mulchers

[waynep]

Hooking up a trailer load of greenwaste to take to the tip I thought - this is ridiculous - I pay $15 to dispose of this then go and buy the mulch back from them for the garden.

So I went down to Bunnings a got one of those electric garden shredders ( an Al Ko one ) for a couple of hundred $. Well in a word - USELESS - took me all morning to do a whelbarrow load and the thing kept overheating and jamming on the smallest twigs. So that went back for a refund next day.

I know there's biger petrol ones but they start around $1000 to buy - they can be hired for about $150 a day but in that case it would be still cheaper to take it to the tip. ( I'd only have five or six trailer loads a year )

So what's another alternative/solution I maybe haven't thought of ?

[Bigbjorn]

Pile the green stuff, soft branches and small twigs up in an obscure corner and let it compost. Then you don't have to buy mulch. Cut the bigger woody bits into lengths compatible with your wheelie bin and put some in every week until you are quit of them. Don't put too much in if your council is like Brisbane's and the trucks have a pressure relief valve set so they wont lift more than 70 kilo. total weight of bin and contents. They did this to stop people putting in concrete, bricks, blocks, engines, batteries, etc.

[Quarks]

We usually borrow a mulcher off my uncle (well, we did give it to him for his birthday) - it's a 6.5hp B&S powered masport one. It goes through pretty much every thing we can fit in (although if you are careless and it jams, it does eat belts quickly!).
Just looking at pure power, 2400W is the max an ordinary electric one would give, and that equates to about 3.2hp.

Suggestions - If you know someone who has one, borrow it!
Else, if you can find a mate/neighbour (or two) who wants to do a bit of trimming, pruning, or take out a tree soon, talk them into buying one so you can borrow it.

:)

[LandyAndy]

Save up for one of those bigger petrol jobs,you need a HAMMER MILL style.
Beauty of these they will turn a full newspaper that has been soaked in water into pulp.Its real good stuff to pump into a compost heap/worm farm.
Andrew

[101RRS]

I have a $198 GMC and works fine as long as there are no leaves - so I cut and leave for a few weeks for the leaves to die and fall off.

Works OK up to 2" but a big load would take forever - is great for prunnings though.

I think it was value for money - oh and after 2 years of use the blades - never sharpened will still cut my finger if a touch the them.

[waynep]

I haven't seen the GMC ones - I'll keep a lookout.

My old man just used to run the mower over all the cuttings and turn it into mulch that way.

[JohnE]

Wayne
you should ahve asked me I have one in the shed free to a good home, its electric.

My orchard mulcher is a rover composting mulcher, ( the old style with a B&S motor, it ripps threw macca leaves branches and old nuts and the occasional rock thats gets in by mistake and pulverises them, then they are blown back under the trees( I'm organic you know!)

the newer ones are so awkward looking you need to get on a a ladder to feed shuff into the chute.
as andy said the hammer mill types are good, if you keep your eye out in the trading post and the like they do pop up. Although they are not cheap.



john

[George130]

I have one of those GMC ones also. It only hates green stuff. Let the cutting sit for a week and it powers through it. I tend to mulch a days worth at a time (As in 6 to 8 hours mulching).

[RichardK]

I've got a GMC as well, gets through my prunings remarkable quickly even with leaves, a large lot of pruning takes about 1 1/2 hours.

[EchiDna]

trading post / ebay...

my father got a petrol powered hammer mill one for $300 - with hour meter... 4 hours of use before going up for auction :)

[953]

Wayne,
not worth their salt! We`ve tried them all & some work well but they`re all 2 inefficient.
We had a customer up the Dandenongs who insisted we mulched all the prunings on a large pittosporum hedge.
We did, by the time we had finished (using a large industrial mulcher,not a chipper) including the hire cost, he could have bought high quality composted mulch & been miles ahead financially.
If its only small stuff , stick with running the mower over it.
We dispose all of our green waste at Envromix Keysborough
Cheers Dean.