John Deere 320 mulch kit

[joeljoel]

I have been considering purchasing the jd mulch kit for my older john deere 320. It has the fd590v engine. My issue is I have several trees on the 1 acre property in a residential neighborhood. I would like to mulch the leaves rather than bag or discharge the leaves out the side of the mower deck. If I discharge them out the side of the deck I have to mow over them again and again to get them ground up. And the leaves aren't evenly disputed throughout the yard.

The dealer shares with me.
A mulch kit will make the tractor work harder.
The grass will need to be cut more often otherwise it will leave clumps.

I'm not sure about the mulch kit.

The dealer suggested installing gator blades with or without a mulch

Are their aftermarket mulch kits that will work with the jd 320?

I'd like to know what others do during leave season.

Thanks in advance

 

[TaskForceLawnCare]

I'm personally not a huge fan of mulch kits. They do have benefits but more times then not reduce cut quality on bigger decks. You can try gator blades if you are just trying to reduce the size of the clippings.

I guess it all depends on what you're trying to achieve by mulching.

 

[joeljoel]

Thank you for sharing.I am giving up on the mulch kit. I am going to purchase some mulch blades. However, i would lime to get some adjustable grated metal plating in front of the grass chute of the mower deck. Somthing like this person shows in the video. Start watching at 4:10 mark https://youtu.be/oEcukoMZKqE

 

[johnmill]

Just buy the mulching blades - they have a serated top portion that cuts the grass into finer pieces. You can get a blocking plate too, but that IMO will plug and create lumping if its wet when cutting. Just get/look for "gator blades" or similar.

 

[bertsmobile1]

Yep,
To mulch properly you need a real mulching deck, not just a plug
Otherwise all of the clippings get thrown to the discharge side where they tend to clump at the slightest provocation.
The mulch plugs do work, but only within a very small window of grass length to clipping length
This is different for every type of grass and is also very dependant upon the moisture in the grass.
So after experimenting with your particular to get it right , you then are forced to mow when it needs to be done rather than when you have the time, enthusiasm to do it.
Gator type blades, the correct one for your exact deck will do a very good job of finly chopping up the clipplings thenif you open up the discharge chute cover the blades will distribute the cuttings finely over the lawn and they between the blades of grass in a day or so.
Just be weary of where the throw s pointing , you knoe windos, doors, children, swimming pools, passing traffic etc.

 

[Bob E]

I don't like mulching grass it stays too damp around here and I have to stop to clean all the grass paste out of the deck too often. I know everyone says mulching decks are deeper to improve suction, maybe, but it also gives the grass a place to build up so you can mow for longer periods of time between clean outs.
I made my own mulch plate for leaf cleanup. You don't want to completely plug up the discharge chute when mulching leaves because you will get a lot of air blowing out around the bottom of the deck that will blow the leaves away before you can get to them. Depending on the amount of leaf coverage it might take up to 3 passes to get them chopped up real good. I prefer to give the yard a quick single pass once or twice a week while the leaves are falling rather than letting them accumulate.