mulching vs bagging

I have a JD X300 42" mower with the stock non-mulching EDGE deck. It cuts my 1+ acre yard beautifully but leaves rows of grass clippings on top of the newly cut grass. The lawn is in Florida with primarily Bahia grass plus a small amount of other assorted grasses and weeds which have invaded the lawn over the years. I would like to get rid of the rows of clippings. Mulching seems to be the trend now rather than bagging since it feeds the grass. Will the X300 have the power to handle mulching and would I be better off buying the mulching kit or gator mulching blades? How much longer does it take to mow using the mulching method since I assume you have to go slower. 1.5x? 2x? Is it harder on the mower? Does the grass have to be bone dry to mulch?



Also which blades should I get? The dealer sold me the AM 141031 blade kit as stock replacement blades but I notice they look a lot different than the OEM blades which I just replaced after a season's service. The original blades have a short sharpened area an the end with a high lift bent area at the trailing edge. These new blades I just purchased have a longer cutting area with a hump in the middle and a lower lift angle. It looks almost impossible to sharpen these blades given the cutting edges have a hump in the middle of them. Anyone know why that hump is there? What it does?