Need advice about best way to remove matted grass clippings

[JDgreen227]

What with all the rainfall here in Mid-Michigan this year (nearly 11" measured at my house since the begining of June) it's very hard to keep up with mowing and when I do try it's often high enough and wet enough that my tractor tires pack down the clippings. It's a huge PIB to rake them up and a bagger attachment would cost so much (as well as a Trac-Vac would) I don't want to go that route. Can anyone advise about a method to get those matted clippings up off the ground using a 3-point attachment? I don't need to do anything except get them high enough so the mower will recut them when they dry out, Thanks for any advice.

 

[J_J]

CMP 3-Point Dethatcher

Ryan Ren-O-THIN Power Rake - Briggs & Stratton - 544865 | Wise Sales

Walk-Behind Dethatchers @ Mowers Direct

 

[wedge40]

When cutting grass, throw grass inward and then make one pass outward and windrow the grass. Makes cleanup quicker.

Wedge

 

[boggen]

high lift / mulching blades. they generally have a descent curve in the blade. almost like a fan blade, to suck up stuff into the blades. make extra passes when done with regularly mowing, to make wind-rows (sending all the clippings in a few rows) to make it easier to manually rake everything together.

Tractor Attachments And Skid Steer Attachments For Any Tractor Or Skid Steer has a large amount of stuff for tractors. with video and descent amount of text to describe pretty much everything they have.

a rear 3pt finishing mower, that sends everything directly out the back, vs regular belly finishing mowers that sends everything out the side. the rears might give a bettery spread pattern so ya don't get large clumps.

york rake or some sort of tine rake, or perhaps a power broom,

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one of these days will figure out how to slap a piece of lumber over FEL (front end loader) bucket. and make a couple holes in it, one for shop vac, and other for a wide nozzle to suck rocks up out of the side ditches, when spring comes. (pushing snow and rocks going into yard)

 

[JDgreen227]

boggen....my tractor has the 7-Iron 60" deck and the OEM blades were really poor at chopping up clippings....I switched to a set of Oregon Gator blades a few years ago but they don't seem to be as effective if the grass is the least bit wet. I was wondering if a dethatcher would be an effective solution....usually this time of year in my location the grass is always dry but we get so much rain this season it never dries out. Even in the morning the grass is soaked with a heavy dew.

 

[jenkinsph]

I agree with others about mowing over it again. Sometimes it is best to let nature take its course, soon it should dry out enough to alleviate the problem. While I have a collection system I use it about once a year, rest of the time I mulch.

 

[lostcreekranch]

Try the Gator mulching blades when grass is relatively dry after a few hours of sun and mow with the black grass chute raised. The gator blade will create finer cuttings and the raised grass chute will spread cutting more evenly.

I drilled a 1/4" hole near the end of the grass chute and hold it up with a short rubber bungee cord.







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[JDgreen227]

Try the Gator mulching blades when grass is relatively dry after a few hours of sun and mow with the black grass chute raised. The gator blade will create finer cuttings and the raised grass chute will spread cutting more evenly.

I drilled a 1/4" hole near the end of the grass chute and hold it up with a short rubber bungee cord.

View attachment 383569

I installed a small u-bolt on the discharge chute years ago and prop it open most of the time....problem is, there is so much rainfall here my grass almost NEVER dries out....it has been full sun and up to 91 degrees 3 days straight and the grass STILL won't dry out....

 

[lostcreekranch]

The grass clippings are great fertilizer for your grass. Never understood why people collect grass clippings to fertilize land fills, etc.

If you use mulching blades, the clippings will be very fine and decompose quickly, adding to your fertility.

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[oosik]

I mow my grass often enough that the clipping just disappear. Be careful with a dethatcher, especially if your grass is wet when you use it. I had some of those clip on wire things and they just ripped the crud out of my lawn. I had the blades set as high as they would go too. I winnow the clippings, if the grass is tall, and mow over the rows to reduce the clippings until they disappear. Wish we had some of your rain right now.