How many branches go into 1 m3 of wood chips?

[Karin]

I know there's no exact answer to this question but is there anybody who can indicate (foto) how many branches are needed to produce 1 m3 of wood chips? I'm currently having my almond trees pruned (aprox 40) and I'm thinking about renting a wood chipper to produce mulch for my garden. Wood chips are very expensive here (Mallorca, Spain) and I was wondering if it would be worth renting a wood chipper. Thanks in advance, Karin

[Dan Maynard]

I think I read in Timberwolf marketing somewhere that chip is about 6 times smaller than the brash.

Personally I think the answer is definitely somewhere between 2 and 20 but it all depends....

[Stephen Blair]

A chipper breaks down a loose stacked brash pile by 90%, a fire does 99%.

[trigger_andy]

Just now, Stephen Blair said:

A chipper breaks down a loose stacked brash pile by 90%, a fire does 99%.

Has to me more than that. I had a pile close to 20m x 1.5m x 3m and all that was left was less than 1m3. Was stacked lose, beech hedge and cherry.  Could not believe how little I ended up with.  

[Ty Korrigan]

I'm a little bit mad right and keep records of chip produced in a wee black book.

I established a while back that your average domestic conifer hedge when measured for it's standing volume, chips down 8-10 fold.

So 8m3 of standing hedge becomes 1m3 of chip.

 Stuart

[Stephen Blair]

91.45% then 

[trigger_andy]

Just now, Stephen Blair said:

91.45% then 

Is that what my pile ended up as? Its remarkably close to your figures. 

[Stephen Blair]

It’s exact and I’m right.

  Thread finished, you are welcome!

[Peasgood]

An interesting question. 
I have 10 acres of mature apple trees to grub and I am trying to figure out how best to achieve it. What I would like to do is remove the small stuff and keep the bigger stuff for firewood, these are all open centre bushes with a lot of small stuff and a lot of firewood.

One option is to chip the small stuff but I have no idea how much that would produce. Is it an amount I could plough in or is it a ridiculous amount I must remove? (I am a pro fruit specialist rather than an arboralist )

 

 

Edited January 14, 2020 by Peasgood

[Dan Maynard]

I reckon if you're keeping firewood then chip it onto the ground by each tree, the throw of the chipper will spread it out enough.

[Ty Korrigan]

22 hours ago, Karin said:

I know there's no exact answer to this question but is there anybody who can indicate (foto) how many branches are needed to produce 1 m3 of wood chips? I'm currently having my almond trees pruned (aprox 40) Thanks in advance, Karin

Hello, just a thought.

Here in France we prune our stone fruits right after fruiting.

 If you prune now, surely you will lose the bulk of your flower buds?

 Regards

   Stuart