Mulching blades are made to have more "lift/vacuum" than standard blades to pull the grass to be cut .Sadly,also lifts up more dirt,sand etc, which equates to much more dust.along with the grass,

I am new to mulching, with my recently acquired JD Freedom 42 deck. However, I have been very surprised at the low level of lift those blades create. Almost doesn't seem to have any vacuum action. The blades appear almost flat, although they do have interesting waves in the flat sections of blade. I am assuming that these are the correct blades (dealer installed a year ago). I'd be interested if other Freedom users see a lot of lift or dust compared to this.

I'm new to mulching this year also. The first time I mulched the grass, it was way to wet and I really made a mess so I can't help you out to much on that. I did notice the shredding of the grass compared to regular mowing and was quite suprised. The only thing I can think of would be to slighty lower engine rpm in the dryer areas to lower the airflow volume created by the blades.

mbsl98: I would check the part number on those mower blades. I recommend taking off the mulching plug, carefully running the deck on pavement and see if there is anything coming out of the discharge side. A previous owner may have changed them to regular blades. Mulching blades should have a noticeable lift on them. You can go to John Deere's web site and in the Parts section, see what # your's takes or call your local dealer.