Leaves

[johnday]

Westonium;That was neat. Especially the disappearing gas can! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[WVBartMan]

Sherpa: Contrary to popular belief, leaves are bad for your grass/turf, mulched, grinded or left alone. They cause the soil to become more acidic than it already is, requiring lime to raise the pH.

I presently use an Agri-Metal Blower on a three point hitch powered by the tractor PTO. This is a remarkable blower and makes fast work of leaves in your yard.

 

[Cliff_Johns]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Sherpa: Contrary to popular belief, leaves are bad for your grass/turf, mulched, grinded or left alone. They cause the soil to become more acidic than it already is, requiring lime to raise the pH. )</font>

I was under the impression that this depended on the variety of tree the leaf comes from. I know some oaks and maples have this problem, but I thought it was only some specific varieties.

Cliff

 

[Westonium]

It is true that some leaves are very acidic. Walnut leaves are indeed very acidic.

So why do I munch them up anyway? Because I will only plant acid loving plants under them. Its no use fighting it. You can see the effect in Southern California where they have ice plants planted all over the highway hills, and they've filled in everywhere except under the evergreens where they refuse to grow at all. They are an alkaline loving plant. You can also tell when people try to fertilize their ice plants. Generally speaking the soil gets made less alkaline and they simply don't like it.

There are PLENTY of acid loving plants. I know blueberries are, and so are gardenias, rhododendrons, azaleas, camelias, hydrangeas, tomatoes, strawberries etc. Pretty much any kind of plant you find in a forest is acid loving.

Leaves don't burn that well - you won't cook a steak on one, and they really do make a decent mulch. The grass won't grow very well under those trees, and I will soon sow some sort of replacement cover. Some sort of strawberry cover might work well. I won't have to hassle with trying to make something grow where it was never intended to grow.

I do love a good grass turf though.

I could have just as easily hooked the bag onto the mower, and bagged them that way. They don't get quite as pulverized, but the mower vacuums them up quite efficiently.

 

[stuart]

Could you please tell us what an Agri-metal blower costs, where we might look at one and a picture of it set up would be great. Thanks, I am in need of something to get rid of those ***** leaves.

 

[shoppintractors]

Here's the web site for agrimetal.

http://www.agrimetal.com/eng/products_blower_p1.htm

Don

 

[sherpa]

WVBARTMAN,
I dont have to worry too much about acidic, I have a wide gravel driveway and the gravel road in front of my place where I been mulching most of the leaves with my finish mower. In my excitement I did run over a few in the yard where I am trying to grow new grass. I will make sure I get them in my gravel or down to the road from now on, I appreciate the info.
Sherpa

 

[WVBartMan]

Stuart: I bought the largest blower Agri-Metal makes and I think I paid $1,900 for it. I will try and attach a picture of it on the back of my tractor.

web page

 

[LBrown59]

I just leaves them lay.
Works fine for me.

 

[RalphVa]

I took over the mowing of 5 acres of church property once with the proviso that I get a commercial ZTR mower to mow the grass instead of their awful Sears tractors.

I chopped the leaves with the Scag mower by discharging them to the inside of my turns until the mower engine started to almost die. Then I'd turn around the other way for a turn or 2 and then back to discharge inward. Chopped them nicely.

Have used mulching mowers for years to chop leaves on my own property. Those chains in the back would make it a pseudo-mulcher. I don't rake leaves.

Ralph