I see Zoysia in my future..

[KirbysLawn]

We have a few Zoysia lawns around here and they are the best! Last week while at Stone Mountian I took this photo of the main lawn. Keep in mind this grass gets 1000's of people walking on it daily and at night it is totally covered with 1000's of people and lawn chairs 7 days a week. The toughest grass I have ever seen, like a carpet!

For those of you who maintain Zoysia what is your opinion of this grass. I'm aware in my area I will need to overseed with Rye in winter for color, any other comments?

http://unionturf.com/DSC00080%20sm.jpg

[turfquip]

Zoysia sucks here in the Ohio Valley as a turfgrass. In the Fall, it turns brown during dormancy and has a voracious spreading habit. So, if one neighbor installs it, soon folks on both sides will see it encroach into their yards as well...

That creates opportunities for painting dormant turf I guess :-)
Mostly I see it in old peoples' yards for some reason. I think maybe that's because several years ago they may have fallen for the inflated promises/benefits of sprigging or sodding zoysia.

Zoysia produces a lot of thatch as well and is considered high maintenance. Benefits are as you said its toughness and it's ability to be cut relatively low.

[HOMER]

It's the first grass to go dormant and the last to green up. If you can keep it cut short it looks good. Will need dethatching at least every other year. Grows very dense and like the man said, your neighbors will either love it or hate it, cause their gonna see it in their yard soon enough.

I have one account that never waters, never fertilizes. I have to chase it down to cut it. I have another that uses a chem company, I have to inflate my tires to get the deck high enough! I guess it should be somewhere in between. It is one of the slowest accounts I have, I bag it. It is also one of the better looking when I finally get done with it.

Bottom line, pretty but high maintenance.

[George777]

As for me I would like to have zoysia at my house. I like the way it looks.
how ya been Homer? It has been awhile. Hope all is well.

[HOMER]

Bout dead..............but gettin er done. oops, that's somebody elses line!

[LoneStarLawn]

huh...suprising comments.

I have found and read the Zoysia is very low maintenance. The aggressive dense growth will crowd out weeds and other grasses so there is less worry for herbicides. In fact it takes away from my gross revenue since it is a slow growing grass. Generally it is not recommended that Zoysia be overseeded with ryegrass, but yes it will turn golden brown in the fall. It is however the first warm season grass to recover in the spring.

[George777]

this heat is a trip. Little warmer I think where ya at. Todays temp 98. I only did my own lawn and it about spanked my butt.

[HOMER]

Not in Alabama!

Spring green up as follows:

Bahai
Centipede
St. Augustine
Bermuda
Zoysia

That's how it is here if memory serves me correct.........which might be a whole different problem in itself.

[George777]

Zoysiagrass is so thick that weedds rarely penetrate it. It so prone to thatch and it is difficult to mow. I found that out the hard way. First time cutting a customers yard I had the deck to low and was wondering why the mower was sounding funny. I looked back and said ooops.
I like the turf myself, but Homer is right it is a high maintenance turf.

[SLS]

I have about a half acre of Zoysia (front yard).

It does green up late and turns brown early.

Very drought resistant (still emerald green when the nieghbors lawns are toast). And no pests at all.

It does thatch and like Homer said requires de-thatching every couple of years. I'll do mine every spring as it need it.

The turf has to be maintained to keep it happy and thus weed-free.

I've owned this house for only two years and killed off a lot of white dutch clover this summer. There was also a few plantains and dandelions.

The people we bought the house from did not give a rat's patootie about this lawn and it was neglected (not fed, aereated, de-thatched and was cut about every 3 weeks) since 1960....yep...40 years! I would say that Zoysia is one TOUGH turf. A little Scott's Weed and Feed Plus Turf Builder in early March and little Spectracide "Weed Stop" in late April and the lawn bounced back great! When I cut at 1 1/2" it looks like a putting green! My neighbors are freaked out about how the yard shined up with so little effort. My next door neighbor has had Creeping Red Fescue in his yard for a long time and the Zoysia has not invaded it at all...but I don't know why. :D

Zoysia? I love it! (Even if I have to cut it every 3 or 4 days.)

[andyslawns]

i only have one yard that is zoysia, it looks great. (after all the time it takes to cut it should.) i do lots of fall cleanups on zoysia the leaves blow across it like there on pavement,(cause it is extreamly thick.) overall i think i will stick to fescue, or kentucky blue

[KirbysLawn]

Thanks for the great info. I noticed several mentioned "lowering your decks", I plan on mowing with a reel mower and keeping it short once I get started. We have a neighborhood near by with 3 lawns taht are Zoysia, one guy mows his with a JD 48" rider and it looks good, the others are mowed with reel mowers a look great! My current lawn has fences and large 8'+ natural areas that should help with spreading.

[65hoss]

Around here Zoysia is the premo grass. Zoysia is a slow spreading grass that will choke out anything. It usually is to thick to overseed with anything. In my area the zoysia greens up before bermuda. I have a very thick zoysia front lawn and very thick bermuda back lawn. I love the zoysia. It is very low maintenance. Unless you put to much fertilizer down, it grows at a slower pace. It also strips really well if you cut it higher. I cut mine at 3".

Oh, it doesn't repair itself very quick.

[LAWNGODFATHER]

the only bad things I have to say about Zoyia is its brown to long and hates lots of water(gutter down spouts draining to it)

try and kill it it will be hard it's the TOUGHEST grass out! it's like a Timex takes a licken and keeps on ticken

I will stick with Fescue and Rye in my yard I can keep it green almost all year

[DeepDivot]

I agree with you. Zoysia is a beautiful grass. But like all grasses, it has plusses and minuses.

