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Soil, Compost & Mulch

Recommendations for a Leaf Shredder?

13 years ago

Anyone have a good electric leaf shredder they swear by?

Amazon.com provides good customer ratings on the Flowtron LE-800 Leaf-Eater Electric Leaf Shredder, and it's about $130 which is right in my price range.

I'm just looking for something I can dump my soft kitchen and yard waste into to mulch up good before I bury it in my beds. I'd use the mulcher on my lawn mower, but my "lawn" is nothing but weeds and I don't want to incorporate weed seeds into my garden. I'm not looking to chomp tree limbs or anything.

Here is a link that might be useful: The Flowtron

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Comments (11)

squirejohn zone4 VT
13 years ago
I have a Flowtron LE900 that works fine for dry and damp,not wet, leaves. I have to be careful not to put in small twigs as it wears the line out fast. I can' envision it working for "soft kitchen waste" except maybe leaf waste such as lettuce. I doubt it would work for the likes of stringbeans, celery etc.
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loribee2
Original Author
13 years ago
Ooh, that's good to know because that is the type of thing I would want to use it for. I'd like to be able to use it to break up bean and pea vines (with some beans and peas still attached), and things like that. If it worked real good, I'd go for something as heavy as watermelon rind even, but that's negotiable. Maybe I need something a little more heavy duty.
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I tried the weed-whacker in a barrel trick and it really works, it pulverizes the (dried) leaves. Mixed with green grass clippings, it heats up quickly. I might eventually work out a system where I use a section of 1/2" hardware cloth in the side of a barrel to let the shredded leaves filter out as they are shredded. Then it's just a matter of adding leaves to the barrel and shredding continuously. I have also started the leaf mold technique this year. I used a piece of fencing to make a 5' circular bin 5' tall and filled it with the oak leaves. It was full last fall. Now it has settled to 2/3. Also, I mulched the leaves under the oak two years ago with a mower with a home made mulching blade. It was good for the grass and probably good for the tree, too. But leaves are too valuable a resource to just mulch into the grass every year. The silver maple leaves are small enough that they mix ok with the grass clippings, but running over them with the mower helps. Unshredded oak leaves compost rather slowly. I've got a hankering for a Troy Bilt shredder. I've had to deal with down trees and I could pay for a shredder with the savings from tree removal services. Even when I cut up a spruce, it still cost about $250 to get it hauled off. If I had a shredder, I could pile up the chipped material to compost it and use it under the other trees.
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jonhughes
13 years ago
Hey Girl,
On sale it is only 300.00 bucks and works like nobodys business ;-)
It'll turn everything you put in it, into an "oatmeal like" texture.

Check out my video "link below"

{{gwi:34818}}

Here is a link that might be useful: Leaf Shredder
0
loribee2
Original Author
13 years ago
LOL Jon, love your video. Harbor Freight owes you royalties. I am seriously considering spending twice what I'd planned to get one!
0
jonhughes
13 years ago
Hey,
I didn't even tell you the best part, I filled it with oil and gas, and I was about to pull the starter rope, when I got"off balance" (tripped over my own feet ;-), and what occurred was a half-hearted, falling backwards, kind of pull.... that thing started right up, and every time since, I'm serious ,This thing starts up sooooo easily....it totally rocks ;-)
I Love that ! ! !
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toxcrusadr
13 years ago
Hard to beat a gas powered shredder for brute strength.
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gardenfanatic2003
13 years ago
Jon,

How well does it shred sticks? Any jamming?

Deanna
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jonhughes
13 years ago
Up to the present time I haven't used it to shred any sticks , I already owned this cheaper model and it does sticks with ease.So , I would assume it does great, but I don't have any sticks to chop up at this point in time.

{{gwi:261266}}

{{gwi:261267}}

{{gwi:276436}}
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gardenfanatic2003
13 years ago
Does the smaller one not do leaves well, and that's why you got the larger one?

Deanna
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jonhughes
13 years ago
Exactly ;-)

It was way too much work for leaves...

But wonderful for branches.
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wertach zone 7-B SC
13 years ago
This is what I use, but I bought mine from a widow for $700.

Here is a link that might be useful: DR vacuum
0

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