# First Season with a Greens Mower



## SeanB (Jun 2, 2017)

Good Morning Everyone
I got a John Deere 220a from Weeks farm auction a few weeks ago. Got it home and fixed it up a little bit and it is cutting great now. I didn't have the mower ready before I scalped. I scalped with my rotary and then a few weeks after I started with my greens mower. Mowing with the greens mower is a huge difference and I am loving getting into this adventure. I am cutting every couple days at 3/4" and I seem to be taking the green off and leaving a brown and some green patch lawn. My question is... Do I raise the HOC or just keep going and eventually it will spread?


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## Mightyquinn (Jan 31, 2017)

Welcome to the greens mower club!! I think your scalping with the rotary didn't cut off enough as most of them only go down to 1-1.5". How long have you been mowing with the JD? Do you have any pics of the lawn?

You might need to take it down a little lower and then bring it back up to .750" to get the green back or you might need to mow more often.


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## Jericho574 (May 24, 2017)

You seem to be going through the same thing I went through all of last year...lowered the height and it looked brown every mow. You need to cut at a height higher than the height you scalped at otherwise you're cutting the green off every time.


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## SeanB (Jun 2, 2017)

Thanks! It is fun getting used to such a beast of a mower. And the turns!
I have been mowing for 3 weeks with the JD. Ill post some pics of the lawn tonight when I get home. I had someone backlap and get the mower in order before I started mowing. He set HOC to .75" and I haven't made any changes. I'm sure its not hard to change HOC I just haven't attempted it yet.


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## Ware (Jan 28, 2017)

Mightyquinn said:


> ...You might need to take it down a little lower and then bring it back up to .750" to get the green back...


This is what I would do.


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## Redtenchu (Jan 28, 2017)

Ware said:


> Mightyquinn said:
> 
> 
> > ...You might need to take it down a little lower and then bring it back up to .750" to get the green back...
> ...


+1

I'd suggest setting the HOC to 0.50, double cut and collect the clippings, it'll look bad for a week or two. Then raise the HOC back up to 0.75 and you should notice a major difference if you're mowing often enough.


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## SeanB (Jun 2, 2017)

Here is a picture of my lawn when I got home from work today. The ground is incredibly uneven but I am planning on leveling/smoothing in the next few weeks. Any recommendations?


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## Redtenchu (Jan 28, 2017)

How much and how frequent are you fertilizing? How often do you mow?


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## SeanB (Jun 2, 2017)

Have 12,000 square feet. 
3/11 scalped and put down 0-0-7 with barricade 40lb bag
4/29 put down a 16-0-8 with weed killer 40lb bag
5/20 put down 19-19-19 50lb bag
I have been mowing every 3 days for the last 2 weeks. Before that it was once a week. 
Thanks for the help!


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## Redtenchu (Jan 28, 2017)

Ok, your fertilizer and mowing sound right.

How old is the grass? From the picture, it almost looks like it was new sod, but that might just be mowing lines.


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## SeanB (Jun 2, 2017)

It is the mowing lines. Sod is 2 years old. I had it looking pretty good the last 2 years with my rotary but with greens mower it seems like I'm starting over. Which I am excited about. I just don't want to be doing something stupid and not realize it.


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## Redtenchu (Jan 28, 2017)

Have you checked the mowers reel to bedknife clearance? Does it cut paper easily?


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## atc4usmc (Apr 1, 2017)

Sean, glad you asked as I will probably encounter the same issues soon when my greens mower arrives. I am curious if you cut it lower as mentioned above and how it does when you raise the HOC after. I am thinking about violating the 1/3 rule and cut mine low when I first get the mower in hopes that after I raise the HOC it will green up quicker.


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## southernguy311 (Mar 17, 2017)

I suspect your actual HOC is closer to 1" even though your bench is set to .75

Looks pretty fluffy in the photos so your probably floating on top of the turf. I def back up what the others are recommending on the scalp. I would venture to say maybe go even a bit lower than .5 and come back to .75 I think you will a lot happier in the weeks after as long as you keep up with timely mowing.


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## SeanB (Jun 2, 2017)

Mowed at .5" today and wow! What a difference between .75" and .5". I obviously scalped it but the cut and look is incredible. Can't wait to get it back to green again. I can't wait to maintain at .5" at some point in the future.


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## ahartzell (May 18, 2017)

SeanB said:


> Mowed at .5" today and wow! What a difference between .75" and .5". I obviously scalped it but the cut and look is incredible. Can't wait to get it back to green again. I can't wait to maintain at .5" at some point in the future.


pics or it didn't happen...just kidding. Post some when you get a chance...jealousy is running wild today because it's raining here.


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## SeanB (Jun 2, 2017)

It took a few times between rain storms to finish. But I did get it all done and down to .5". You can really see the imperfections in the ground and irrigation trenches at this HOC.


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## Redtenchu (Jan 28, 2017)

A Greens mower will always cut better on the lower end of its HOC range. They are designed for the low cut required on putting greens 0.115ish not a fairway HOC of 0.5-1.5.

I understand that your lawn isn't flat enough for that HOC (mine isn't either). I just wanted to share that tid-bit.

A greens mower is still far superior to rotary mowers in its quality of cut at 1inch, and it'll look amazing after it grows back into the 0.75 HOC!


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## Cavan806 (May 2, 2017)

My lawn needs a serious leveling among other things to say the least. I laid the sod down in March of this year. With that said I just started using a JD Greens/tee/collar mower (honestly I'm not even sure which task it is exactly designed for JD 260B). I started out with a .5" HOC and realized I was always going to be scalping my lawn until I did a full lawn level. The turf had lots of little brown spots all over it where it was getting scalped. Not the look I was going for. I am now cutting at 7/8". Not the ideal HOC but my lawn looks great right now and it is getting better everyday. Next year I plan to level and maintain at a lower HOC. I am by no means anyone who should be giving out advice but I thought that my experience with the same situation might be helpful to you. Here's a pic that shows what I'm talking about.



Cheers!


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## Redtenchu (Jan 28, 2017)

Redtenchu said:


> A Greens mower will always cut better on the lower end of its HOC range. They are designed for the low cut required on putting greens 0.115ish not a fairway HOC of 0.5-1.5.
> 
> I understand that your lawn isn't flat enough for that HOC (mine isn't either). I just wanted to share that tid-bit.
> 
> A greens mower is still far superior to rotary mowers in its quality of cut at 1inch, and it'll look amazing after it grows back into the 0.75 HOC!


I've already gotten 2 PMs about this statement, so I should try to clarify...

A greens mower is designed to cut putting greens at ultra low HOCs, so with that main purpose in mind, you will find the quality of cut is superior in the lower range. When you begin cutting higher you still get amazing cut quality, but the angle of the bedknife (angle of attack) has changed and it's not absolutely ideal. The greens mower will give a superior cut at any HOC range available when comparing to a consumer model like a TC or Mclane at the same HOC.


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