Zoysia Grass

[TonyC]

Anyone have any first hand experience with this stuff? I've read a lot about it and heard some bad things likes it's rough on the bare feet and it's invasive. I know there are a lot of different varities. Anyone ever grow it? What do you think?

 

[RobS]

Tony, I see the ads all the time for Zoysia grass. They make it sound very appealing. I had a neighbor once with it and it is extremely invasive. Grows to a very dense mat, just kind of odd underfoot. My biggest issue is that in the winter it turns completely brown, not a bit of green left in the lawn. Our winters tend to be pretty grey and colorless anyway, so I prefer to keep a tad of green under the snow. I'll pass on the Zoysia /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[tsh3]

TonyC,
I put zoysia in an area of my yard that is sandy and doesn't hold enought
moisture in summer to keep other grass alive. It is not as soft as blue grass
but is not as coarse as crabgrass. It is invasive. It will come up through
asphalt, but a border of a few inches has worked. It turns straw color in late
fall and still has not greened up here in So. Md.
Once established it needs little or no watering, little or no fertilizer. It chokes
out weeds and other grass. It grows low and slow. The zoysia needs mowing
only half as often as the other grass. It works for me and I will put it when
we move into the new house. At the local farmers market a guy sells it as sod,
about 15" X 24" for $2 a piece. I buy it like that and cut it and plug it.

 

[MossRoad]

A friend of mine has it. It grows very thick. So thick that his mower has trouble with it. After the first frost, it turns brown and will not turn green again until spring. It is a little prickly under bear feet (poor bears). It is also very invasive and traveled into the neighbors yard. The nieghbor was not too happy as after the first frost he had these huge brown patches on that side of his yard. Looked really bad. And there is no way to stop it from spreading. It travels under walks, driveways, etc.

On the plus side, it is very drought resistant and chokes out most weeds very well.

 

[Jag]

Steve, have you had any luck with the plugs... I plugged part of my father's yard and had no luck that I can tell... It was his project, which I though would get him out of the house some and give him a little some to do,,, oh yeah, I did it all and that will be the last.. But as far as I can tell nothing has come up....

 

[BXmark]

When I as a kid, the patch of zoysia grass in our front yard was my favorite place to lay in the grass. Very thick and soft like carpet. Never a weed. Sure in winter it turned brown but it was a thick tuff brown carpet with never a spot of mud showing through. I like it.

 

[mikim]

Texas must be too hot for it - I put in plugs in an area 20' square - watered and babied it for 2 years and it did nada - the st augustine finally moved in from the edges and filled in the area.
mike

 

[geneP]

I plugged some on hard, bare clay soil here in Mississippi where nothing else would grow. I watered it for the first summer and it has flourished on it's own since then. The only place I can't get it to grow is under a red oak tree. I've tried several times, and it always dies.

 

[heehaw]

just wait, the red oak will probably die, or thats what has happened to a lot of them around here..beetles/bugs or some critter took a big toll on the red oaks the last few years. i am curious what kind of grass folks have that does not turn brown in the winter?? or if its green in the winter, doesn't it turn brown in the summer?? rye grass looks good in the winter, but doesn't last when it warms up, bermuda looks good in the summer?? so what have you folks got that stays green??
heehaw

 

[MossRoad]

Fescue and blue grass tend to stay green all winter here in Northern Indiana, whereas Z grass turns straw brown for the winter.

 

[tsh3]

Jag,
I cut the sod into 5" square plugs. I keep it watered good the first season,
sometimes 3 times a week in July & Aug. Second season it may need water
every other week only during July & Aug. The other thing is it does not
like shade at all.

 

[Will]

A good spot to read about zoysia is<A target="_blank" HREF=http://zoysias.com> zotsias.com</A>. The grass is slow growing, but it keeps spreading. This is what makes plugging work - eventually. A new option is seeding. They've developed a couple of varieties that can be grown from seed, but the seed grows very slowly. It'll take two years to get a nice looking lawn. That's what I did in my backyard (where I used Zenith). The results are excellent, lush, drought tolerant and easy to mow with the tractor. I've also got Emerald Zoysia in my front yard. This is very tough, and to keep it cut low you need a reel mower.If you want year round green, you can overseed with ryegrass in the fall, it's worked well for me.

 

[BB_TX]

I've got 5 red oaks in my yard. My bermuda grows fine under all but one of them. I have had a bare spot under that one for years. Don't know if it is a different variety that somehow affects the grass or what. The tree grows great and shows no sign of problems.
I don't know of any grass here in N Tex that will stay green year round. Most folks that want year round green overseed their bermuda with rye in the fall. By the time the summer heat kill the rye, the bermuda has greened up. I tried that one year. After mowing every couple weeks all winter long, I decided I did not want green as much as I thought i did./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif