Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Chipper/mulcher for garden/fruit trees prunings and plants?

Title says it. I’m looking for a cheap, smallish unit to chop up woody stuff and soft green plants. I’d slightly prefer a corded electric. Experience from the’ Fire appreciated. Any particularly good or bad units?

Use parameters: An acre total of large garden, 8 fruit trees plus many flowering trees, shrubs, and flowers. At this point I am burning wood prunings and composting greens in a 6’x6’ x 4’ deep open bin. I chop up greens with an old lawn mower on mulch setting.

I’d like one unit to chip wood and mince greens as well. A smallish electric would be my first choice. Looks like the units on the market do one or the other but not both wood and fibrous green plants.

How bad do small electric wood chipper units jam, and how much volume will they intake without problems? Does a gas powered Troy Built wood chipper also mulch soft green plants, even corn stalks, or only do a good job on wood? (I know of a used one for sale.)

I have a Champion 3" chipper. I don't recommend it at all. The engine runs great and it really munches the wood but the problem is getting the wood to the blades. The chute is very narrow and long. A limb with any curve or any side branches longer than maybe 1" won't go through. I spend most of my time cutting off side branches and fighting the thing to get any wood through it.

Rock Chuck, thanks for the info. That's what I'm hearing from several reviews of almost all of the smaller chippers, that they don't take anything but small straight limbs, not crooked, limby fruit tree ones. I don't want to buy a big commerical chipper.

I looked at a Craftsman 3" chipper today of almost identical design to yours, only painted red and with a slightly smaller engine, 250 cc. No manual with it. I assume that the smaller angled chute is for big branches, or do they go in the top hopper? I would limit mine to one inch diameter stuff rather than try to chip 3" limbs.

Check your local rental equipment options. Gather all the stuff that needs chipping, rent a powerful chipper, and get a helper if needed.

We drive to the back side of the farm throw dat chit off in a holler. Quite the money saver.

Been looking for one as well as mine is getting old.
Craigslist had a few a month or so.

I have both, but I've only tested them, haven't really put them to much use. Yeah, throw the big stuff in the brush for the quail to hide in. Smaller branches in the side of the big unit, then leaves and twigs and stuff in the top. Works but unimpressive. For the size and etc the little electric one is a little butt kicker! Impressive, but who knows how long it'll work, seems violent! But I'd still throw stuff 1" or bigger in the bushes.

Not cheap but it seems the agrifab tow behind leaf vacuum with built in chipper would be a better option tow it behind your rider suck up leaves and chops up to 3" then just back the trailer up and dump I someplace. It worked well for me until I bought a chipper for my tractor. The better option as mentioned above I rent a wood chipper when you have a big enough pile

Possums and raccoons are happy too.

Good info. Thanks to all. Rainshadow, any more info on what brand and size of your electric? PM me if you want.

I'd rather chop up a little every week or few rather than save up, but may do a big pile all at once for the larger branches.

FWIW we want the compost, which is excellent, not just trying to get rid of stuff. My DIL grows flowers etc. by the thousands, constantly planting so there is always fresh blooms from early spring to late Fall, plus the big food garden. Finely chopped up plant material composts FAST, and the wood chips balance the process, keep it "cooking".

Whatever route you choose, get extra blades and anvils. Keep them sharp too.

The stuff hardest to chip for me is the green stringy stuff. If the blades aren't sharp the end product is like celery.

The little electric one is a Mantis Chip Mate 2. Came with a pallet of stuff at the farm auction where I was mostly interested in something else on the pallet. I plugged it in and dropped a stick into it, Dang! Feisty!

The big one is a Bolens MC2500 that I got at a yard sale for $20 since it had a bad motor. I bolted one of those Predator 5hp from Harbor Freight onto it and it runs great, just seems way too slow and ineffective for bigger sticks. But as was mentioned above, I may need to figure out how to take it apart and sharpen things up.

Either are great for making mulch, and I'd recommend doing it. Just don't envision the County guys on the side of the road with the big machine... it's disappointing!