Riding lawnmower users- mulching blades for leaves, or not?

[highfigh]

I recently acquired a riding mower and with the falling leaves, I need to find out if mulching blades will produce finer leaf fragments. This would help for filling containers that will be used to transport the waste, for mulching and for composting. Knowing that leaves break down pretty fast regardless, mulching would make that go faster but for transporting, I would be able to take everything in one trip, rather than two or more.

I also know that using a low gear and keeping the RPM up helps to break up the leaves, but they're still in fairly large pieces.

The mower is an Ariens 42" model 93606000/17542, if it helps.

Top photo makes it look a bit like Gort, from 'The Day The Earth Stood Still', eh?

 

[Mikado463]

I mulch year round when I cut with my Kubota zero-turn, but here's the secret ...........

Your mower deck MUST be set up(underneath) with the proper kit including the block off plate at the discharge. Normal side discharge mowers have large access openings that allow cuttings to move from one blade cutting zone to the next(my deck is three blades) and out the side discharge. A mulching set up effectively blocks that by about 90%. So when combined with a high lift blades the mulching effect is optimized.

My blades spin @17,000 rpm, turns everything to dust !

 

[highfigh]

I mulch year round when I cut with my Kubota zero-turn, but here's the secret ...........

Your mower deck MUST be set up(underneath) with the proper kit including the block off plate at the discharge. Normal side discharge mowers have large access openings that allow cuttings to move from one blade cutting zone to the next(my deck is three blades) and out the side discharge. A mulching set up effectively blocks that by about 90%. So when combined with a high lift blades the mulching effect is optimized.

My blades spin @17,000 rpm, turns everything to dust !

I have seen 2 in 1 and 3 in 1 blades (side discharge/mulch & side/mulch/bag)- my house has too many trees to just mulch with a block off and even with the deck raised at its highest, I still plow through the leaves but I really don't want to mulch the leaves and go back to pick everything up with the bag- it's not a large yard and still takes too long. My deck only has one area for the clippings- it probably wasn't their top model and now, their better mowers are under the Gravely name but the price was right. REALLY right. I only got it because of that and with my bad knee, pushing a bagging mower with/without the bag sucks and wastes far too much time. If I use the bag, I have to stop about every 25' because it's full- with the rider, I only have to stop about 6 times for the whole lawn and I'm going to talk to a friend about making larger bags (he owns an upholstery shop).

Wow! I'm in the wrong business! I just saw a mulching kit for my mower p riced at $235!

 

[cpp]

We mulch everything, Live Oak leaves, St Augustine grass. It all goes back into the ground.

 

[Mikado463]

Since we are on the subject of mulching, one other thing to remember is that it's important to not only be sure your mulches fine enough but also don't allow your lawn to grow too long between cuttings. A lawn needs to breathe ! Matted clippings hinder this and thus require de-thatching.

One other benefit to a mulching deck, you can cut close to edging, flower beds, etc on either side !

 

[highfigh]

Since we are on the subject of mulching, one other thing to remember is that it's important to not only be sure your mulches fine enough but also don't allow your lawn to grow too long between cuttings. A lawn needs to breathe ! Matted clippings hinder this and thus require de-thatching.

One other benefit to a mulching deck, you can cut close to edging, flower beds, etc on either side !

Most of my front yard is in shade during Summer and the house blocks sunlight to a lot of the back yard, so mulch takes too long to break down. The front stays green Spring through Fall, but the West side and the area outside of the shade in the back go dormant in August-Sept. I don't cut it too short, specifically to allow the roots to grow deeper. Our water bill just got jacked up, so I don't water the lawn much.

I was really wondering about the mulching blades for leaf pickup. I left mulched leaves on the lawn once and it was too much- killed some of the grass.

Since we're on the topic of lawn care, I have a question- why does the wind start blowing when I use my leaf blower? It can be totally still, but that doesn't last long after I start.

 

[Mikado463]

I was really wondering about the mulching blades for leaf pickup. I left mulched leaves on the lawn once and it was too much- killed some of the grass.

Your leaves were not mulched, just cut, BIG difference. I stated earlier, unless you have a properly set up deck you will NEVER get it right !

Since we're on the topic of lawn care, I have a question- why does the wind start blowing when I use my leaf blower? It can be totally still, but that doesn't last long after I start.

Mother Nature has it in for you ........

 

[TLS Guy]

Most of my front yard is in shade during Summer and the house blocks sunlight to a lot of the back yard, so mulch takes too long to break down. The front stays green Spring through Fall, but the West side and the area outside of the shade in the back go dormant in August-Sept. I don't cut it too short, specifically to allow the roots to grow deeper. Our water bill just got jacked up, so I don't water the lawn much.

I was really wondering about the mulching blades for leaf pickup. I left mulched leaves on the lawn once and it was too much- killed some of the grass.

Since we're on the topic of lawn care, I have a question- why does the wind start blowing when I use my leaf blower? It can be totally still, but that doesn't last long after I start.

I suspect your climate is mch like ours. Having mulch under the snow can lead to fingal kill. I had this happen in Grand Forks once and stopped mulching leaves. The best thing to do is use a leaf blower and bag them. I had lot of trees at the lake, but a good leaf blower made short work of the clean up.

The riding mower I had at Benedict Lake.

The best mower I ever had.

 

[highfigh]

Your leaves were not mulched, just cut, BIG difference. I stated earlier, unless you have a properly set up deck you will NEVER get it right !



Mother Nature has it in for you ........

I know the difference because my push mower has a mulching blade and a block-off but there's no way I'm going to take the time to use that machine when the leaves fall for six weeks.

If more of the lawn was in sunlight more of the time, I might consider it but it's not and I have had snow mold many times, so I remove as much cut material as possible and compost some of it, for use around the yard.

Gimme a break- it's my first mower with a cup holder!

I might start an online show called 'Pimp My Mower'. What do you think?

 

[Mikado463]

I suspect your climate is mch like ours. Having mulch under the snow can lead to fingal kill. I had this happen in Grand Forks once and stopped mulching leaves. The best thing to do is use a leaf blower and bag them. I had lot of trees at the lake, but a good leaf blower made short work of the clean up.

The riding mower I had at Benedict Lake.

The best mower I ever had.

nice looking rig ! but it will never mulch like a good zero turn ! it's all about the deck configuration combined with 17,000 rpm of blade speed. When done correctly you will NEVER get snow fungus, let the lawn get too tall or the leaves too deep, then you're asking for problems.

As for the 'best thing to do'.......... that would be to rake, it provides natural thatching of the lawn. But I agree, if your cutting the acreage needing your big rig above, raking is out of the question !