Riding lawnmower grass catchers - blower or no blower?

[Mitchell Andrus]

I'm beginning to think I've got to collect my clippings. Cut after cut.... the brown stuff is laying on top of the lawn and gets added to by each subsequent cutting. It's getting to the point that it's piling up pretty thick in places and raking 2 acres is out of the question.

I've got a Cub Cadet Zero Turn, the one with the steering wheel. Cool machine.

There are some rear bagger attachments that have a blower and some that don't. I'll assume the blower models work better at getting the grass up the chute and in the bin.

My question: Do I really need a blower model or do the standard models work pretty well?
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[David Weaver]

I've only used one with a blower. It worked great. I had to get my fat butt off the tractor about twice a year due to it not feeding, and that was generally when I ran the mower through something I never should've run it through - like a pile of wet leaves with sticks in it.

No ability to get a mulching deck? I haven't had a lick of trouble with thatching since I got a good mulcher, but a mulcher is a heck of a power sucker compared to just discharging the grass.

I didn't mind using the blower, but I hate removing that much organic material from the grass if I don't have to.

[Paul Ryan]

I have a traditional rider/tractor style. I have a 9 bushel bagger on the rear with out a blower. It works great the only complaint I have is how the clippings seem to pile up in my grove. I bag almost every time I mow because I hate mowing and wait until it is too long. My lawn is much healthier now since all of the thatch isn't struck in it. I dont know why a blower would be necessary my bagger will leave the ground completely clean until it needs to be dumped. But you have to dump after about every 1/8 acre if you mow when the grass it about 6" tall.

[Gary Herrmann]

I think needing a blower is dependent on the size of your deck, how well your blades lift the clippings, the baffles on the bottom of the deck and how long the clippings have to travel to get to the bags.

I've only got a 40" deck on my lawn tractor. I think if had the next size up the manufacturer recommends a blower.

You're probably best off checking the manufacturer's site or asking this question on a gardening forum. I like gardenweb.

[John Lohmann]

Buy some gator blades & then make the evaluation, they mulch much better than factory blades.

[Mitchell Andrus]

Buy some gator blades & then make the evaluation, they mulch much better than factory blades.

I considered that. I think though that the clippings (no matter the size) will still sit on top of the grass and wait til the next cut... compounding the problem. Most of my grass is of a wide blade variety and the clippings don't filter through to the ground very well.
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[Mitchell Andrus]

I think needing a blower is dependent on the size of your deck, how well your blades lift the clippings, the baffles on the bottom of the deck and how long the clippings have to travel to get to the bags.

I've only got a 40" deck on my lawn tractor. I think if had the next size up the manufacturer recommends a blower.

You're probably best off checking the manufacturer's site or asking this question on a gardening forum. I like gardenweb.

I stopped by at the dealer this am. He said if the grass is good and dry it shouldn't clog. If the grass is wet or juicy it'll stick to the inside of the chute like fat in an artery. I've had clogs under the deck even 2 full days after a rain.

Dunno.....
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[Mitchell Andrus]

I'm thinking about kit-bashing together a chute and some left-over 6" DC flex and rigid (and a wide-sweep el) just to see if I can get a decent discharge to where a bin would mount. Making a bin is the easy part.

Know any websites for calculating a GC system?
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[David Weaver]

I considered that. I think though that the clippings (no matter the size) will still sit on top of the grass and wait til the next cut... compounding the problem. Most of my grass is of a wide blade variety and the clippings don't filter through to the ground very well.
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I don't know about the gator blades (never seen them), but my mulcher (honda) makes the clippings small enough that they pretty much disappear. I haven't bagged grass in 4 years, and I fertilize at least once a year, sometimes twice, and have a full sun lawn.

That said, my lawn isn't very big, and I'd maybe think twice about it if I had a large lawn that could consume 3 or 4 gallons of gas to mow (as my parents' lawn did). I don't know if it takes more extra go-go juice to mulch grass or run a blower, though. Blowers are gas pigs for their size, just like dust collector systems are power pigs.

