These wild grasses aren't like yard grass clippings, they have stems, especially now when they are going to seed. If I can save a few months composting time by cutting them up a bit, then it's worth some effort. .

Lots of folks use their power lawn mower to chop/shred that stuff. I use the vacuum attachment on my leaf blower, but dunno if that would work on those grass stems and stalks especially if the stalks are green. Maybe let it all dry out a bit first? If you were ok with the paper cutter method, try Goodwill for a 'new' one.

You could get a small electric shredder for a lot less than $500. And no engine to maintain. Just a thought. They can't handle big stuff but would be perfect for weeds and grasses.

If I can save a few months composting time by cutting them up a bit, then it's worth some effort.

Have you tested this? No matter how many weeds and grasses (big honking wild mustards and pigweed) I pile in, they rot over the summer and are ready by fall.

Running branches through a chipper turns them into sawdust for a large increase in surface area.

How fine are you chopping them? Chopping grass stems into a few shorter pieces doesn't make the stems any thinner, and the surface area barely increases.

I also don't bother chopping weeds and grass or green cornstalks for that matter.

At least with my Mighty Mack, green stuff dosent shred well. With the screen in place, it clogs. With the screen off, it doesn't shred much at all. Just chews on it a bit and spits it out. They sell an optional screen for green stuff, but I haven't tried it. I can also alternate handfull of green stuff, handful of dry hard stuff like woodchips with a decent result, but the time it takes wasnt worth the time it shaves off the composting time, at least for me.

Perhaps a weed eater with a sawblade attachment? I have read some that a metal garbage can and a string trimmer can be used. I wonder if an office shredder would work?

Don't use an office shredder. They aren't built to withstand moist material. Besides, feeding plant material in where you're supposed to feed sheets of paper would be extremely time consuming.

I agree about a power lawnmower. I routinely process piles of leaves that way with garden trimmings mixed in. Takes about ten minutes to do a good job on a two foot tall pile, but you can have anything in that pile. Grass, leaves, stems, large leaves, etc. Green or brown. Also does a nice job mixing. You mow, rake back into a pile, and then mow again. Repeat as needed. No question that for leaves at least, composting is hastened when they are chopped up.

I have a Flowtron leaf mulcher, and it's basically an upside down string trimmer. It works well for leaves, but I don't think it would handle the tough weeds and grasses I'm pulling up...the strings were out quickly enough with oak leaves, and I use heavy gauge strings. And with oak leaves, they do decompose much quicker when they have been run through the leaf mulcher. I had one compost pile where I put in only oak leaves and pine needles, right off the ground. I kept them moist but didn't add anything else and it took months and months for them to decompose.

Using a lawnmower may be the only easy solution. But I don't have a lawn, and therefore no lawnmower. .I may look for a used one next weed season.

I use a machete or hatchet on a tree stump or old wooden cutting board to reduce vines and tough stalks to pieces I can turn with a pitch fork or broadfork.

A sharp spade works too, on ground you dont mind chopping up.

I also find its easier to chop as I go, snipping vines with the nippers as they go into the bucket rather than piling vines and having a tangle of them. The nippers get sharpened more often but sharpening is easier work than turning the compost or chopping.

Salad bite sized leaves and twigs will break down very quickly. I like one hot compost near the kitchen yard for kitchen scraps and weed seeds. Its worth the chopping. Even in the larger compost, large leaves and stalks can block air and water and slow the process.

Its pretty hard on the mower to use it as a chopper.

Tree stump....that's the missing link! I was trying a machete on a pile of heavy weeds but without anything solid underneath. I'll scout up a tree stump or a wide, thick piece of wood.

John (I'm not really Hans)

jbclem(z9b Topanga, Ca)