How'd it go today?

Haha, funny story Deva.

Nice Bull, Jim! I love those guys, is it true that they eat rattlers?

Merle, I wish I had more success in mulch promotion. It's slow going so far.
 
Lots of bid requests for removals post-microburst.

Time to gear up. Upgrade.

Try using grapple truck disposal more. Outsource need the chip truck, chipper, driver, chipper operators, disposal time, and be more machine oriented.

But so often I tout the benefits of mulch, and people want it.

9 out of 10 of the custys I get will happily keep the mulch or chippings. I need a small chipper that can fit in a backyard and produce......
 
Peter, you can get a light 6" chuck and duck as a starter pretty cheap, if your having to or wanting to pay out of pocket.

I've never thought about this before... a person could weld on a bracket for a stout a pin-on, swivelling wheel and tire, making a rolling tripod. This would make it more feasible to get into back yards with winching, if your truck won't fit
 
Levi, what is your mulch promotion/ pitch? Maybe we can give you some good pointers/ catch-phrases (You say one of your goals is the good health of your trees. Mulch is your trees best friend. A mulch layer is the natural state of things in a forest, which is naturally trees' natural homes.)

Getting them to mulch their own trees gives them ownership. Spin it! Promote it with a how-to mulch info sheet on company letterhead.

The mulch discussion leads to the stem-girdling roots discussion, PHC for you, or them, if minor.

I use the 5 finger approach to a number of thing, including the mulch pitch.

Benefits of mulch as a way to improve your soil and root health, increasing the vigor and storm-resistance of your trees
1-retains moisture, reduces drought stress.
2-prevents pedestrian/ animal compaction, promotes natural decompaction, increasing water and air infiltration, particularly with coarser tree chipping mulch.
3-prevents lawn maintenance damage and competition in the critical root zone
4-insulates the soil from temperature swings.
5-slowly feeds the soil (all parts of tree: wood, foliage, bark, flowers, seeds/ cones, compared to ground bark commercial landscape material. Does a forest have a mulch layer of just bark?)
 
Right on, Sean. Mines about the same as yours, I just need to keep at it. Do you propose it as a service before the job is done or an afterthought once your loaded with chips? I've been trying to sell it at the bid this spring, so far I've gotten 1 person out of about 6 or so...
 
I don't push the "keeping the chippings" thing too much.

I push the "everything leaves the site" thing, if, however, they do want the chips, they can have them.

I find you get people only wanting half of it or want it put in a awkward place, making the job more of a pita.

Different strokes though, if you don't have a way of getting it out, try and persuade them to keep it.
 
Yep, I remeber that from working on chipper crews.... "can I just get half of that" eventually the response turned to "no, all or none.":D

The thing for us- you guys know we don't have a chipper. We're bringing chips to you!!
 
I start talking about the virtue of chip mulch at first contact, more or less.

"So you have some trees to prune/ remove. No problem.

We can do as much or little of the overall project as you like. There is the aerial work, the material processing, the clean-up, and material hauling.
We can make it spotless, or make a great big mess for you,... and all points along the way. Some people hire us to make it all disappear, chips, logs, stumps. Others hire us to leave firewood. We can custom mill slabs or boards (subcontractor).

***A lot of people understand the value of mulch, and rather than pay to have a good material disposed of, they want the mulch left onsite. With our equipment can get our chipper and trailer mounted chip box to the branches, in the ____, leaving piles near the tree or move the mulch right were you'll use it. We can fill our dump truck and dump it where you need it, if accessible/ safe"





I have a trailer that's been for hauling the mini that hold 5 yards of chips. I can move the chipper and trailer with the mini. I can tip the short trailer up reasonably steeply, making it easy to unload, quickly, downhill. Chip/ Tarp lasagna. A pile here, a pile there, etc. Whatever they want to pay me to do.
 
My market is definitely very different that a lot of other peoples, and yet the same.


Oh, yeah, Nutrient Cycling versus Nutrient Stripping is a good phrase.


Mick, do you use a green waste recycler or what do you do with chips?



I saw Chipdrop www.chipdrop.in is on TreeStuff's web page.

Its great for me. Started 100 miles from here, IIRC, in Portland, OR.
 
I like things nice and simple, the way they are now with no chipper. Hopefully one day we can get a small grapple, that'd be nice.

Agree on the nutrient cycling. I usually say something about the idea of imitating a forest floor, that seems to click with people.
 
Sean, I have a couple of local sawmills who get all their bark and general wood waste taken away by paper mills.

They let me tip free, always open, no questions asked.
 
That's a great set-up.

I only occasionally pay to dispose of large amounts of material. The 24 hour dump spot is far away, taking everything. The municipal greenwaste is inconvenient and distant, no stumps/ logs.

This storm has only been about $300 for stump grinding debris, root debris, dirty rakings that don't get chipped.

Typically, for the last year of living in town, I tip my jobsite cans/ tarps into 2 large, municipal, rolling greenwaste cans at my house, or just roll the cans into a trailer to load directly at the job. Seems to keep up with the the biweekly pick-up pretty well.

So much is market dependent, and even physical location within the market dependent.
 
Big waste wood is an issue however.

I'm hoping the new loader will help in that respect, any clean wood over 2 mètres long is ok as paper, so I will be able to tip the trunks FOC at the same places.

The new loader should be able to get more bigger pieces on the truck/trailer.
 
Sean, with my f350 I have a 1000kg weight limit, and I'm taking it easy on my S10. Next needed purchase is a 1/2 ton truck, things are looking up but I have much to catch up from the past 2 years.

As for a chipper it'll need to fit a 34" gate. The market in my area for used chippers is pretty expensive for my bank account. Since I'm self employed and own no real estate and have lost one credit card to collections a bank loan is out of the question. :(
 
What is the current opinion on green chips and robbing nitrogen? I heard the theory years ago and it resurfaced again this winter.
 
If I recall.....when it heats up (piles of chip) it can leach nitrogen from the soil.

If you lay it 5 inches thick say, it doesn't heat up and won't be naughty.

Happy to be proved wrong.
 
Interesting, I've heard it said about "hot" compost, makes sense for fresh mulch.
 
It's called nitrogen glut.

The chief reason to stir ammendment/compost (already cooked cellulose/wood and leaf matter) in to the soil for aeration and nutrification.... though fresh chips and woods need to stay on top of the soil and do the great things they do there until they break down and become palatable to soil microbes.

If the chips get mixed in to the soil... it robs available free usable nitrogen from plants/feeder roots.... it takes a lot of free nitrogen to break down cellulose/wood.

So I've heard.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk
 
Back
Top