In Praise of a Vacuum Bagger

[Iplayfarmer]

I bought a vacuum bagger off e-bay for my 266-H Toro Wheel Horse riding mower. (Sorry if I was bidding against any of you.) It came yesterday, and I installed it and took it for a test run last night.

Holy Cow!! A Vacuum bagger is a whole different animal from the other passive baggers that I have used in the past. My dad has a Craftsman with a standard bagger, and I had a JD 111 with a bagger a few years ago. Both of these machines had a terrible tendency to plug up.

The assembly was pretty involved as I had to mount pieces to my mower, put the bagger itself together, and then mount the blower, bagger and hangers to the mower. Now that it's all put together, though, it looks like it will be pretty simple to put on and take off.

I started out mowing the strip between my front fence and the road. The grass was dry and not very long. Everything went well. No clogs, no problems.

By this time the dew was starting to set in. I decided to really give it a test. I tackled the fenceline of the small pasture behind my house. The grass was over a foot tall and damp from the dew. I went as fast as I could while still effectively cutting a full 42 inch swath of the grass. I filled one whole side of the bagger in a single pass of about 50 feet. Typically when I have mowed this before with this mower, the grass seems to be coming out of the chute in a solid stream and leaves little winrows. I figured if anything would clog up the bagger chute, this would be it.

End result: No Clogs, No problems. I have concluded that this vacuum bagger will keep up with everything that this mower can put out.

Well worth the expense and time to get it and install it.

 

[Charlesaf3]

Why not mulch the grass? Its some of the best fertilizer you can add to a lawn

 

[Iplayfarmer]

Why not mulch the grass? Its some of the best fertilizer you can add to a lawn

I have this thing called a wife. She has this thing called a floor. I also have this thing called offspring and when the offspring track the cut grass onto the floor the wife gets a little frustrated with me.

I'm actually trying to get into composting. Rumor has it that composted grass is at least as good for gardens, lawns, etc. as raw grass clippings.

 

[ToadHill]

Composted grass clippings are great but you have to mix some brown material( dry leaves work well) in with the green or you'll end up with moldy clippings and no compost.

 

[Charlesaf3]

compost is great! It just requires more work... I like how the mulched clippings spread themselves, and I'm done.

Of course, I'm not suffering from the offspring/floor/wife issue - sometimes ya gotta take non lawn issues into account.

But those clippings are solid nitrogen, they really are a shame to waste. I knew a woman who made her husband bag all the clippings because she wanted them for her flower garden instead (after composting with leaves per above).

I compost all my vegetable cooking scraps. Saves garbage, and saves buying fertilizer. Double good.

 

[Iplayfarmer]

Composted grass clippings are great but you have to mix some brown material( dry leaves work well) in with the green or you'll end up with moldy clippings and no compost.

I'm still learning the compost thing. I went overcautious on my first attempt and put too much brown in. Now I have a pile of dried manure dried grass and leaves that's a year old sitting in the corner of the corral.

 

[MrWoodChips]

I'm still learning the compost thing. I went overcautious on my first attempt and put too much brown in. Now I have a pile of dried manure dried grass and leaves that's a year old sitting in the corner of the corral.

Add water. Turn it over, mix it up. Add some fresh green matter. There are some who have been known to pee in their pile (lots of nitrogen there).

john

 

[Iplayfarmer]

I'm really looking forward to using the vacuum bagger this fall after the leaves have all fallen. It should make quick work of my 1/2 acre's worth of lawn.

 

[ampsucker]

wish i had one! i like the option of being able to easily bag up what i want to put someplace besides my lawn. (compost pile, garden for turning under, mulch, around trees, etc.)

 

[Iplayfarmer]

wish i had one! i like the option of being able to easily bag up what i want to put someplace besides my lawn. (compost pile, garden for turning under, mulch, around trees, etc.)

"Option"... That's what it's about. I'm bagging the grass from now until after the 4th of July when all of the in-laws are coming to hang out for the celebration. I'll probably take the bagger off for the rest of the summer until I start to see leaves on the grass.