Leaving chips onsite

[oceans]

I figure this topic relates closely to the “what’s your small equipment set up” post where we talked about small chippers and small scale operations that mostly focus on pruning.

I’m wondering how many out there are successful with leaving chips on site. I know this isn’t applicable to tree removal unless the customer wants a truckload of chips, but for those of us focusing on pruning, it seems totally doable to find a place to dump a pile of chips/mulch on just about any property.

My question is how receptive are customers to the idea?

And also where they want the chips might not be accessible with the chipper so is there a solution to that like a large wheel barrel to chip into?

Something great has happened in my area in regards to clients keeping their chips produced that day, or even taking more if some were already in the body upon arrival. Neighbors are also asking “If you need a place to drop chips can you put them at my place?”

I’m not sure what has led to this, but were pretty rural, moderately horsey, and quite farmy. That might explain some of the normal requests in the past, but I can’t pinpoint the recent demand.

Pruning will often produce fairly volumes of materials, and I don’t think it’s a bad idea to suggest folks keep what grew on their property…ON their property. Nature does it and it can be part of healthier soil. The benefits are so numerous, I could never lay them all out in a reasonable paragraph.

Heck, if enough people did it, the smaller self propelled chippers would be a huge saver on equipment mobilization, trucking and labor.

 

[southsoundtree]

Written ( with links and pics) and oral education would help.



Phrases like Nutrient Stripping, nutrient cycling, drought-stress, heat-stress, temperature buffering, soil ecology, compaction prevention, interspecies resource competition, etc. are helpful.

Dr. Linda Chalkers-Scott has info on mulching. Finding multiple, independent sources of info to provide will help.


Making it a no-pressure situation helps..."No worries, you can pay me to haul it away. I have a list of people waiting to buy mulch from me. "

 

[oceans]

Making it a no-pressure situation helps..."No worries, you can pay me to haul it away. I have a list of people waiting to buy mulch from me. "

^^^That’s the money line right there!!!

 

[Tom Dunlap]

Someone else shares the question I’ve had.

How did ‘the message’ of wood chip mulch get written, accepted and delivered ?

It’s a message that hardly has a downside short of volcanos.

Now, if that same messaging system could be used to deliver other modern arbo messages things would be better for trees and arbos

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