# Bermuda sprigging (the easier way?)



## epac90 (Dec 14, 2020)

All,

I'm back with another huge project underway that I thought you guys might find interesting. Let me preface everything I'm about to say/show with some warnings. This is an *experiment*, plain and simple. I cannot find anywhere on the internet that has tried sprigging via the same exact method as I am doing here and this could end up being unsuccessful. This post will also be mostly centered around large lawn owners (2+ acres) who don't have irrigation and want a higher quality grass than seed can provide. If you have a small lawn and your goal is the reel mow, I probably would not use this method and would instead pursue other ways of sprigging found on this forum. This also requires a lot of big equipment that most people will not have access to and even though uses alot of machinery and is still a ton of work.

Also, to keep this post from being a giant wall of text I will just summarize the process and try to keep from flooding everyone with information unless requested. Here is the post I made last year with my seed renovation and I have very detailed comments laying out most of the details of this process.

https://thelawnforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=25432

After not being too thrilled with my Mohawk bermuda I seeded last year, I decided to go back to my original plan of sprigging via tilling sod squares into the ground with a tiller. The theory here is pretty simple, throw the sod squares on the ground, till them in with a large tiller, and throw water and fertilize at it. This has a couple of advantages over traditional sprigging in my opinion. With this method, you are keeping lots of dirt on the rhisomes/stolons at all times and should make the watering situation more forgiving than just using sprigs gathered from verticutting. The majority of them are also buried under the dirt, which will also help keep them from drying out. The tiller also throws the material forward, which distributes the the roots and such into the gaps between the squares.

When I called my local sod farm, the owner was very helpful and told me not to mess with sprigs. he told me this method was much better and this is actually how they sprig all of their fields and they had done 20+ acres of field this way. He seemed very sincere and went out of his way to answer every question I had. I believed him well enough that I decided to try it.

I did all dirt prep several weeks prior, this consisted of a blanket spray of glyphosate, then tilling / harrowing after everything was dead. I did not know when the sod would show up, so I had to have everything prepared for the day it arrived.

I bought 9 pallets of tifway 419 ($105 per pallet) and threw each square on the ground spaced 3ft apart. My sod guy says he does 6ft apart but I could buy a few extra pallets and squeeze the spacing together to make it fill in faster, so I went that route as I don't want to wait all summer to have good fill in. After getting them all on the ground (which was a TON of work), I took my tractor and tilled it all in, first going long ways with the rows, then a 2nd time going perpendicular to the rows. I then ran a cultipacker over it multiple times and threw 200 lbs of 13-13-13 for a balanced fertilize down and started running the sprinkler.

One note here that has me worried. It's been bone dry for weeks here. After getting through laying the squares which took a whole day, I decided to wait on tilling and instead run my sprinkler all night long to try and get some moisture in the ground. This was a good call as the next day when I tilled, it significantly cut down on the dirt storm and the sod was a little moist which I believe will help it survive the short term lack of water. One issue I've ran into is that I typically always drag a harrow over dirt like this to get it leveled/settled/smoothed, but I could not do that here as it was bringing my sprigs to the surface and clumping them. All I could do was run the cultipacker over it which did not settle the dirt anywhere near as much as I would have liked. I suspect top dressing will be needed in the coming years to address bumpy-ness. Enough talk, here are some pics.

9 Pallets of 419:



In progress of laying:



All laying done. This area is hard to get a full picture of because it is a hill. Total surface area is over 1 acre.



Tilling in progress (Ignore the patchy grass in this pic, that's a whole other story)



Even got the wife involved and her run the culti-packer for me since I was dead tired



Day 5 progress (seeing lots of green!):


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## WillyT (Jun 26, 2019)

You should have no problem with this method, just keep them wet! It will grow in in no time!


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## epac90 (Dec 14, 2020)

WillyT said:


> You should have no problem with this method, just keep them wet! It will grow in in no time!


Thanks WillyT! I agree, the theory is solid and not much different than others running them through wood chipper and making sprigs that way. Water is the name of the game right now and it's an all day/night job to keep it wet. Luckily we got a great rain yesterday and another scheduled for tomorrow, so I've finally taken a break from being married to moving the sprinkler and resting up. I've got enough clay in my soil to hold the moisture which is helping alot. I do think this method is a little more forgiving for folks like me who want to do a large area but have water constraints.