[David Weaver]

I'm thinking about kit-bashing together a chute and some left-over 6" DC flex and rigid (and a wide-sweep el) just to see if I can get a decent discharge to where a bin would mount. Making a bin is the easy part.

Know any websites for calculating a GC system?
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Our first bin was a plywood box on a wagon with quarter inch screen on the top. When it got full enough that the air pressure could push clippings or leaves against the screen, you knew your wagon was full.

Make sure if you don't put some resistance to flow on the end of your test system that your bags have free air flow.

[Greg Peterson]

I'd give this riding mower a try.

http://www.tripleeboergoats.com/Goats%20in%20a%20wagon.JPG

[Mitchell Andrus]

I'd give this riding mower a try.



Yea, I tried goats but the gentlemen from the humane society said force-feeding a goat from the business end of a mower would not be a good idea.
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[Chris Damm]

I have a 42" deck on my zero turn mower. The mulching attachment works great but if you let the grass get too long you will get clumping of the clippings. I cut my fast growing yard every 4 or 5 days and it works fine. My last riding mower had the bags with no blower. It worked OK but it was only a 36" deck. Watching all that free fertilizer piling up led me to try the mulching attachment.

[Steve Jenkins]

If you decide to go with a blower check out cyclonerake.com

[Paul Greathouse]

Mitchell

We have a mulch kit on our Exmark zero turn and like David said earlier, the clippings disappear but we do cut once a week. There are also a ton of comercial cutters in our town and the majority of them mulch.

I don't know how it would work on your mower but many of the major brands have mulching systems that perform just as well as ours. If your cutting 2 acres, it seems like bagging would be a serious pain.

Maybe you need a portable Cyclone.:D

[Jim Finn]

[QUOTE=Paul Greathouse as ours. If your cutting 2 acres, it seems like bagging would be a serious pain.

[/QUOTE]///////////////////////
I mowed 2.4 acres in MD for five years and had a Zero turn mower. NO ONE in that neighborhood bagged their lawn clippings. I tried catching the grass at first but if it was at all wet it would jam up in the chute. It was always too wet. I finally took care of the brown stripes of cut grass laying on top of the lawn by removing the discharge guard from my mower (The way the pros do it). The clippings fly out and upward so much that there was no "stripe" of clippings left on the lawn. Look at the pros and see what thay do.

[Colin Giersberg]

You could use a larwn sweeper, but the issue of bagging the cut grass still remains. We have one and it works very well, but you definitely want to bag the grass when it is dry.

Regards, Colin

[Mitchell Andrus]

If you decide to go with a blower check out cyclonerake.com

Interesting. I'd only seen the type that grab blower power from the right blade pulley. ....Great, another engine to feed :eek:.
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[Mitchell Andrus]

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I mowed 2.4 acres in MD for five years and had a Zero turn mower. NO ONE in that neighborhood bagged their lawn clippings. I tried catching the grass at first but if it was at all wet it would jam up in the chute. It was always too wet. I finally took care of the brown stripes of cut grass laying on top of the lawn by removing the discharge guard from my mower (The way the pros do it). The clippings fly out and upward so much that there was no "stripe" of clippings left on the lawn. Look at the pros and see what thay do.

Stripes.... almost the entire lawn is a 'stripe' of brown now. I've never had the chute on it. Problem is it just sits there waiting for the next cut. The new growth is added to this and the brown gets thicker. In some spots it's starting to rot.

I've been cutting every 5 days, so it isn't too long when it's cut.

The green stripe is 48" wide.
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[Mitchell Andrus]

Getting rid of it is no problem, we've got woods on all four sides. Bagging isn't going to happen.
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[Mike Archambeau]

Mitchell- How tall is your blade set? If set at 3 inches or higher, the clippings can settle down into the lawn. But if you set the blade low, the clippings don't have much room to settle. The mulching blades do help as they chop the clippings finer, helping them settle.

