, the guy with the 20” machine finally showed up with his equipment in good running order, so we are off to the races. I’m still wondering if I can put a 0.050 bar on the saw, but the stock 0.043 is working for now.
Sorry it’s giving you so much trouble. I’m getting along well with it after a few weeks of regular use.