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## killacam (May 4, 2017)

Interested to see the results and how quickly that fills in!


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## callmestevee_o (Nov 11, 2021)

Why were you now very thrilled with the seeded Bermuda you had previously? I read through that journal you linked and it looks like you had excellent results with it, especially its tolerance to herbicides and pesticides during its first season.


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## epac90 (Dec 14, 2020)

callmestevee_o said:


> Why were you now very thrilled with the seeded Bermuda you had previously? I read through that journal you linked and it looks like you had excellent results with it, especially its tolerance to herbicides and pesticides during its first season.


My main complaints are mostly the color and the very late spring greenup. The color is not the grass's fault but my own. I thought it would match my existing tifway much better than it does but it's just way lighter than the tifway. My other complaint that I didn't find out till recently is it greens up much later than my tifway, although it did stay greener longer.


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## UFG8RMIKE (Apr 21, 2019)

Wow, man, killer idea


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## Movingshrub (Jun 12, 2017)

You have my attention.

As a comparison, I'm curious what you gained by tilling versus just running the cultipacker.

Less irrigation required? Faster establishment?

I'm curious to hear your thoughts.


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## epac90 (Dec 14, 2020)

Movingshrub said:


> You have my attention.
> 
> As a comparison, I'm curious what you gained by tilling versus just running the cultipacker.
> 
> ...


I'm hoping for faster fill in and more even coverage since the tiller breaks up the sod squares and at the same time, throws that material forward into the 3ft gaps between the pieces.

Also as you mentioned, it's probably a little easier on irrigation since the tiller covers most of the roots with a couple of inches of dirt where it's easier to retain moisture.


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## epac90 (Dec 14, 2020)

Day 10 update: I can already tell this is going to be successful. LOTS of green everywhere and good even coverage. Fill in should be quick. Getting ready to back off watering and swap to a more infrequent, deeper soaking method. Will also probably hit it this weekend with a heavy nitrogen application of 1# per 1000 sq ft.


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## WillyT (Jun 26, 2019)

Looks like you are out of the woods! Looking real nice, seems like it pretty dang level too.


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## epac90 (Dec 14, 2020)

WillyT said:


> Looks like you are out of the woods! Looking real nice, seems like it pretty dang level too.


Thanks WillyT! I agree, if I can just keep enough water on it over the next week or so, I should be in good shape. We're in a really bad heatwave right now with no rain or end in sight... 100+ degrees with 60%+ humidity is just miserable. Good thing bermuda loves the heat!


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## callmestevee_o (Nov 11, 2021)

epac90 said:


> WillyT said:
> 
> 
> > Looks like you are out of the woods! Looking real nice, seems like it pretty dang level too.
> ...


Man I'm not far from you over in central AR and this heat is killer! Perfect for our grass, especially since I'll be seeding today or tomorrow, but it's rough out there raking and leveling


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## MasterMech (Sep 24, 2017)

@Ware, is this something you'd consider to replace the coastal Bermuda?


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## MasterMech (Sep 24, 2017)

@epac90 great post and this seems like the way for large areas of hybrid Bermuda.

Question: How deep was the tiller set?


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## epac90 (Dec 14, 2020)

MasterMech said:


> @epac90 great post and this seems like the way for large areas of hybrid Bermuda.
> 
> Question: How deep was the tiller set?


Honestly I didn't even measure it, just hooked it up and went :lol: . I'd say it was fluffing it up probably around 3-4" though.


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## Passat774 (Oct 9, 2018)

Awesome, keep posting pictures!


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## Reel_Alabama (Aug 22, 2021)

Yes, more pictures please. I'm following this too.


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## Ccualumni (Jul 8, 2018)

Following. Such a great idea.


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## DocTodd (9 mo ago)

I'm in for the updates


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## Pannellde (7 mo ago)

East of you. Looks like a great technique. Same heat/drought here.

We're skirting the under transpiration "danger zone"


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## epac90 (Dec 14, 2020)

Day 18 update: Going on vacation for the next few days, so thought I'd give you guys an update before I left. Things are filling in very nicely. Plenty of weeds as expected, but nothing that a celsius/certainty combo can't clean up in a couple of weeks. MUCH less overall weed pressure with this method vs last years seeding project.


