Mulching blades that can still actually lift grass?

If you are cutting tall grass down to normal height....mulching may not be the way to go. If you are cutting by the 1/3 rule then mulching is a option. Then the question is.... will mulched grass decompose any faster than side discharged grass. As far as Fall leaf cleanup goes mulching is fine but, raise the deck for the first pass and expect to make multiple passes lowering the deck on the second pass. If you have a lot of leaves all at once, you are going to leave a mess on the first pass. What works one lawn may not work on another lawn depending on HOC, amount of leaves, dampness, wind, etc.etc...
 
I mow so that the clippings go to the inside of the cut, in the path of my next pass,and each pass mulches them more and more and by the time I get to the center,the clippings have disintegrated into mere dust.
I go at a slower than normal pace in heavy grass and it does fine.
I have a Grasshopper commercial mower;very fast blade speed.Sounds like a small single prop airplane when running.
 
Like bkeller500 I just made a chute blocker out of a steel sheet I bought at Lowes. I bent it to shape for my Toro 50" deck, bolt it on and go. It mulches the oak, sweet gum, hickory, and poplar. Admittedly, where I have oaks with the smaller leaves and it gets really thickest under the oaks it takes a few passes. But the other leaves are gone in one pass. I use the standard blade and it all gets chopped up. No big deal with the homemade chute blocker.
 
I use a gravely 52 zero turn, and before the leaves fall I get my grass down to around 2in from the summer length of 3in. When the leaves fall I use the same deck height of 2in go around in a north south direction blowing the leaves outward, then change direction and travel in a east west direction. Everything gets busted up pretty good, I put my blower on pickup everything, and the yard looks pretty good.
 
I use mulching blades on my Kubota 72” deck and made a wooden cover to block the flow of grass and leaves from freely flowing out. In this board I drilled about 4-5 large holes to allow air to flow thru. As for the quality of the grass cut, it does seem to be that bad at all. BTW, once I get to serious leaf mulching, the quality of the lawn cut is not an issue to me, it’s how the leaves are mulched.
 
bullet bob said:
I've got a funny feeling here that I'm looking for a unicorn. High-lift blade that mulches. I understand that in order to lift grass, you have to have some place for the air flow to go. Making 3 individual cutting chambers with no-where for the air to escape makes it rather tough to lift & straighten blades of grass before you cut it. :cry:
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Best mulcher I have used was my first, a Husqvarna SP that was purpose made for mulching. It had a donut deck, high and rounded. The single blade had a lip for lifting the grass at the tips and another inboard to blow the clippings down. Clippings up on the perimeter, down in the center, deck was rounded like a donut with engine in the donut hole to help the flow. Of course some of the clippings were picked up again and run through again, but it worked.

Then there was the EGo 21" SP. It had zero lift. It could run over dry leaves and they'd still be on the ground. It couldn't lift a runner on the sidewalk. But was amusing when bagging how the grass in the bag would be layed neatly in line, not jumbled randomly.
 
I just recently bought a set of the gold hybrid blades from Ballard www.ballard-inc.com. They do create more turbulence\discharge on a BB CZT 60" compared to the stock Oregon Fusion BB sells. Used on a rural property cutting 5 acres, they are different.... haven't decided for myself. Sometimes you just have to try things to see if it works for your application.
 
Markdd52 said:
I just recently bought a set of the gold hybrid blades from Ballard www.ballard-inc.com. They do create more turbulence\discharge on a BB CZT 60" compared to the stock Oregon Fusion BB sells. Used on a rural property cutting 5 acres, they are different.... haven't decided for myself. Sometimes you just have to try things to see if it works for your application.
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Curious as what your thoughts are with these.
 
Mulching kits aren't really good in grass. I only use the mulching kit for leaves. I mow the grass as normal as late in the season as possible, right before the leaves start to fall at a good pace. If the mower is only picking up leaves it does a great job of chopping up the leaves. I mean the ground can be covered in leaves a couple inches thick and after making a pass there is nothing but lawn in my trail. The leaves are gone. This is on a John Deere Z655 54" deck using the kit and blades that JD sells.
 
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