Ideas for an improvised restrictor to shred leaves with a zero turn?

[jmc]

I need about a cubic yard of shredded leaves every year for winter gardening stuff. My Toro zero-turn grinds a few of them up pretty fine but discharges most of the rest without shredding them much. What kind of a restriction over the discharge opening would shred most of them?

Pics below show the discharge opening with the chute both up and down. Plenty of mounting options. Can't justify putting much time in it for occasional use though.

 

[radios1]

what you need is a mulching plate which completely blocks off the discharge. I keep mine on, unless I want to pick up leaves and bag them with the bagger.. you can get something like this, but check to make sure it's for your model.. Amazon.com : Toro 131-4182 42" Mulch Kit Model Years 211-217 : Garden & Outdoor

 

[jaydee325]

A cubic yard is a lot of ground up leaves.

If you use a mulching mower, are you raking them up after you mow?

Least effort, though most cost would be to add a vacuum collection system to your Toro.

 

[RjCorazza]

If collecting the mulched leaves I would think a bagging solution would be easiest, though not cheapest. When I want some mulched leaves or grass I put a metal cage bagger on my walk behind. I also occasionally use an inexpensive lawn bag that is made to tie around the discharge area of most any mower, and it just gets drug beside the mower.
Lastly, both of my zero turn mowers have discharge gates (Advanced Chute Systems) that really pulverize leaves, but not a good option for collecting. The commercial gates run around $200.

 

[RalphVa]

I once mowed our NJ church lawn, about 5 acres with lots of oak trees, with a Scag ZT. I just ran it so that it discharged inward until it was about to choke down and then reversed and discharged outward for a turn and then back to inward, etc. Worked fine.

Could also just drill holes to each side of your discharge and put some thin metal plate over the discharge.

They really should give all ZTRs (or any mower) a mulch mode. Mulching mode is all we use on our old JD and newer Honda walkbehinds. They really mulch up the leaves right in place.

Ralph

 

[jmc]

OP here.

Helpful comments- thank you. Got some links from your links and some search terms as well.

I was thinking about hanging chains down over the deck's exhaust, like the chains behind some rotary cutters, just to slow the leaves' exit down and somehow, without the chain hitting the blade. I also have some expanded steel mesh to cap the exit but another online discussion said that holes will plug up quickly and that you may as well make a solid.

Before fabbing up something, I'll try Ralph's technique of alternating passes in opposite directions. Then, maybe cobble up a solid plywood flap over the exit just to see what happens.

 

[Mat4644]

Also get a set of mulching blades such as Gator.

 

[mikester]

I found that the gator blades shredded up the leaves really well. The negative is that the blades don't push as much air and I get less of a leaf blower effect. I went back to my high lift blades because it's easier and faster to clear the lawn of leaves and blow them to the fence lines.

 

[RjCorazza]

I switch up my patterns for leaf mulching based on volume. This time of year I'm just doing my regular alternating pattern, which runs over 1/2 of the leaves at least twice. With more leaves I'll generally throw in the same direction until the mulched leaves start piling up, then I go the other way to spread it out.

With the discharge gate down It leaves a windrow of pulverized leaves, so I do a second pass with the gate open to clean it up.
It bugs me to vary from my striping patterns, but there is just no timely way to lay down nice patterns while mulching unless I just recut after mulching (the mulching patterns landscapers use are basically a double cut anyway).

The G6 Gator blades are my go-to blades year round. They keep an edge MUCH longer than anything else I've used, leave finer clippings, and are great for fall leaves. They do sacrifice lift, tend to blow out the front of the deck some, and don't discharge quite as well as high lift blades.