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## Reel_Alabama (Aug 22, 2021)

That's coming in great! Enjoy your vacation.


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## WillyT (Jun 26, 2019)

@Redtwin tiller and culti-packer could be an option too.


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## Movingshrub (Jun 12, 2017)

WillyT said:


> @Redtwin culti-packer could be an option too.


I've seen pictures of walk behind variants. I wasn't sure if those had an actual name or if they were fabricated to meet the requirement.


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## Ccualumni (Jul 8, 2018)

I took a bunch of clippings and planted them in a bare spot and they are growing. So glad you did this post.


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## Movingshrub (Jun 12, 2017)

I would have loved to see a comparison in terms of sprigs with a cultipacker vs the tilled in method, in terms of rate of establishment, water required, and weed pressure. I've wondered if tilling would generate new weed pressure.

Did you apply ronstar during any of this?


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## epac90 (Dec 14, 2020)

Movingshrub said:


> I would have loved to see a comparison in terms of sprigs with a cultipacker vs the tilled in method, in terms of rate of establishment, water required, and weed pressure. I've wondered if tilling would generate new weed pressure.
> 
> Did you apply ronstar during any of this?


No Ronstar applied. I do think it would be a great option if you wanted to spend the extra money, but I decided to just let it come up and hit it with Celsius/Certainty.

Things have been extremely dry and hot here. I got tired of moving the sprinkler around week 3 and decided to start weaning it off of constant watering and going to more deep soakings / wait for rain. I've mowed it a few times now and we just received 2" of rain yesterday, so I hit it with Celsius/Certainty today.

Even with the extreme drought, I've been amazed at the fill in rate. It's done better than I ever thought it would and I'd have no problems going with this method again. The only thing I would change is I would definitely run a harrow over it after tilling, then run the cultipacker over it after that to mash everything back down. I was scared that the harrow was uncovering too many of the sprigs/clumps, but the yard is bumpier than I would like and I think it would have been worth it to have used it anyway. I'm not too worried about it since I can fix it by top dressing with some top soil in a year or 2.

Day 30 update pics. I took these last week and it has already filled in even more than this. I'll post some more photos in a couple of weeks once the Celsius and Certainty have had time to work their magic on the weeds. I've got about a 6ft strip next to my existing sod that's not filling in as quick as I'd like, but it's also crappy dirt and probably isn't getting as much water as the rest of it either. It'll fill in eventually.


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## robbybobby (May 15, 2017)

I have no words other than this is amazing. Incredible growth and coverage.

Id venture to guess this method saved you 4/5k, with the same result?


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## epac90 (Dec 14, 2020)

robbybobby said:


> I have no words other than this is amazing. Incredible growth and coverage.
> 
> Id venture to guess this method saved you 4/5k, with the same result?


I'd say more than that. I'm in this right now for around $1500 or so (already had chemicals, so would be a little more if I counted that). I'd hate to know what it cost to have someone come lay 1 acre of tifway 419, but I imagine it'd be very expensive :lol: .


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## STI_MECE (Aug 4, 2020)

I would say you have to add the cost of the tractor and the tiller attachment as well. I know tillers run a couple of thousand.

If you have this equipment on hand, it really looks cost effective. Considering all things, in this crazy world, with fertlizer costs, the price of a pallet of fresh sod is CHEAP imo. I can only imagine how cheap it was several years ago.

You did a great job with this.

If you know how much a pallet was good for sqft wise (before being cut up) you could compare your cost savings with how much sqft you spread it over.


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## epac90 (Dec 14, 2020)

STI_MECE said:


> I would say you have to add the cost of the tractor and the tiller attachment as well. I know tillers run a couple of thousand.
> 
> If you have this equipment on hand, it really looks cost effective. Considering all things, in this crazy world, with fertlizer costs, the price of a pallet of fresh sod is CHEAP imo. I can only imagine how cheap it was several years ago.
> 
> ...


Absolutely. If you don't have the equipment on hand, there will certainly be lots of extra cost involved and I did mention this in my first post. I'm lucky enough to have all of it except the tiller which I was able to borrow from my family's farm.

