I call it Tithonia Diversifolia since the trades usually use the 'Mexican Sunflower" name for the annual Tithonia Rotundifolia. I have a 25 hp PTO driven chipper and found it to be generally too soft and moist to chip well in mine. It clogs up and doesn't pass through the discharge even clogging up. Moringa and Mombin plum branches are similar. The only success I had was cutting and letting it dry in hard sun a week or so.
One interesting thing which I found then was that when chipped, the soft inner pith detached from the outer bark part. The pith strongly resembled what are usedas "packing peanuts"! Someone talented enough could probably improve on the process and develop a salable fully biodegradable/natural replacement product.
A friend with a small electric homeowner chipper found they could be sent through one by one but his unit fed vertically and discharged downwards so clogging wasn't much of an issue but progress was slow yielding only bucketfuls instead of truckloads.
Myself and others are working on scaling up production of this for biomass accumulation and ground coverage between tree rows. Planting is easy and it grows very well the challenge is management. Ideally the best material to use is soft and green which wouldn't need any more effort to process, just chop and place in position, it decays easily. Cutting when soft is easy but the stalks quickly become hard and if left too long the bottom part develops adventitious roots which easily grow if they touch the ground before they have a chance to dessicate.
Some ways to prevent that:
-to lay whole stalks carefully bundled so that the lower end with roots always ends up resting on the upper end which doesn't root so easily, works ok when in a row.
- cut the upper stalks on a plant, lay that down first, then cut the lower stalks and lay on top
- Design a mulch producing system that includes other species like banana or a grass and lay whole Tithonia on top of that.
I have done the first two many times but it takes more careful work. This summer I plan to set up the third system and test it out.
One last mangement element we have realized is that over time a fairly large stump develops with cut stalks sticking up that eventually rot away. Periodically, perhaps annually, it was found that the stump can be 'reset' by low chainsawing the upper mass so that it gets more flush to the ground. It quickly resprouts and harvest can begin afresh. Here is a video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2tBmImEMXs&tIf anyone else has suggestions, ideas or experiences manageing this plant I'll love to hear them.