What’s the best way to use a grass catcher for commercial lawn mowing?

What is a grass catcher for?

A grass catcher, also known as a grass bag, grass box, or grass bin, is a device or attachment used with lawnmowers to collect grass clippings during mowing. It gathers and stores the cut grass, preventing it from spreading across the lawn or leaving unsightly clippings behind. A side-mounted grass catcher is also used to collect and contain grass and shrub clippings in the spring and summer and leaves in the fall.

When attached to a lawnmower, the grass catcher typically hangs at the side of the mower. As the mower’s blades cut the grass, the clippings are propelled into the grass catcher instead of being left on the lawn. This results in a neater, more uniform appearance of the lawn after mowing and reduces the need for raking or cleaning up grass clippings, shrub clippings, or leaves afterward.

Grass catchers are especially useful when you want to keep your lawn tidy, prevent grass clippings or leaves from being blown onto patios, driveways, or walkways, and when you don’t want to leave a “mulching” effect on the grass (where the cut grass is left on the lawn to decompose and provide nutrients).

Using a grass catcher can be beneficial for both aesthetic and practical reasons, but keep in mind that it will require emptying the bag regularly, particularly if you are mowing a large area. Some lawnmowers come with detachable grass catchers, while others may require you to purchase one separately based on the specific model. One model, the KAGE Katcher, is a motorized grass catcher with an electrical hookup to dump the clippings with a switch.

Why use a grass catcher?

Using a grass catcher with your lawnmower offers several benefits, and the decision to use one depends on your specific lawn care preferences and needs. Here are some reasons why you might consider using a grass catcher:

Neat and Tidy Appearance

A grass catcher helps keep your lawn looking neat and well-groomed. It collects grass clippings, preventing them from being left on the lawn and creating a messy or uneven appearance.

Lawn Health and Growth

While some lawnmowers have a mulching feature to finely chop and disperse the grass clippings back into the lawn, using a grass catcher prevents the clippings from smothering the grass, ensuring better access to sunlight and air for the underlying grass, which can promote healthier growth.

Keeps Walkways and Driveways Clean

When using a grass catcher, you can avoid grass clippings from being blown onto paths, patios, driveways, and other areas outside of your lawn, maintaining a cleaner outdoor space.

Lawn Fertilization Control

If you use fertilizers or treatments on your lawn, using a grass catcher allows you to control the application and avoid treating clippings instead of the new growth, preventing potential uneven distribution of the fertilizer. The bin collects the grass clippings providing a clean slate for the fertilizer to be distributed to the rooted grass.

Allergies and Respiratory Issues

For people with allergies or respiratory sensitivities, using a grass catcher can reduce exposure to pollen and allergens that might be present in the cut grass.

It’s worth noting that there are alternative lawn care practices, such as mulching or leaving grass clippings on the lawn, that have their own benefits, like providing natural nutrients to the soil as the clippings decompose. However, using a grass catcher is a great option if you prefer a clean and pristine look for your lawn and want to avoid the need for post-mowing cleanup.

Grass Catcher Tips and Tricks

Tip #1: Deck Placement

When collecting leaves, grass and shrub clippings, the majority of the material should be mowed with the opposite side of the deck from the discharge shoot. This allows the material to get chopped into finer pieces by going through multiple blades before it reaches the leaf or grass containment system. Therefore, reducing the risk of clogging and promoting good airflow through the unit.

Tip #2: Speed

Speed is actually the name of the game when it comes to leaf collecting, shrub collecting or grass collecting. The speed increases airflow making the bin more compactable. Bouncing induced by speed helps as well to break up large clumps that the blades did not break up enough.

Tip #3: Trailering

The most common way to haul grass, leaves and shrub clippings by commercial landscapers is to empty the material onto a tarp and load it into a truck to be hauled to the compost. However, depending on the amount of material this becomes more than a one man job to drag the tarp across the lawn and toss it into a trailer. The easier, but more expensive way it to use a commercial vacuum to suck up the material that has been left by the curb by the grass catcher. If you are using a collector for residential use, there may be no need to haul the material away. Just find a wood line and dump the clippings there.

Tip #4: The Best Grass Catcher

The KAGE Katcher makes the grass, leaf, and shrub clipping collection process easier because it dumped with a switch. This collector comes standard with an electric actuator that opens the bin and dumps it for you. This eliminates the back breaking pain of lifting the catcher off the mower to dump it into the truck or on the side of the road. All the operator has to do is flip the switch and keep mowing. They don’t even have to get out of the drivers seat, sulky, or platform! This product reduces operator fatigue, and risk of injury making it more accommodable to users.