Best Wood Chip Mulch for Fruit Trees

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Have you ever wondered what was the best wood chip mulch for fruit trees? I thought it was the pricey stuff from the garden center but I was so very wrong.

We have a backyard orchard, and for the last two years, have mowed the lawn and carefully (so very carefully) used a string trimmer around the orchard. I had already decided that this year we would mulch the orchard so that I wouldn’t have to worry about damaging any of the trees with the string trimmer.

The original plan was to get a truckload of mulch from the local garden center. The mulch would cost about $34 per cubic yard and once we got it delivered we would need to spread it ourselves or pay someone to come out and do the work for us. Since we knew that the mulch alone would run us close to $300, we opted to do the work ourselves. This meant we were waiting for a time when our schedules were open for at least three consecutive days and that Mother Nature was cooperating without rain.

Needless to say, as of Monday (April 8) we hadn’t had decent weather and a break in our schedule to get a mulch delivery. And thank the heavens I didn’t get a delivery yet!

Procrastination Saves the Day (and My Wallet)

On Monday morning, I was listening to an Orchard People podcast while running errands. The topic – Best Wood Chips for Fruit Trees.

What perfect timing!

Here I was listening to the podcast expecting to be told that the mulch I was going to invest in was the best possible option for my fruit trees and this would be a worthwhile investment.

WRONG!

To the contrary, I realized that my procrastination for a perfect set of circumstances was about to save us over $300 plus the new plan would be even more beneficial to our orchard and other gardens in the long run.

Best Mulch for Fruit Trees

So, what is the best mulch for fruit trees?

Arborist wood chips.

You know what you see chipped up in the back of a dump truck after a tree service has done some work in your area.

How to get Arborist Wood Chips

There are two ways to get arborist wood chips.

The first is to contact the tree services in your area and make arrangements for them to drop a load of wood chips off to you.

The second option is to use ChipDrop to create a profile and put in a request for a truckload of wood chips to be dropped off to you.

Using ChipDrop

I opted to use ChipDrop because in our area we have numerous tree services and I didn’t want to be on the phone all day trying to line something up.

I visited the ChipDrop website. Created an account. Then put in a request for a drop.

That’s it. Super simple and FREE saving me over $300.

But, I decided to put a few modifiers on my ChipDrop request.

• no wood from other fruit trees
• drop to my driveway
• I opted to pay the $20 fee instead of the arborist paying it

I thought you said it was free?

ChipDrop is 100% free to the consumer. The tree services get charged $20 per drop to dispose of the wood chips from a job. As the consumer, you have the option to pay the $20, or more if you see fit, to cover the costs for the tree service. The tree service can see who wants a drop in the area, and they can also see who is willing to cover the cost of the drop.

$20 vs $300 … it was a no brainier!

I chose to cover the tree service’s fees to utilize ChipDrop so it would improve my chances of getting a drop in a timely fashion. Spring is a busy time with people wanting wood chips, so there is a lot more demand than other times of year.

Getting My ChipDrop Delivery

On Wednesday morning, I woke up and could hear a tree service in the distance. I instantly thought today might be the day and made a mental note to move my car and rearrange some things on the driveway. A little while later, I checked email and saw a note that I would be receiving a ChipDrop delivery in the next 48 hours.

WOO HOO!

I sprung into action letting my family know what was going on. We moved the cars around. Cleared some items off the driveway. We discussed a plan for when the delivery would get here over the next few days.

I got in the house and the water wasn’t even finished in the kettle when my mother in law let me know that my chips were here. After greeting the driver from the tree service, he backed the truck into the driveway, and unloaded and entire truckload of freshly chipped oak (the entire truck load was from one job taking down a few oak trees) onto the driveway.

I was giddy! This huge mountain of wood chips measures about 10 cubic yards (they have a smaller chip truck) and that was what I needed for the orchard and chicken yard.

A Few Things to Know Before You Request a ChipDrop

• There are no guarantees on the kind of wood you will receive. You can request not to receive certain species as I did, but you can’t request to only get certain species.
• Arborist wood chips aren’t clean. There may be leaves, pine needles, sticks, etc in your delivery. You need to be ok with it not being perfect. These other items will break down and feed your soil over the growing season and can still be used as mulch.
• You need to be able to take the entire truckload of wood chips. Most chip trucks are at least 10 cubic yards. Some are as big as 20 cubic yards. You can’t do a partial drop. You accept all of it or none of it.
• There are no guarantees for when your delivery will occur. When you log into the website you can see recent drops in your area. In my area most of the drops were requested within 14 days of delivery, however there were a few that were over 120 days since the request.
• You won’t necessarily get a warning before the delivery. When you sign up you agree to take the delivery and share where on your property you want things dropped off. You won’t get a phone call in advance, and you may not get an email giving you a heads-up. Just be prepared for the wood chips to arrive.

Our Plan for the Wood Chips

Now that we have the mulch for our fruit trees, we need to mow the orchard, clean up from winter, and then spread out those wood chips. The plan is to start on Friday and hopefully be finished within the week. We are going to mulch our fruit trees and if we have wood chips remaining, we will use them in our other gardens and the chicken yard.

Have you gotten a ChipDrop before? What has your experience been with mulching your fruit trees? Let me know in the comments.