Leaves

[johnday]

sherpa; Glad it worked for you too! Advice and knowledge sharing can be a lot of fun! /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

 

[have_blue]

I'm jealous!

After the leaves start falling here, I can't bring my tractor in the yard because it makes serious ruts.

I mow mine with a regular riding mower and make windrows. I run over the windrows with a mulching push mower and the leaves disappear into the grass. Repeat every week for 5 weeks, and I'm finished! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif Until next year. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

 

[sherpa]

All I can say is, I much rather be sitting in that tractor seat riding than walking around in the yard for 2 hours with that backpack on. I been wearing that thing on my back since 1999! Man that was fun yesterday!
Sherpa

 

[BrettW]

Sherpa,
If you want the MAX LEAF SYSTEM, wear your leaf blower backpack while on the tractor! Anything you miss can be blown to another location, plus you might want to post a pic of yourself doing it so we can all get it right!

 

[sherpa]

I will work on that but I am out of leaves! I had so much fun the other day I went out and did it again this morning. Theres not much left. I cannot express it enough that this is so much better than running up and down these hills with a heavy backpack on.
Sherpa

 

[BrettW]

So, you are just backing up and then going forward over the leaves? And that motion obliterates them? I can't do it now as I have a brand new lawn and I just feel I cant' cover the seedlings up, but next year I'll try it, bw

 

[Westonium]

I have two mature walnut trees that have dropped a ton of leaves. I can't get in there with the tractor, but I have a 6HP push mower that is pretty light. The trick is to get the mower as low as possible, so that the leaves can't spin out until they are good and pulverized. I will try to get pictures of this because its like I am erasing the leaves. The leaves have the ground completely covered when I start, but it looks like they were never there when I finish. I mow in concentric circles clockwise because the mower tends to want to deposit on the right. Larger bits that blow to the right get picked up on the next pass.

Honestly, this is something I learned on my own out of laziness 20 years ago. Raking bad. Mowing good. From that point on, I have never raked leaves that I can recall. I blow or brush other stray leaves off of areas un-mowable (the deck for instance /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif ) to where I can mow em.

I will tilt the mower back (danger danger it says never to do this) and use the mower to blow the leaves off of rocks etc.

I would think the same things apply to larger mowers.

 

[sherpa]

I just lift the front of the mower about 3 inches with the 3pt lift and ride. I have a rear discharge mower and when I back up it gets the rest if anything is left. I dont have a lot of grass to mow, I bought the finish mower last year just to mow my neighbors lawn. I live in the Pisgah National Forest (lots of trees). My neighbor has a cabin down the road and lives in Raleigh and contracted with me to mow his grass a couple of days before he comes up. I had no ideal I could rid myself of these leaves while riding on my tractor. I have been dealing with these leaves for 15 years with a backpack! Now I am looking for leaves to run over.
Sherpa

 

[Westonium]

I thought I would provide a quick visual presentation of what a common mower can do /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

This works better when the leaves are drier, but it did the job. The mower is a 6hp Yard Machine push mower, lowered down pretty low

Animated Pic of the amazing vanishing leaves (169 KB)

 

[sherpa]

Westonium,
Thats gets rid of them! Thats neat how you made the slide show. You took the pics at the same spot and it did look like majic.
Sherpa

 

[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