We have lots of garden remnants to be done away with... would a chipper/mulcher [whatever it is called] take care of grass as well as branches and leaves? 

 

Any recommendation on a brand and approx price?... we have about 1 rai of flourishing gardens... 

 

Thanks

I can't answer your question, but I can tell you what I do. We have 1 rai too, so a lot to look after, I pay a gartner 2.000 baht a month and she comes a few hours every week. After this arrangement our garden look beautiful. I only nip the flowers

Just make sure it is not to big of a chipper, as you don't want to put in it yourself. A mulcher would work, but why not make a composting bin so that you can use the material later after it breaks down.  It does not have to be real big, but here is an example of building one that might be a help.  I built one for my property in Udon a few years back.  Just have to ensure that regular trash does not get tossed into the bins.

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=composting+bin&docid=608040848344483424&mid=D2C74CAC792DA5BF30E7D2C74CAC792DA5BF30E7&view=detail&FORM=VIRE

We have been making compost for a few years now,just throw it all on a pile and water once in a while.

Takes about 4 months to make compost and it saves a lot of money if you do not need to buy potting soil anymore.

We could also do with a chipper but a good one will cost you a lot.

Saw a few used ones on Kaidee,

5 hours ago, kenk24 said:

would a chipper/mulcher [whatever it is called] take care of grass as well as branches and leaves? 

Simply put No! Two different tasks, chipping and mulching. Chipping of drier usually larger stuff like branches, and mulching as the name implies, cutting up all the wet green stuff and soft dry stuff into small pieces. Chipper needs power and strength whereas the mulcher needs to cut and clear the mush without clogging. 

Versions capable of doing both tend to be expensive, cheap ones are "remedial education aides". You will remember phrases you haven't used in ages if for no other reason than repetition after the umpteenth clog-up.

For a garden, buy a mulcher and deal with the branches over an inch separately. 

The best all rounder I have seen is a PTO powered (add 10Hp motor cost) a friend has and it cost 70K.

 

Composting, a personal favorite. Especially aerobic, thermal composting. Munch it up as small as you can and the microbes will decompose it in weeks here. Animal manures, farm and green wastes composted in less than a month, did it for years. We finish compost in 18 days and use it in matured form in less than a month.

This photo is a chipper sold at our local cattle feed store 27 000 baht ,forget the electric motor ,wast of time just no power ,put a 7hp Honda petrol engine on it .,or as local farmer did a PTO convention, cost was a lot less than buying a Honda engine. 

Look at patipong.com for chippers and shredders .they also  have videos. 

What IA said is true our chipper/shredder is PTO powered ,we chop Napier grass for silage ,but if the grass is too wet it does block up ,we have chopped  Gratin ,the tree legume ,makes short work of it.

For the OP any material he wants mulch cut/chip, leave it for 24-36 hours to dry out then chop it ,that is what we do with our Napier grass ,normal then the machine does not block up .

Also, if the OP wants to make compost ,if the materials a bit dryer it will make better compost ,over wet grass/material  does not make good compost.

12 hours ago, kickstart said:

This photo is a chipper sold at our local cattle feed store 27 000 baht ,forget the electric motor ,wast of time just no power ,put a 7hp Honda petrol engine on it .,or as local farmer did a PTO convention, cost was a lot less than buying a Honda engine. 

Look at patipong.com for chippers and shredders .they also  have videos. 

What IA said is true our chipper/shredder is PTO powered ,we chop Napier grass for silage ,but if the grass is too wet it does block up ,we have chopped  Gratin ,the tree legume ,makes short work of it.

For the OP any material he wants mulch cut/chip, leave it for 24-36 hours to dry out then chop it ,that is what we do with our Napier grass ,normal then the machine does not block up .

Also, if the OP wants to make compost ,if the materials a bit dryer it will make better compost ,over wet grass/material  does not make good compost.

Thai made....and it comes with a piece of red string to hold the pull handle!

As member Kickstart said, go for Patipong, they are number one in Thailand and have good quality.

Also many different sizes and purpose of their machines.

Is there any problem with snakes hiding in the mulch or clippings?

12 hours ago, Grumpy John said:

Thai made....and it comes with a piece of red string to hold the pull handle!

FYI. the machine is right at the front of the shop on top of some steps ,the "string" is holding the handle up so it does not get in the way people walking up the steps ,and also when they pull down the shutters at night time.

The photo is of our chopper  a PTO driven one locale made by a local agriculture engineer .

We brought it 15 years ago 20k baht  must have made 1500n bags of  Napier silage ,just had to replace 2 bearings last year ,600 baht .that's it maintenance  wise ,end of this month it will have another 130 bags to chop ,I will just sharpen the blades grease her up and away .

Not all stuff made in Thailand is <deleted> Patipong  make they own choppers ,as CLW said about the best you can get.

They is a company in Kanchanburi that make choppers good quality ,will last a long time  ,but at 60k baht not cheap .

The Truyard Chippers are very good, I have the CM-95 with a 12hp Briggs & Stratton and it is a good performer once you work out feed rates of different materials and similar.  I have had a few minor maintenance issues related to the original local assembly by the merchant shop, but have corrected those.
 

Ours has maybe 200 hours on it over 1.5 years as we use it for the tree trimmings and green manure to feed our compost piles with over 50 cubic meters of finished product this year.

The also have a smaller CM-65, but cannot attest to the performance. Truyard is an Australian company with a distributor in Bangkok, and sold locally by merchant shops.

 

A few links....
http://www.vbengine.com/
http://www.chipperthai.com/16820954/เครื่องย่อยอเนกประสงค์-truyard-รุ่น-cm95
https://burirammaktectools.blogspot.com/2017/01/thailand-garden-mulchers-tree-branch.html

 

Cheers!

And for the slightly larger chipping jobs ...

On 11/11/2020 at 9:13 PM, drtreelove said:

And for the slightly larger chipping jobs ...

I want it! 555   
Very similar to what I used in my early days working as a Tree Faller / Trimmer in the SF Bay Area while attending UC Berkeley (Cal).  I have not seen one of these since leaving the US, but it would be a serious upgrade to my wife's composting operation ???? .

Cheers!