Quick google shows a pallet on average covers 450 sq ft, so you'd need almost 97 pallets to cover a full acre. At $120 per pallet, that'd be $11,600 in the sod cost alone, not to mention labor cost to lay all of it. If you have the equipment on hand and don't mind all the work this takes, I think this method roughly cost about 1/10th of the price. Just to note as well, I actually spaced the sod squares much closer than the guy told me to because I wanted faster fill in. He said he actually spaces his pieces in the rows 6ft apart instead of 3ft, and says you only need 6 pallets per acre at that spacing. This would cut the cost even further at the cost of slower fill in.

I don't know how much coverage the rolls of sod provide or the cost with those, but I imagine that is what most companies would do for larger jobs like this (my original sod around my house was laid with the machines in the big rolls). Maybe they are similar in coverage/price?


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## STI_MECE (Aug 4, 2020)

@epac90 I can tell you now, trying to lay 97 pallets in a day or two would require a hell of an army of men lol Probably solid 10 guy-15 guys maybe to get done in a day.

I was limited to around 18 pallets of sod per truck when I did a few areas of my lawn.

You should be proud of pulling that off with how you did it. That is extremely efficient for a one man crew.


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## epac90 (Dec 14, 2020)

STI_MECE said:


> @epac90 I can tell you now, trying to lay 97 pallets in a day or two would require a hell of an army of men lol Probably solid 10 guy-15 guys maybe to get done in a day.
> 
> I was limited to around 18 pallets of sod per truck when I did a few areas of my lawn.
> 
> You should be proud of pulling that off with how you did it. That is extremely efficient for a one man crew.


I can't even fathom trying to do 97 pallets after how hard it was to do just this amount, :lol:. I can't take all the credit, I hired my 2 nephews (one is 13, the other is only 9 but he begged to help and did a fantastic job) just to help me throw down the squares. With us 3, it still took an entire day just to throw the sod on the ground. Needless to say, they earned their keep that day lol.


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## Ware (Jan 28, 2017)

Not to mention not needing irrigation to support a project of this size. Big win. Congrats.


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## FATC1TY (Jul 12, 2017)

If you've got access to a roller or something, I'd wait for a decent rain or irrigation cycle and roll out what you can in the bumpy spots. Might help you smooth it.


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## ianreelmows (8 mo ago)

This is absolutely insane. Congratulations on the results.


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## clbphllps (Aug 20, 2019)

I'm happy to see this latest update, job well done sir! Maybe an asphalt roller would help with the lumps and bumps. I know reel mowing flattened my yard a ton after tilling and seeding a few years ago.


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## epac90 (Dec 14, 2020)

@clbphllps @FATC1TY Great suggestions. My father and I have been looking into building a roller for this exact purpose. He has a huge roller off of a piece of equipment and we are going to try and build a tongue and hitch on it to make it a pull behind, but this probably won't happen until this winter.


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## eschott12 (Oct 25, 2021)

great post I am going to try and copy this next year


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## Muffinman24 (Sep 12, 2021)

If I used a dethatcher and spread sprigs over a bare area could I use this method of using a rototiller to incorporate them into the dirt or would the sprigs need sunlight to survive


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## viva_oldtrafford (Apr 4, 2018)

Muffinman24 said:


> If I used a dethatcher and spread sprigs over a bare area could I use this method of using a rototiller to incorporate them into the dirt or would the sprigs need sunlight to survive


I bury sprigs in a heavy topdressing. The need for immediate sunlight isn't necessary.


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## epac90 (Dec 14, 2020)

Guys,

Thought I'd give one last update since I'm considering this project wrapped up at this point. All things considered, the project was very successful. As mentioned in a previous post, I would do some things differently in regards to the leveling of my dirt as the cultipacker is just not good enough at settling the freshly tilled dirt evenly by itself. Some of sort of drag harrow and possibly a heavy, flat roller needs to be used after tilling, with the cultipacker being the last step to make sure the clumps/sprigs have good soil contact. I plan to use a heavy roller hopefully this coming winter/spring to see if that will help, and if not I will plan on a heavy top dressing with sand or top soil in the coming years.

