# HOC for New Bermuda



## mrigney (Jun 6, 2017)

Like the title says...what's the best height of cut for my new Celebration. Hoping to give it it's first trim this weekend. II have a rotary (maybe a reel in the next year or two?). Honda HRR2169VYA...Options are 1.125", 1.75", 2.5", then ones above that that don't matter Recommended HoC for Celebration is 0.5-2". Was worried that 1.75" here at the very beginning would be too much stress/wouldn't leave enough leaf on there for such new sod (2.5 weeks). Should I try anyway? Also a chance I might scalp some at 1.75"....I'm not sure...I really didn't try mowing the yard that low before sodding b/c it was weeds and dirt. Hoping to get some advice. Wish I had a 2" option.


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## dfw_pilot (Jan 28, 2017)

I'd start with the lowest option of 11/8[/sup][sup]th[/sup]. You can always go up, but it's really hard to go back down without bad scalping. Unless your lawn is fairly level, you'll scalp some areas, but they may fill in with time if you keep mowing low and often.

Just remember, the lower you go, the more often you'll need to mow without scalping (1/3[sup]rd rule). It takes more input the lower you mow, but the better it will look, imo. If you find this scalps too much, you can raise the mower.


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## mrigney (Jun 6, 2017)

Ok....I'll try it at 1.125"....guess I was worried that mowing that low on new sod would be extra stress. But I'm up for giving it a go! Definitely have plans to do some leveling with sand, but figure that'll have to wait until the sod is completely established...so maybe late summer or wait until next year.


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## AdamC (Feb 10, 2017)

Wait until next year. There's a couple of reasons. Firstly how much dirt and roots were under the sod? Anything less than 2" and it's going to take a few months to settle down and fully bed in. It's going to spend some time trying to recover from the "Shock"m of being harvested and replanted. Do you really want to make it work harder to fill in the sand from levelling whilst still trying to recover? Secondly, late summer is just too late. You want it to recover in the best growing time. Late spring is best IMO


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## Mightyquinn (Jan 31, 2017)

Congrats on the new sod!! I would say you are probably going to end up somewhere above 2" by the end of the year just because it's new sod and your lawn most likely is not going to be level as the new sod knits together. There's nothing wrong with starting at the 1.125" and seeing how it goes. If you are scalping bad and hitting a lot of dirt you may want to move it up to the next notch and keep it there as long as you can and mowing at least twice a week. Just keep feeding the lawn monthly and you should be just fine. I think you can use some sand to help spot level some areas if the need arises but hold off till next year to do the whole lawn.


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## fp_911 (Apr 10, 2017)

Just for reference I mowed my 2 year old sod at 2 inches since installed and it did fine. This year I went down to 1/4 inch with a reel mower so you should be OK.


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## Ware (Jan 28, 2017)

I agree with Adam. New sod is usually a little "spongy" until it becomes part of the lawn. The geometry would be a little different if you were using a reel mower, but the narrow rotary mower wheels will likely sink in some, making the effective HOC lower than the mower setting. I would still say go as low as you can, but I would probably start from the other direction and work your way down with multiple passes until it starts looking terrible. Every lawn is different.


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## mrigney (Jun 6, 2017)

So turns out I can get a lower HOC from the Honda than the manual says. I actually measured this morning before cutting. Lowest setting is more like 5/8". Second lowest measures 1 1/8", and then about half inch increments up from there. So, did a few passes at 1 1/8". Things looked pretty good. Little to no scalping (and the places where I got some scalping are known problem). So, thought I'd try 5/8". That was a little too low with the rotary. But still, was pretty happy to get it at 1 1/8. Putting a few pictures below. A couple of the finished cut, then one of where I lowered down to 5/8".


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## dfw_pilot (Jan 28, 2017)

Looking great! :thumbup:


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## Concretestorm (May 21, 2017)

mrigney said:


> So turns out I can get a lower HOC from the Honda than the manual says. I actually measured this morning before cutting. Lowest setting is more like 5/8". Second lowest measures 1 1/8", and then about half inch increments up from there. So, did a few passes at 1 1/8". Things looked pretty good. Little to no scalping (and the places where I got some scalping are known problem). So, thought I'd try 5/8". That was a little too low with the rotary. But still, was pretty happy to get it at 1 1/8. Putting a few pictures below. A couple of the finished cut, then one of where I lowered down to 5/8".
> 
> https://s10.postimg.cc/583qlbl2t/IMG_20170610_103135.jpg[/img.
> 
> ...


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