The meaning of woodchips is straightforward. Woodchips are small pieces of wood produced by cutting or chipping tree branches, trunks, and limbs with a mechanical chipper. They range from thin shavings to chunky 2-inch pieces depending on the machine and the wood source.
A fuller woodchips definition looks at what goes into each piece. You'll find bark, sapwood, heartwood, and sometimes green leaves in a single chip. This mix sets arborist woodchips apart from products like sawdust or shredded bark. Those processed forms use just one part of the tree. The blend of all these parts is what makes whole woodchips so useful in your garden and landscape.
I've watched tree crews run branches through different chipper models and the results vary quite a bit. Drum chippers produce flat, rectangular chips with a uniform size that works great for mulching. Disc chippers cut at angles and make more wedge-shaped pieces of mixed sizes. The small home chipper I own turns thin branches into fine shavings while leaving thicker limbs in coarse chunks. What are woodchips in practice depends on the machine that made them.
The chipping process itself uses either rotating blades or a spinning drum with cutting teeth. Branches feed into the machine's hopper where the blades grab and slice them into pieces at high speed. The chips shoot out through a chute into a truck bed or pile. Big commercial chippers can handle branches up to 18 inches thick in seconds. A full tree becomes a truckload of chips in under an hour.
You'll see the term written both ways: woodchips as one word and wood chips as two. Both spellings are correct and mean the same thing. The two-word version shows up more often in academic research and extension publications. The one-word version appears more in casual writing and product listings. Don't let the spelling confuse you since they refer to the same material.
You'll hear the term used in many different fields. Gardeners mean mulch for beds and pathways. Energy firms mean fuel for biomass power plants. Chefs know woodchips as the stuff you use to smoke meat on the grill. Arborist chips come straight from tree work with mixed parts inside. Commercial chips get sorted and processed for a set size and wood type.
When I first started using woodchips, I grabbed whatever bag sat on the shelf at my local store. That was a mistake. The dyed, uniform chips looked nice but broke down fast and did little for my soil. Once I switched to free arborist chips, my garden beds held moisture twice as long and grew far fewer weeds. That one change taught me how much the chip type matters.
Knowing what woodchips are helps you pick the right type for your project. For mulching garden beds, grab mixed arborist chips with bark and leaves. They suppress weeds best and feed your soil as they break down. For smoking brisket, choose single-species chips like hickory, apple, or cherry for clean flavor. For composting, any type of woodchip works as your brown material. Match the chip type to the job and you'll get much better results every time.
Read the full article: 10 Best Uses for Wood Chips
