Flail Vs Finish Mower for Mulching Leaves?

[K5lwq]

First, Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Today I think I will have a little fun and do a side by side comparison on which mower mulches leaves better. The flail has hammer knives and the finish mower is a side discharge with gator blades.

Test will be one pass with each mower. Flail on the Branson and finish mower on the Kioti. Test will be a little later today after it warms up some. Lol

Which do you think will do a better job?

 

[dodge man]

My money is on the finish mower.

 

[RalphVa]

Hmm. Never heard of a flail being used for that. If the finish mower blades create some suction like a good walkbehind mulching mower, they'll be better.

Ralph

 

[chim]

My guess is the flail may do better. I've been using RFM's since '02 in both side and rear discharge. Most of the time it seems like they just move the leaves more than chop them. Now if the RFM had a mulching attachment like my bud's Zero it would make a difference.

I added wings to the blades on an old side discharge RFM and it does a good job of raking the leaves. Some get chopped enough so that by the time I get to the last pass there isn't much left.

 

[Halftrack]

Please convince us with photos if you can. I have used my New Holland 918H 5' flail to mince leaves every fall. It has an advantage over other flails in the adjustable tailgate which can be closed completely to limit discharge. I have added a belt curtain to close off the cracks even further, so the only escape is under the roller. I believe the NH 918H's and maybe Land Prides have adjustable tailgates. Readers may add to the list. If someone is interested, I can submit some photos.

 

[Industrial Toys]

I would have said that my 917 Fine cut and 917 regular (now sold) would NOT have been any good in that capacity at all. There just isn't any suction in that design. Wet leaves would be even worse, if that's possible.

You would also have to be on very flat ground with the blades very close to the ground.

 

[i7win7]

For years I used riding mowers to mulch leaves, creates a dust storm. This year used landscape rake to collect piles of leaves, then used root grapple to transport/pile leaves into burn piles or dump in ravine. Read post where user put edge tamers on bucket to collect and haul leaves.

 

[DK35vince]

My experience, my side discharge finish mowers simply blow the leaves out the discharge Shute with little mulching.
Backing through the leaves with my rear discharge RFM mulches much, much better.

 

[Industrial Toys]

Shame to burn all that nice biomass. Friend is **** about picking up leaves, then uses commercial fertilizer!

 

[RalphVa]

When I mowed about 5 acres of church property with a Scag ZTR, I just made rounds discharging inwards until the thing started to choke down. Then I'd reverse direction for a round and then back to discharging inward again. Did a good job. Lots of mature oak trees.

Someone posted about taking care of leaves on a local "NextDoor" online network. Someone said not to smash them up and leave them because they'd acidify the soil. I replied saying that I'm a master gardener and that this was an old wive's tale. Yes, they initially acidify the soil, but then the process seems to make it all neutral when they finally degrade. Been proven by research, but you'll find online old, short-sighted research that shows the acidification. Else, how could Mr. Jefferson get by with just using leave mulch on his vegetable garden?

Ralph