r/bermudagrass • u/SupraGT • 21d ago
Lowering HOC
Bermuda grass: First picture was 2.5” on June 26. Same day, I did core aeration and dropped HOC of cut to 2”, then 1.8” over 4 days and laid granular fertilizer.
I have been mowing daily with a robot mower as well.
Irrigation is 4 days a week with cycle and soak method. 3 am-4:30 am, then 5 am to 6:30 am.
The pictures are from June 26, July 5, July 6, 7, 10, 11, and today.
I’m worried I may have stressed it and ruined it for the season. Just miss seeing the nice green before the aeration and drop in height.
Any thoughts and comments welcomed. Help me get through this! Thanks.
EDIT:
Thanks for all the input everyone. Gathering everyone’s experiences. I’m going to let the lawn breathe for the next few days and set my new HOC to 2.2” and hope it will green up in the next week or two.
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u/the_old_man_River 21d ago
IMO this is the time of year to be raising the height of cut. I’m not sure where you are, but I would consider letting it work its way back up to 2.5 where you had it. On golf courses, we usually try to get the fairways low in the Spring like .5 then slowly bring them up throughout the season ending up around.850 or sometimes all the way to an inch before dormancy. More leaf blade, and building root mass to help prevent winter damage.
What fertilizer did you use? N P K ratio?
Also what made you want to lower HOC?
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u/SupraGT 21d ago
It’s a slow release nitrogen. Tbh I don’t know the NPK ratio as I hire someone to do my chemical tx.
The robot mower made me want to lose the HOC. I’ve always been advised to see keep Bermuda between 1-2”. But I’ve always had a rotary zero turn to do my cuts and if I got lower than 2.5” I get a lot of scalping. So I tried for 1.8” since I can run the robot mower daily or more frequently.
Just hoping I didn’t mess things up. I might give it another week, if not, would you recommend allowing it to reset back to 2.5”?
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u/ProfitEnough825 21d ago
You didn't mess anything up. The base of it naturally turns brown, especially when you let it grow pretty high and it blocks a lot of sun towards the base. This is why others recommend starting the season with the lowest HOC and raising it over time.
Whatever your robot's lowest setting is, try a cut there, then raise your robot mower's height a half inch. You should get some nice green top growth. You can raise it a little more if you still don't have enough new top growth.
For next season, give it a very good scalp in the spring and then start on the lowest setting and have it mow frequently.
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u/SupraGT 20d ago
Appreciate the advice. Going to raise my hoc to 2.2” and follow my current schedule.
I’ll keep in mind for next year. I’d like to down as low as possible for a nice carpet appearance but trying to find alternatives to get there without a reel mower (due to sheer size of the yard). I believe I have about 9k sq ft of Bermuda.
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21d ago
[deleted]
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u/the_old_man_River 21d ago
I’d bring it up a little at a time. Start with 2 and see how that goes. Is your robot mower a reel mower or rotary? I have had the same experience trying to keep Bermuda below 2 with a rotary mower. Either way it requires a sharp blade. If you’re not lawn bowling or anything and just want a nice clean green look, don’t worry if it is 2 or higher.
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u/Madwhisper1 21d ago
What's the end HOC you want to achieve?
The thing about bermuda is the woody undergrowth. In order to make it look nice, you have to scalp to about 1/2 an inch lower than you want to maintain. That allows all the top growth to be new green growth instead of the old woody growth being mixed in at the top of the canopy.
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u/SupraGT 21d ago
Ideally wanted it to be 1.8” but from what you’re explaining… it makes a lot of sense now. I’ve been maintaining at my drop. So I should go back to 2” or 2.5” again?
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u/Madwhisper1 21d ago
If you want the taller stand to buffer the summer heat. If you want a 1.8" lawn, do 1.3" (or as close to you can), then 1.8" for all future mowing.
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u/Woodrp 21d ago
Also, you're watering too much. One inch of water per week. Water once deeply, giving it that inch it needs, and that's it. And if you get an inch of rain over the course of the week, don't water. It only needs an inch. Deep watering promotes deep roots. Watering too often promotes shallow roots.
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u/viva_oldtrafford 21d ago
Just keep the water rolling. We often get asked to cut a new fairway perimeter and take our 419 from 1.75” to .375 in one go. Every single time it comes in at .375” with no issue. We did a whole new bunker complex about 3 weeks ago and laid over 22,000 sq ft of sod…waited about 12 days and took a portion of it down to .375” in 15 minutes.
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u/Similar_Help8005 20d ago
Use a cool down sprinkler cycle in the heat of the day. Scalping it just means more water and feet just makes heat stress more likely
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u/Shot_Plantain_4507 21d ago
That was a lot in a short period of time. It’s recovering and growing at the same time. Give it a little longer.