I only have 5 trees on my small 1/3 acre lot, sounds like a great problem to have. Where are you, and what kind of trees are on the property?
1 Like
Weāre on the southern edge of the Adirondacks, just north of Utica, NY. The orchard will be apples and pears, theyāre still in the nursery bed until we finish clearing the lot:
2 Likes
Its possible i might be sorry because i said dump all the chips you want to lol! Leaving logs in there is ok with me to as long as its just a few. I have 2 large loads of chips now but i always stockpile garden/orchard resources. I have about 20 big loads of manure and twice as much fill dirt but it all comes in handy at some point.
1 Like
All The property property pics looks nice, but the one of the orchard is my favorite! I would love to someday have property as nice as yours!
2 Likes
There is no mention here that chippers are often poorly maintained and instead of clean chips are mixed with lots of long strips that are unsightly and make the material very difficult to work with- the strips stop a fork from easily pulling the chips free from the pile when you are loading them to move them.
Make sure the arborists knows you want chips and not strips!
3 Likes
As Alan says, keeping the anvil sharp with sharp knives and proper knife clearance makes a big difference in chip quality. The other thing that produces nice chips is a smaller chipper which feeds wood at 90 degrees instead of a 45 degree infeed angle. Although less efficient it makes nicer chips. Itās the reason I kept my small Bandit, so I have beautiful chips for my little orchard. 
Many tree companies are not arborists, btw. And certainly the line clearing guys are not even close to being arborists. They are all about clearance and donāt even remotely care about tree health, or chip quality. Ok, rant overā¦
4 Likes
I used to have the little estate model Brush Bandit- it had 3 blades instead of the usual two. Made the finest chips Iāve ever seen come out of a chipper. Unfortunately, it was a high maintenance machine that didnāt earn itās keep- required a mechanicās attention every single season- and I didnāt use it that much. It was also a lot of work lifting brush to the high hopper. But the hydraulics were awesome.
1 Like
Iāve seen artilces where people get sucked into those wood chippers. Can you imagine? I hope it was head firstā¦because feet first ā¦yikes.
You can get woodchips here at a big pile that the city chops upā¦quality is all over the place. Lots of leaves in them this time of the year.
1 Like
I prefer the loads that has plenty of leaves in it. The decomposition starts right away and therefore inoculated with bacteria even before itās spread out. But I take any wood chip pile I can get, leaves just being a bonus.
3 Likes
Years ago they use to have 2 piles here. One was ground up Christmas trees and the other was hardwoods of various types. Last time i looked it doesnāt seem like they are doing that anymore. The ground up xmas trees smelled really good.
1 Like
Iāve had an ad on that site for years with no results.
Yesterday I added the note, ā$20 cash tip to driverā with immediate results.
7 Likes
Apparently the chips go to the highest tipper! Still seems worth it tho.
1 Like
Iām curious about peopleās current experiences with chip drop. I recently placed a request on there for a load of chips, and at the end you have the option to pay the $20 chip drop fee for the arborist. Iām wondering if one is much more likely to get chips sooner with that?
I realize itās probably extremely location dependent. Iām on an acreage outside of town so I might not be as close to most of the work as people in town are. If itās the difference between getting a drop in a few weeks or a few months, it might be worth it.
I remember looking at all the successful drops noted on the map at the end of last year and thinking it was just random chance that some people got drops in a couple weeks and some in a few months. But now that I actually made an ad and saw that option, it made me wonderā¦
1 Like
Iāve been waiting for almost a year now. Think Iāll offer a tip and see what happens.
1 Like
Someone just posted in a local gardening group that after not getting one for years, they paid the $20 fee and got one within a week. The logic given was that arborist pay chip drop $20 for the ability to find a dump place, so if you pay the $20 for them, itās really free to them.
No personal experience. Just hearsay comments.
1 Like
If you have the room put whatās left over in a pile and let it break down for excellent compost.
2 Likes
Offered tips and to accept some logs and after two years still no bites. Lots of trees dissapearing around here but no drops. Kind of sad considering the company we had cut down a maple tree for us said they could fill half acre lot in less than a week.
1 Like
We called Evergy, and three days later we had a truck dropping chips for free. I requested 8 loads since I have a lot of ground to cover. They said they could get me more than that if I wanted.
BTW, I live in a small town (300 people) in rural Kansas.
2 Likes
Iām in a rural area and typically had to wait months at a time for chip drops. Fortunately I eventually got the cell number of one of the arborists who brought me wood chips so now I just text him when I have space available for a drop and he swings by at his convenience.
1 Like
Im very rural and put in a request on chipdrop without any success. Towards the end of summer last year I contacted a couple of local arborist companies directly and mentioned that if they were in the area and looking for a place to drop chips Iād appreciate them keeping me in mind. Well nothing happened until 3 weeks ago and I get a call out of the blue asking if I was still interested in chips. Needless to say I jumped on it and Iāve received a load of chips each week so far with more to come in the future.
All that to say that if chipdrop is playing the middle man it might be worth a shot to call local companies directly and give them your info.
4 Likes