Even though we are still in a fairly severe drought, we have received just enough rainfall to keep it from going dormant. I've kept my sprinkler handy but have been choosing not to run it as this will be non-irrigated and dependent on rainfall from here out. In the last 2 weeks, it's only had .75" of rain but it is still looking really good. We do have great rain chances starting today and going through next week, so I'm praying that it will get some water soon so I don't have to run the sprinkler :lol: . Fill in rate has been incredible and I imagine with proper irrigation it would have filled in even faster.

Celsius/Outrider combo cleaned up most of the weeds, but I still a couple of areas with heavy goosegrass, crabgrass, and even some spurge (Celsius high rate didn't even ding the spurge). I'll probably play the long game with the goose and crab and spray with MSMA once we get a cool snap and temps get back down to 85-90 degrees, then just control it via pre-emergent for next year.

Also, if you plan to try this method, make sure you have as many extra hands as you can to help lay the sod squares. I greatly underestimated how long it would take just to throw them on the ground and also just how heavy the pallets are. I have a 64hp tractor and my front end loader wouldn't even budge the pallets. I ended up having to phone in a favor to get my father to bring over one of their 100hp tractors and even it could barely pick one up. If you don't have a means of moving the pallets, be sure to have the sod company set the pallets as close as possible to where you need them.

Pics below are 2.5 weeks post Celsius/Outrider:


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## parana (Aug 18, 2021)

Well, I know what Im doing next year. Time to kill of the front yard


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## Chadwicktr (May 26, 2020)

@WillyT did you think it would have worked well to run your dethatcher on the sod spaced out in the yard, spreading it around for even coverage? Or was there an advantage to power raking it apart in a central location.

@epac90, cool project! Thanks for sharing. Probably cheaper for the sod farm not to have to own/maintain a bermuda king harvester and cultipacker too.


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## WillyT (Jun 26, 2019)

Chadwicktr said:


> @WillyT did you think it would have worked well to run your dethatcher on the sod spaced out in the yard, spreading it around for even coverage? Or was there an advantage to power raking it apart in a central location.
> 
> @epac90, cool project! Thanks for sharing. Probably cheaper for the sod farm not to have to own/maintain a bermuda king harvester and cultipacker too.


TBH I never thought of this but the only downside I would think of would be the left over dirt from the sod. If not reel mowing I would try that. That method did an amazing job!


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## KADKS (3 mo ago)

This is really cool.
Question-could you do something like this for zoysia? I haven’t been able to find much about sprigging zoysia.

Issue I have is that local sod far sells both latitude 36 bermuda and innovation zoysia-but both only come in big roles no squares.
I was planning on buying their bermuda sprigs, but if I could find a way to efficiently cut the rolls of sod maybe this is the way…


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## El_cesped (6 mo ago)

KADKS said:


> This is really cool.
> Question-could you do something like this for zoysia? I haven’t been able to find much about sprigging zoysia.
> 
> Issue I have is that local sod far sells both latitude 36 bermuda and innovation zoysia-but both only come in big roles no squares.
> I was planning on buying their bermuda sprigs, but if I could find a way to efficiently cut the rolls of sod maybe this is the way…


Is the sod rolled roots out or roots in? If its roots out you could cut the sod with an electric saw. I’m thinking a sacrificial Harbor Freight saw. You’d probably want to start where the roll meets the ground and make two or three parallel circumferential cuts, then make radial cuts to produce pieces small enough to handle easily. I think this approach would allow you to produce pieces of a manageable size and would result in a minimum of big, hard to move pieces.


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## KADKS (3 mo ago)

El_cesped said:


> Is the sod rolled roots out or roots in? If its roots out you could cut the sod with an electric saw. I’m thinking a sacrificial Harbor Freight saw. You’d probably want to start where the roll meets the ground and make two or three parallel circumferential cuts, then make radial cuts to produce pieces small enough to handle easily. I think this approach would allow you to produce pieces of a manageable size and would result in a minimum of big, hard to move pieces.


interesting. I was thinking of possibly rolling the sod out (90’ long by 3.5’)-then taking my edger and cutting long strips, then going width wise and cutting into smaller chunks. That way they’re already on the ground and could use a hook or something to drag the smaller pieces for fuller coverage.

not as scientific as the OP but potentially less lifting of squares bc sod is already close to its final spot.


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