Citrus farming: chipping & mulching orchard waste

February 12, 2025
Figure 1 – A TOMCAT PTO wood chipper reverses towards the prunings, chipping the material inside the orchard, leaving the chips as mulch.

CITRUS FARMING STATS & FIGURES SOUTH AFRICA

South Africa has over 100 000 hectares planted with citrus, of which approximately:

  1. 40% is grown in LIMPOPO,
  2. 8% in MPUMALANGA,
  3. 2,5% in KZN,
  4. 25% in EASTERN CAPE,
  5. 2% NORTHERN CAPE,
  6. 20% WESTERN CAPE, and
  7. the rest in SWAZILAND, ZIMBABWE & OFS.

(Source: Citrus Growers Association (CGA))

Figure 2 – A TOMCAT M4150 AFE engine driven wood chipper is used to chip citrus prunings and discharges them underneath the tree.

MANAGING THE WASTE: CHOOSE YOUR APPROACH

One of the biggest challenges citrus farmers face every season, is managing their pruning waste, in order to get their orchard traffic back and continue with their farming operations in the orchards, without delaying key operations from taking place on time.

Pruning in itself is a time consuming exercise, but to get back the traffic between the orchards brings its own challenges. The following approaches are followed:

1. Carrying out all the prunings to the roadside, and then carting them to a central point where they usually get burned.

It usually happens that some of the citrus don’t burn completely, and need to be cleaned up anyway.

a. This approach is time consuming,
b. Labour intensive,
c. And you taking all the prunings out of the orchard, and they have no more value – money not well spent.

Figure 3 – Picture of citrus trees removed with roots and burned at designated area.

2. Using PTO Tractor Mulchers

a. This works well with light prunings, however…
b. With heavier prunings not everything gets mulched, that results in branches with sharp ends that are left behind and causes flat tyres in the spray season, which leads to down time and inefficiency.
c. Mulch also remains between the orchard rows.
d. Mulchers sometimes need to go 2-3 times over the material, to get a decent job done.
e. Mulchers are a mechanical approach, but if your mulcher is not big enough for the task at hand, it creates its own challenges and the extra costs adds up.
f. Purchasing the right model and maintaining it properly, is key, or you end up replacing the mulcher every 2nd season.

Figure 4 – FAE PTO Mulcher from Italy (serviced and supplied by TOMCAT Chippers) used to mulch pruning waste inside the orchard.

3. Using a WOOD CHIPPER:

a. Material gets chipped and basically no pruning residue or sharp branches get left behind.
b. Whether it’s a light, medium or heavy pruning that’s been done, it’ll do the job.
c. Orchard traffic can be back to normal within a week of pruning.
d. All the chipped material can be put back on the orchard row serving as a mulch the first time, exactly where you need it, and by doing that, you actually give the tree its own green material back, and it does not go to waste.
e. The grower get’s the following benfits from chipping:
– i. a good quality mulch can be put down under the tree where the farmer wants it from the start,
– ii. no flat tyres,
– iii. and most of all, orchard traffic can be back within as little as a week from pruning, which allows growers to continue with their other farming practices as per normal.
– iv. This results in a well rounded job.
f. Chipping can only be cost efficient if you have a dedcicated chipping team, and you manage and incentivise them well. MANAGEMENT is key for this approach to work well. It’s been proven over and over again.
g. The right fabricate and model for your conditions, quality, service and then price, should be the determining factors in order to procure the right equipment for your specific application.
h. Proactive maintenance on your chipper is crucial if you want long term benefits from this approach.

Figure 5 – A TOMCAT Model 4300AFE engine driven wood chipper chipping entire trees which were cut off at ground level.

TOMCAT CHIPPERS offers two of the above solutions:

1. We have an extensive wood chipper range, engine driven, or tractor/ PTO driven, in order to give you a custom fit solution for your citrus farming operation, ranging from 150mm up to 375mm chipper models. We have customers and contractors around Southern Africa that have been hugely successful over the last 7 years, using our TOMCAT wood chipper range, to add great value to their citrus farming approach.

Below are some pictures of before, during and after our TOMCAT CHIPPERS have done the job.

With citrus farming being an evolving Industry, our chippers also come in handy when:

  1. Wrong varieties have been planted, and after 3-4 years, the farmer decides to rework the trees to a different variety,
  2. High density plantings need to be thinned out after a couple of years,
  3. Wrong cultivars have been planted, and the complete orchard needs to be re-established.
  4. Plantations under nets. Farmers can not burn under the nets, as they are a permanent construction. If you chip the old trees, your mulch is right where you want it be, and you’re ready to establish the new orchard.
Figure 6 – Drone picture of two TOMCAT hand-fed wood chippers chipping hectares of removed trees.

2. We also offer MULCHERS in our FAE Range. FAE have been designing and manufacturing mulchers for more than 35 tears in Italy, and TOMCAT Chippers have the oppurtunity to offer you heavy duty solutions, should you require mulchers.

For any more information, do not hesitate to contact our experienced sales team. We’re passionate about sharing our experience and expertise on not only our products, but also on how to utilise them in such a way that they will be a great ASSET to your business and a WIN-WIN for us all going forward.

Figure 7 – TOMCAT hydraulic feed PTO wood chipper chipping naartjie prunings.