Our LX176 has been mowing grass on our one acre "tree farm" since 1993 and has been equipped at times with the JD mulching kit and with JD high lift blades. In recent years I've kept the high lift blades on year round because it is overall less trouble. In the fall I pull a JRCO cart bagger starting in early November and do the leaf collection thing until mid-December. We are talking about lots of oak leaves! The 38" deck with high blades does a good job (better than a 42C deck with high lift blades on a LX277 kept at another property), but it does not do much chopping up of the leaves. I am putting the Meg-Mo blades on as a means to see if:
a. Leaves that fall during the spring, summer and early fall can be mulched into the lawn better than the present high lift blades. Yes, I know that oak leaves have high tannic acid levels and that lime and nitrogen will be needed to compost & to sweeten the pH.
b. Leaves in the late fall can be chopped into smaller pieces so as to reduce the number of times needed to empty the JRCO cart bagger, to reduce the leaf pile area and to expedite composting in the leaf pile area.
I installed the Meg-Mo blade set yesterday and mowed over an area where magnolia leaves had fallen on the lawn. In my experience, magnolia leaves are 3X tougher to shred than oak leaves. The first pass the leaves were shattered into half inch to one inch bits. The second pass the leaf bits were not observable from ten feet and were essentially the size of normal grass clippings discharged by the JD high lift blades.
The air flow generated by the Meg-Mo blade set appears to be about the same as the JD high lift blades judging by how stuff is blown off the driveway. Not a scientific test, but sometimes when in a hurry, I run the mower up and down the driveway to blow leaf cuttings back onto the lawn rather than get the Echo blower out of the shed.
Will let you know how these Meg-Mo blades do during leaf collection season.
Bill in NC
a. Leaves that fall during the spring, summer and early fall can be mulched into the lawn better than the present high lift blades. Yes, I know that oak leaves have high tannic acid levels and that lime and nitrogen will be needed to compost & to sweeten the pH.
b. Leaves in the late fall can be chopped into smaller pieces so as to reduce the number of times needed to empty the JRCO cart bagger, to reduce the leaf pile area and to expedite composting in the leaf pile area.
I installed the Meg-Mo blade set yesterday and mowed over an area where magnolia leaves had fallen on the lawn. In my experience, magnolia leaves are 3X tougher to shred than oak leaves. The first pass the leaves were shattered into half inch to one inch bits. The second pass the leaf bits were not observable from ten feet and were essentially the size of normal grass clippings discharged by the JD high lift blades.
The air flow generated by the Meg-Mo blade set appears to be about the same as the JD high lift blades judging by how stuff is blown off the driveway. Not a scientific test, but sometimes when in a hurry, I run the mower up and down the driveway to blow leaf cuttings back onto the lawn rather than get the Echo blower out of the shed.
Will let you know how these Meg-Mo blades do during leaf collection season.
Bill in NC