Flail Mower flail mowing blueberrys

[First one]

Hey there,
I just picked up my first tractor, a L3240 with a cab it's been a long time coming!!
I have never flail mowed before today and just wanted to see what you all thought. I picked up a 56" value leader flail [ cheaper brand I know]and was told by the dealer to put hammer blades on it for cutting my berrys, so I had him do that before I bought it . The flail has 24 hammers on it , running it at 540 pto with ground speed at .02 [ just moving ] its not cutting the bushes up fine enough and is leaving debris . By putting the grass blades on, there would be 48 blades instead of the 24 ,wouldn't that seem to cut them up finer? Any and all help would be great thanks !

 

[powergod]

I have an alamo flail with grass blades, it mulches up pretty much anything short of trees with out much fan fare, i run over multiflora vines, similar to black berry vines it does a good job of pulverizing them

 

[First one]

Thanks powergod,
I was wondering if anyone would get back to me. Like I said before this is my first time mowing with a flail,and I don't know what I'm doing wrong. With blueberrys the mulch must be as small as it can be to lie flat to the ground so when you rake them ,you don't get debris in your rake ,and so the bushes will break from the ground not the old stem. The hammer blades cut alright ,but not fine enough for what I need.I put on the grass blades this morning, and tryed that out , again it cut good but still not fine enough until I slowed down to snail speed, did it seem to cut finer. Don't know if I should mow right along ,and go over it again slower or not just seems like there should be a better way. Help!!!

 

[IslandTractor]

Tough problem. I have mowed some blueberry bushes (large ones, wild, 8ft high) with my Caroni TM1900 flail which has knives on shackles rather than hammers. It isn't exactly like mowing grass though. I back into them and then go over the area several times to get the bush debris mulched.

I wonder if the best thing for you to do is to mow first with the hammers to cut them down and then use the finer blades. I wouldn't use true lawn blades (fine cut) but rather heavy duty rough cut blades. I don't have a sense of how much work it would be to switch out the blades on your mower. On mine, with about 28 stations (28 shackles, 56 blades) it would take a couple of hours, maybe less if I used pneumatic equipment rather than manual ratchets.

 

[First one]

IslandTractor,
I guess I didn't know that the grass blades that they sent me are not the same ones that they use on blueberrys. My blades come down and have the cutting edge on the bend thats slightly bent ,were the ones they use on berrys come down and have a 90 degree bend with the cutting edge the whole length of the blade ,not just on the bend .I'll try them out and see how that works.

 

[IslandTractor]

You might want to check out the various blade types available on flailmaster.com (sounds like a rude website but really it is quite a nice collection of knives, shackles etc for flail mowers). You should be able to recognize the type you have and see alternatives. In general, so long as you use knives of the same weight and make sure they are all balanced by replacing all at once, you can put different style knives on a flail mower to optomize different types of cut.

 

[GinNB]

I use blades similar to this type from Flailmaster, but a bit thicker (3/16") Mower Parts

The ones I use are 3/16" thick and mounted on a d-ring. "Rock blades" is what this knife and mounting arrangement is generally called around here.

Not sure what your hammers look like, but IMHO the best knife arrangement for wild blueberries is the 3/16" rock blade on some form of shackle or hoop. It'll depend on your ground, too. Is it all flat as a pancake or do you have lots of rocks and dips in the ground? Lots of bushes or have they all been taken care of already?

Where's your blueberry ground, anyway? I farm in southern NB.

 

[First one]

GinNB,
My land is pretty good ,flat with a few dips and some bigger rocks , alot less now I got my tractor. I've got most of the bushes taking care of ,but still fighting with the weeds ,grass... Does your blades have the cutting edge the whole lengh of the knife or just on the bottom part?

 

[GinNB]

Most of our mowers use the knives with the bottom part of the hockey stick sharpened. Our Motts, Kvernelands, and MBE triple-gang use the same knife. We've got a Bragg triple-gang hydraulic flail as well, and it uses similar teeth except that they're slightly longer and the cutting edge extends the whole length of the tooth.

 

[smitty9266]

If I had to guess ....you probably have the mower set to high. This would cause the cut pieces to fall below the blades and not be mulched. Try lowering the blades to just nick the ground on a flat surface. When you go to mulch the mulching action should keep the blades off the ground.The other problem you might have is your mower is a rough cut, I have 2 Flails one rough, one fine(twice as many blades) 48 versus 96 blade stations. There is a great difference in the finish cut.

The style of blade should not matter much, scoop blades versus double angle in a mulching operation it would in a grass mowing situation. Blade construction forged versus stamped would have more effect, forged will withstand constant ground contact much better.