Cub Cadet 50-Inch Mulching Kit for Lawn Tractors – MTD Genuine Parts

Bought this for my Cub Cadet 1050. I don’t like to bag, but when I get near the pool area, I stick this in the chute, so I don’t get the clippings flying all over. Make 3-4 passes without any worry. Once done, it pops right out, and I can continue on with the rest of the lawn blowing clippings all over the place.

The description is a bit misleading – this is JUST the mulch PLUG – which is a piece of plastic that fits in the mower deck to block the discharge chute, and not an all inclusive KIT that provides mulching capability. The plug itself is great. It’s just molded plastic, and fits very easily into the discharge chute for my Cub Cadet LTX-1050Z (50 in. deck). All it does is block grass from leaving the deck that it normally would in a non-mulching mower. You NEED to also purchase mulching BLADES to replace the OEM blades. If you’ve ever used non-mulching blades, as you go over a pile of mowed grass clippings, it doesn’t re-cut them, it merely picks them up, then throws them back out the discharge chute. This is as designed – chop the grass off, then pick it up and discharge. Mulching blades are very different – they chop the grass off, then instead of discharging, every time the mower blades come in contact with the grass clippings, they are “mulched” into smaller bits of grass. This makes it easier to fall into the mowed lawn, provides better nutrients for the grass, and also looks better. Generally it’s supposed to help cut down yard work (no more raking large piles of grass clippings!). So far, this is my experience, but as I said this is a mulch PLUG, not an all inclusive KIT. I bought the mulching blades separately (that fit my mower), and used them in addition to this excellent plug. Highly recommended!

Original review: Obviously I knew this was plastic when I bought it but I thought it would hold up more than a few cuts. The plastic tabs on the top of this broke the first time I got too close to a bush and it got caught on a limb and now it doesn’t stay in the opening very good at all. Mulching with this is convienient but you would probably be better off forming a piece of metal over the opening. I’m sure I will end up doing that when this piece of expensive plastic fails. Editing review: 12/20/2014. Giving this a bump in rating up from two stars to four stars. It has lasted this long despite being abused pretty bad. It does fall out every now and then but its still working and has not completely failed as I was expecting it too after part of it broke when I first got it.