Mulch, bag, rake, or leave 'em where they land??

stuwee

What are leaves?

gdb

shawn474 wrote: »

Ed, this is the real trick to a healthy lawn. I have learned over 25+ years of mowing, working for landscape companies and having 2 relatives that own their own very successful lawn service.
1. A lot of the mistakes people make are in height of the cut. The shorter the grass, the more tendency it will burn and die in the heat. My tractor has six blade settings - I mow it on 5 most of the time with an occassional 4 if I know I won't be available to cut it a second time that week.
2. Leaving mulched clippings is good, but only if they are evenly spread. The clumps will kill the grass as well.
3. Leaves can be mulched, but they give off a lot of chemicals as they decompose that grass does not like and will tend not to do well in.

All that said, I bag my leaves and mulch my grass. Sometimes I have to cut the grass twice a week, but it is a small price to pay to have a green and full lawn IMHO.


Say, you wouldn't know of any used, 60" Dixie Choppers for sale in the general area, would you? I have too many acres in Fred. Co. to mow with the vintage machines that I have now.:frown:

mdaudioguy

Jstas wrote: »

Advice on that, mow the lawn more often at a higher height. If the grass clippings are too large, the mulching blades won't work. If you want the grass cut short and it's real long, either mow at one height and then do a second pass at the height you want the grass at or set it at the low height and run over the whole lawn twice to make sure you get it all.

Yeah, the manual suggests cutting no more than the top third of the grass height when mulching. I can see why. I'm surely going to have to mow a little more often, but at least there was no raking necessary this evening. I'm also thinking I want to make sure my engine is running at the proper speed - it's always seemed like it should be operating at a slightly higher RPM, which would get those blades spinning a little faster. Otherwise, so far, so good.

Jstas

mdaudioguy wrote: »

Yeah, the manual suggests cutting no more than the top third of the grass height when mulching. I can see why. I'm surely going to have to mow a little more often, but at least there was no raking necessary this evening. I'm also thinking I want to make sure my engine is running at the proper speed - it's always seemed like it should be operating at a slightly higher RPM, which would get those blades spinning a little faster. Otherwise, so far, so good.

Speed doesn't matter as much as not letting it clog up. They work on aerodynamics. They blades, even at the lowest engine speed, are spinning fast enough to see the aero effects. They should either have lumps in the middle of the blade or turned up edges or both. Those create low pressure spots under the blade which draws the clippings back up in to the path of the blade to continually be chopped up. When they get too physically small to get hit by the blades, they just ride the air currents to the outside of the blade and fall at the edges.

If the clippings are too big, they affect how the air flows over those blades and they end up like dough in a food processor. The clumps just get forced to the outside and make a big mess.

Often times though, in thicker grass that is too tall, it's better to run it at a slower speed. If there is too much grass and you are running the blade at full speed, it's like trying to force scissors through too many pieces of paper at once. It just ends up pushing half the grass over instead of cutting it. Then it looks like you didn't bother with the mower at all and chose to use your teeth instead.

As long as the blades are sharp and properly balanced, you should be able to mow pretty easily. If the blades are dull, you'll have a hell of a time pushing the mower through it all. Another way to tell if the blades are dull is to look at the grass a couple days later. Is the edge a nice clean cut or does it look all brown and dead with stringy stuff coming off of it? A straight cut is a good blade. A scraggly cut is a dull blade.