Having said all that , you are fortunate that your grass is still green and growing. We are having a very dry summer, and likely will have to reseed the lawn this fall and start all over.

[Mitchell Andrus]

Mitchell- How tall is your blade set? If set at 3 inches or higher, the clippings can settle down into the lawn.

In July and August I set the deck very high so the lawn doesn't dry out. Although, that's my NJ brain working. In the NC hills, we're getting showers almost every three days and plenty of morning dew. The grass is wet enough nearly every morning to wet your shoes til about 10:00.

In NJ I could skip all of August almost every year.
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[Mike Cutler]

Mitch

My old Honda 4013 had no blower with the bagger,and was so useless that I quit using it. My John DeereX540 has the blower powered off the deck and it works like a dream. The only time I've actually clogged it to the point of not working was when I was mowing tall wet grass and heavy wet leaves at the same time.I can mow wet grass all day long.
If you're really trying to get the debris off the lawn, a powered chute is the way to go.

[Mitchell Andrus]

Mitch


If you're really trying to get the debris off the lawn, a powered chute is the way to go.

Yea, I'm finding that is true.
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[Walt Nicholson]

I had the same issues and since I am in town and no place to dump it, hated bagging and taking everything to the dump every week or paying extra for the trash haulers. Heard about the gator blades and read about them on a few forums (google Oregon Gator blades) Bought a pair for my Craftsman 42" garden tractor and never looked back. They keep the cut grass in the air longer so the blades get to cut it over and over. They are sharpened most of the length of the blade instead of just the ends for this reason. If I wait too long to mow and the grass is really tall in some areas I will have a little residue showing so I just go over it a second time which is way easier than emptying bags and disposing of it. Our local landscaping company said you need to thatch every 2 or 3 years regardless of whether you mulch or bag and that the cut grass helps retain moisture and provides good food for the lawn. No affiliation with the company, just happy I found something that works really well and does not cost a fortune (more money for woodworking tools):D

[John alder]

I have a cub cadet 32 in walk behind that I covered the output chute with a formed piece of sheet metal and it mulches OK so far the 8 HP engine does not seem to labor any more with it on,before that after cutting I would move in a circle without turning around at a higher speed and the clipping used to all go into a pile.Now I'm no longer dizzy.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

How did all the worms in your lawn die off?
That's what eats the clippings.

Maybe you should seed your lawn with worms.
Possibly the previous owner poisoned them trying to kill off some kind of bug he perceived as interfering with his efforts at growing a monoculture lawn and in the process killed everything?

Also take some of the top soil in a couple mason jars and see if you can cultivate an ant colony or worms in it. Just to see if it's poisonous.
Worms eat dead leaves and fallen grasses.

[Dan Hintz]

Wouldn't that only be true if the dead leaves/grass were hugging the ground? If it's sitting on top of the live grass, they're probably not going to go after it.

[Mitchell Andrus]

Wouldn't that only be true if the dead leaves/grass were hugging the ground? If it's sitting on top of the live grass, they're probably not going to go after it.

If a worm ate it's own weight in a day, I'd need a lot of worms.
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[Mitchell Andrus]

An update, work-around...

I'd raised my deck quite high in an effort to keep the lawn from frying. A pro told me to mow at normal height or lower and let the lawn get a bit brown.... If the blades are tall, they catch more sun and dew and grow faster in August, not slower. The extra speedy growth makes more debris when you cut, exactly the problem I'm having - the lawn can't absorb all the debris.

Kinda makes sense. The next few cuts I'm going to gradually lower the deck and see. I think I'll be blowing into rows and raking a bit just to keep up with the extra.
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[Joe Chritz]

I started using a zero turn when they were first coming out. We mowed commercially so they got a lot of use.

We ended up with a power unit only for picking up leaves better in the fall. Under normal use we had no problem with grass. However every model is different and while one unit will do great another may clog like crazy.

I much prefer to bag and still bag everything except the pasture.

Joe