I have a X595 for mowing my lawn and snow blowing my winter walk ways. I'm wondering if anyone out here has tried the mulching kit on the deck? I was going to buy a grass catcher but see that Deere sells a mulching kit for the Xseries and wondered how it worked? Thanks...Bruce
X series mulching kit
- Thread starter Kubbruce
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bigpete
Veteran Member
I had the mulching kit on the 62C on my 2210. I think the deck is identical to the 62C for the X series. I loved mine because of the benefits to my lawn and the superb cut (no windrows or clippings build up). When you mulch, you cannot expect good performance if you cut more than 30% of the grass height or cut in wet conditions. They require more cleaning, too. If you are serious about your turf and can mow pretty frequently, I'd recommend it. You will hear from others who hated it because it requires more frequent cleaning, or because they try to cut too much or when their grass is wet.
A general comment on mulching.
I used to mulch, but now I prefer the side discharge.
As the previous poster said, it is tough to get good results when cutting overgrown or wet grass with a mulcher.
With the side-discharge, if the grass gets out of hand, I cut it in a back and forth pattern that doesn't re-cut the discharge too much and puts the windrows from alternating rows together. I then go back over the windrows with the deck raised a half-setting number in a second pass. It chews them and sprays them around some more, and they are mostly gone after that. The second pass is less than half the number of trips over the lawn, only in the areas that need it, and you can go pretty fast.
With a mulcher, when the grass grows too much and gets out of hand, you would be stuck cutting the entire lawn twice at normal mowing speed at two different settings to catch back up.
Like he said, if you can cut the grass twice a week and are flexible enough to work around rainy days, mulching might be the right choice.
If you have to skip a week now and then, or can only mow on a certain day of the week and it rains on that day 40% of the time where you live, maybe side-discharge is a better choice.
Just my $0.02 thought.
- Rick
I used to mulch, but now I prefer the side discharge.
As the previous poster said, it is tough to get good results when cutting overgrown or wet grass with a mulcher.
With the side-discharge, if the grass gets out of hand, I cut it in a back and forth pattern that doesn't re-cut the discharge too much and puts the windrows from alternating rows together. I then go back over the windrows with the deck raised a half-setting number in a second pass. It chews them and sprays them around some more, and they are mostly gone after that. The second pass is less than half the number of trips over the lawn, only in the areas that need it, and you can go pretty fast.
With a mulcher, when the grass grows too much and gets out of hand, you would be stuck cutting the entire lawn twice at normal mowing speed at two different settings to catch back up.
Like he said, if you can cut the grass twice a week and are flexible enough to work around rainy days, mulching might be the right choice.
If you have to skip a week now and then, or can only mow on a certain day of the week and it rains on that day 40% of the time where you live, maybe side-discharge is a better choice.
Just my $0.02 thought.
- Rick
bigpete
Veteran Member
Well, I'm fortunate to be able to cut every 4-5 days and I have no problem with very healthy fescue. I've never had to double-cut. I have cut it long and come back for a shorter cut two or three days later. Even if I were to have to cut it twice in a few days, it's still twice in a week /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif That happens once or twice a year in rainy season. I used a mulching kit with my JD445 with 60, my 2210 w/62C, and now with my 4110 w/60. My lawn and tree braggin' pic is attached /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif
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Very nice lawn!
I don't dispute that mulching can give a better result in the optimal case.
One the most visible artifacts of side discharge is when the wet windrow of grass gets run over by a tire on the next row, it leaves an ugly squished-grass rut that can only be fixed by letting the grass grow some more and cutting it again in a few days when it is dry (or by manually raking it up and re-cutting). This is especially likely to happen on inside corners where the side discharge concentrates the clippings.
The mulcher, when properly used, does not have that problem.
My issue is more of the what to do when you don't have time to cut the grass as often as you should.
Even with a machine rated to cut 2.5 acres per hour, and less than an acre, I have a hard time cutting it once a week, much less any more than that.
- Rick
I don't dispute that mulching can give a better result in the optimal case.
One the most visible artifacts of side discharge is when the wet windrow of grass gets run over by a tire on the next row, it leaves an ugly squished-grass rut that can only be fixed by letting the grass grow some more and cutting it again in a few days when it is dry (or by manually raking it up and re-cutting). This is especially likely to happen on inside corners where the side discharge concentrates the clippings.
The mulcher, when properly used, does not have that problem.
My issue is more of the what to do when you don't have time to cut the grass as often as you should.
Even with a machine rated to cut 2.5 acres per hour, and less than an acre, I have a hard time cutting it once a week, much less any more than that.
- Rick
