Palm Tree Chippers

[John Mac]

Hi all, I work in Fuerteventura, Tree surgery, arborist business, I'm getting a load of palm tree pruning and cleaning work now and to be honest I :001_smile:need a chipper to get shot of the waste on site. Usually it all goes in the truck and off to the council recycling plant for mulch, but with hotel contracts theres just too much. I doubt very much if some palm waste can be chipped, particularly the Washingtonia type, which is stringy and incredibly tough. Not worried about chipping the stems, I just block them down and in the truck and away, its the fronds which are the massive problem. Anyone successfully chipped large commercial volumes of palm fronds and if so what with!! Thanks folks, John

[Shane]

Maybe a shredder reather than a chipper, or a 'combined' machine.

Everyone I know hates chipping fronds, we sometimes put some through while reversing the rollers every couple of seconds, it works (just) but is a real PITA.

[John Mac]

yes, thanks for that, i had forgot totally about shredding type things... will do some research

[GlobalNewark]

Hi all, I work in Fuerteventura, Tree surgery, arborist business, I'm getting a load of palm tree pruning and cleaning work now and to be honest I :001_smile:need a chipper to get shot of the waste on site. Usually it all goes in the truck and off to the council recycling plant for mulch, but with hotel contracts theres just too much. I doubt very much if some palm waste can be chipped, particularly the Washingtonia type, which is stringy and incredibly tough. Not worried about chipping the stems, I just block them down and in the truck and away, its the fronds which are the massive problem. Anyone successfully chipped large commercial volumes of palm fronds and if so what with!! Thanks folks, John

 

 

A Bandit chipper will do this with ease.

 

 

[John Mac]

Fabulous, thank you, will check them out. Might be just the job.....

[easy-lift guy]

TBH I have no idea how running palm fronds through a chipper would be a problem. Having chipped thousands of fronds over the years the only tip would be to not to over load the feed chute. We have all the same species of palms that you have and than some.

easy-lift guy

[GlobalNewark]

Fabulous, thank you, will check them out. Might be just the job.....

 

 

 

 

 

[Shane]

They dont slow the engine, so the stress system doesnt cut in, but the weight/size/shape means that the outfeed chute will clog up with the flywheel still forcing more in at full speed, then by the time you notice no emission and crud blowback through the rollers - its time to clear the chute out.

At least thats what happens on a woosy little 35hp 'mincer' like mine.

No doubt the bigger machines have more 'puff' to blow it all through.

 

For reference, my old TW was even worse.

 

And the previous post provides a decent (if heavy) solution.

That's the way to do it.

Edited July 7, 2017 by Shane
Synchronised update

[John Mac]

TBH I have no idea how running palm fronds through a chipper would be a problem. Having chipped thousands of fronds over the years the only tip would be to not to over load the feed chute. We have all the same species of palms that you have and than some.

easy-lift guy

 

What type of machine are you using? Personally, I haven't chipped fronds yet, and we didn't have palm trees in Scotland before we emigrated! So I'm on a learning curve....I have read that there are a lot of reported problems due to the fibrous nature of fronds, which seems likely ....ideally I'd like to get a second hand chipper and turn the fronds into mulch...

[easy-lift guy]

What type of machine are you using? Personally, I haven't chipped fronds yet, and we didn't have palm trees in Scotland before we emigrated! So I'm on a learning curve....I have read that there are a lot of reported problems due to the fibrous nature of fronds, which seems likely ....ideally I'd like to get a second hand chipper and turn the fronds into mulch...

 

Vermeer, Morbark. Just don't go crazy loading to much in at one time. Like any other material that is fed into a chipper don't over do it. I would not wast my time converting the end product into mulch.

easy-lift guy