Shredder for conifers clippings?

We only have a ride on lawnmower now (not intending to brag - it was left with the house when we bought it ) and my partner is pulling faces at the prospect of using it to chop up what we cut off the Leyandii.

I had thought about hiring a shredder but this will be an ongoing job and I’m fed up having a big pile of things waiting to go on a bonfire. The alternative thought I had was to pay the tree surgeon to come and chuck it through his chipper.

The privet is likely to be whippy 5ft lengths with a few leaves at the end (it’s not the best hedge ) but the leyandii is more under control and likely to be a lot of foot long greenery. Would that clog up the Bosch ATX TC?

 

I have no conifers, so I've never tried but I do feed in long whippy branches about 8ft long and up to maybe 1.5" thick - it munches through them with no problem.
As it self-feeds, you may need to stand back as several very long branches can whip around while they're being munched.

I use mine about 6 times a year and I've not found that anything that clogs it - yet.
What I have done, is allow the chopped bits in the basket to get so high, they press on the turbine from below causing a clog - so the basket need to be emptied and then just run it in reverse for a few seconds to clear it.

I'd guess that as long as you don't force feed very leafy stuff through it would be fine.
The turbine revolves quite slowly (so it's surprisingly quiet) and there's a decent gap between its blades.
If you fed the woody end of a leafy prunings into the chute first it would munch through it with no problem, but it may not cope with lots of leafy branches at the same time.
If it does clog, then just put it in reverse for a moment and that should clear it.

PS If the prunings are really thin and leafy - I just compost them without chopping or cutting. There's no need.

 

I've put conifer through mine and it will clog if you try to put too much through in one go, it pays to have some woody stuff to put through with it to kind of clear it.
Believe it or not the worst thing I have tried is banana leaves, you would think it would just go through them easily bit they are fibrous and mushy.
Anything woody is a doddle, and it would probably do the privet with no problem.

I always put the woody end first and then it just drags the whole thing in at its own speed.

It is what it is, a home shredder, so has its limitations but IMO it does a good job for the price.

 

If you have room, start a dedicated compost 'heap' for shredded wood chip material, layered with grass mowings. Turn it and adjust moisture with tarp/hose. You could add paper/card shredded and leaves in season. It may take more than one summer to breakdown completely. You may find a neutralising additive such as Garotta creates a more useful general mulch.

 

The chance of a stone on hard surfaces would make the lawn (where there should be no stones !) safer for you and your machine.

 

Thanks for the extra information. I’d assumed the leafy end would go in first but woody end first does make sense for the reasons you suggest.

I am always eyeing up areas behind bushes for extra composting heaps. The sycamore chippings from the tree surgeon last year are rotting down nicely for mulch and the leaf mould bins make me very happy

 

Thanks @infradig.

 

Reporting back:

I’ve eventually bought the Bosch AXT 25TC after it was reduced in B&Q and with a decent percentage through Topcashback. I’ve spent the last 2 afternoons shredding as my partner has cut the top of our conifer hedge and it’s done really well. Since the top hasn’t been cut for 3 years, it’s quite woody so has gone through the shredder well but I think the trimmings from the sides of the hedge (which we are able to do yearly without needing to put up scaffolding) will need a bit of other woody material put through at the same time but that will encourage me to tidy up all the fallen branches and do more regular pruning.

Four barrow loads of shredding later at around a third of the way through the hedge cutting, I’ll now be looking at best techniques for composting and mulching with what has been produced

 

I've done it on a hard surface, after seeing Monty do it on TV. Makes it much easier to sweep the cuttings up. It worked well with Hypericum trimmings and they smelt amazing. As for stones, just sweep before you start!

 

I'm late to this discussion, and I know the OP has already made her choice, but I'll just add my own experiences in case anyone drops in later.

I bought the Bosch AXT 25TC a couple of years ago when I was about to do some serious shrub and tree pruning. I wanted to compost as much as possible but I also knew there would be some thick woody stuff that would need to be 'compacted' prior to loading into the council green bin. It was for the latter that I bought the new shredder.

For clarity I'd call the AXT 25TC a 'chipper' rather than a 'shredder'. The cheaper upright Bosch AXT Rapid 2200 (which I'd bought several years earlier and still use every week) is an 'impact shredder' as the material presented to it is hit by a fast-revolving blade. It definitely shreds (no huge chunks are left) and makes wonderful compost material.

I took these photos when I was in the middle of reducing very tall (12' plus) Laurel bushes. These are the 'shreddings' from the AXT 25TC:




and these are from the AXT Rapid 2200:



The latter will happily devour branches 3cm thick and maybe even thicker depending on type so my new AXT 25TC doesn't really get used that much.

 

It’s interesting to see the comparison of output. I definitely recognise the woody output although our overall mix had more greenery mixed through.

We had a sycamore drastically thinned last year and the tree surgeon chipped the branches and trunk only (no leaves). I left it in a heap for 9 months and I’ve been impressed by how much it broke down in that time. It’s been really useful filling spaces around better compost used for planting in a no-dig bed.

 

Is that a fair comparison as the first picture is mostly wood and very little leaf, the second picture has a lot more green leaf visible.
So guessing the woody stuff was probably smaller to start with and more twiggy in nature in pic 2.

 

No you're right. It was all part of the same job but I'd selected the smaller branches to go through the 2200 and left the bigger stuff for the 25TC. But there were substantial woody branches in both and it clearly shows how the wood ends up from each shredder.