Plusses - Only needs mowing half or less as often as, say, fescue. No overseeding needed. Very little fertilizer, herbicide or water required.

Minuses - Requires dethatching every couple years. Doesn't stay green year round. Generally requires bagging. If not contained, may spread where you don't want it.

Really, it's a warm area grass, which may explain why those 'up-north' regard it as a weed. Compared to another warm area grass, bermuda, it is much, much better. While zoysia spreads slowly, it can be easily contained. Bermuda is almost impossible to stop. While zoysia chokes out weeds, bermuda won't. Zoysia grows better in the shade than bermuda. Zoysia has a longer growing season than bermuda. Bermuda is terrible about winter kill leaving a mudhole for a yard, whereas zoysia, while going dormant, maintains it's thick, lush (albeit yellow) appearance.

More and more golf courses are using zoysia. Since they mow it so low with reel type mowers, bagging is not necessary and thatch is not as much a problem. The minuses are 'no neverminds' for them, so the plusses really make it an ideal grasses for say, Kansas and south. Plus, it's GREAT to hit off of.

Sorry for the length, but zoysia is my favorite!

[NateinAtl]

Zoysia is the primo grass around here. Nothing is nicer than seeing a reel mowed zoysia lawn. Here it stays green longer than bermuda and is a darker green. Very little weed problem. Doesn't spread nearly as fast as bermuda. The only 2 things that people don't like is that it is expensive and it will go dormant. It is so funny when I talk to customers who have recently moved to Atlanta from the north. they freak out about their lawns going dormant. One lady actually told me that she wouldn't have moved into her house if she knew the grass was going to turn. I laughed and told here she would be hard pressed to find a fescue lawn in the suburbs. In fact, there are many neighborhoods that don't allow homes to have fescue lawns nor do they allow overseeding of rye or painting.

[Wheeless]

Kirby,
I have one customer that has zoysia. This lawn was cut at 5" when I got the account and I've gotten it down to 3" with alot of diffaculty. University of Georgia recommends it be cut at 1 to 1.5". I don't think I could get it any lower w/o tearing my Scag up. Also it is extreamly hard to stick edge. It really does a job on the blades too.
My 2 cents.

[Leonard]

I agree, zoysia is better. Look at it compared to St Auggy

http://aggie-turf.tamu.edu/lawns/images/zoysia-staug.jpg

Which would you prefer?

[KirbysLawn]

My thought was this, with the hot dry weather we have in this area and water restrictions every year combined with late pm storms and brown patch, & drought even though Zoysia can be high maintenance it may still be better in the long run.

When I move I'm going to be on well water and would prefer to have a grass that requires less watering. Nice example Leonard.

[Paradise Yard Service]

In Hawaii we have plenty of Zoysia. Zoysia matrella, Emerald Zoysia(matrella+japonica), Zoysia tenufolia(for Japanese gardens), a newer variety Z-3, and El Toro. All of them must be cut low like a putting green. But you will have the best looking lawn around. It does creep into wherever you don't want it so get out the ol round up. Many of my accounts have Zoysia. I will post pics soon.

Aloha,

P.Y.S.

Oh yea, we have no dormant season hear. So Zoysia has the potential to look great all the time-just need to mow, mow, mow.

[greenman]

Around here, Zoysia grass is everyones favorite. I don't know why everyone says cut it so short, though. Maybe just a personal preference. My lawns are either Zoysia or bermuda. I cut mine no less than 3.5". I have some that are cut at 4". It is hard to cut though. Hard on the equipment and blades because of the thickness, but there are no weeds.

I do have a question for those who know. Can zoysia be mixed with tall fescue so as to have color all year? I am in zone 7b.

[65hoss]

Cut it lower and seed with winter Rye. Not fescue.

[KirbysLawn]

Thick Zoysia can't be mixed with anything. You answered your own question, if weeds will not grow in it neither will fescue or rye. I would also cut it shorter..."everyone" is correct.

[The Mowerdude]

I've never tried to attach a pic before, so let's see if this works.

This is a yard that my man Catalino and I do. It's all Zoysia. I've had this customer for 12 years and have gotten to see this turf in good times and bad.

All in all, it's a good turf grass IF you know how to take care of it. As you can see from the photo, we've gotten pretty good at it.

One of the real benefits is that you can put a sharp edge on it, as Catalino is doing in the pic. Given enough time, it really produces a nice carpet like look. It also feels great on bare feet. And it cuts very well with both a rotary mower and a reel mower. It responds well to striping efforts until it gets REALLY hot. The day I snapped this it was about 97 degrees. You can see that Lino is sweating pretty good. (I think he was worried about getting fired. :D )

[The Mowerdude]

Ok, it didn't work. Let's try again.




well, I keep getting a message that says my file is to big.

I'll try again later.

[The Mowerdude]

Maybe?....Finally?

[65hoss]

Originally posted by KirbysLawn
Thick Zoysia can't be mixed with anything. You answered your own question, if weeds will not grow in it neither will fescue or rye. I would also cut it shorter..."everyone" is correct.

Ray, just as its going dormant why can't you cut it short, aerate and seed with rye? I've never tried it (nobody does that stuff around here), but I can see why it wouldn't work.

[Bill Davis]

A lot of the homes that we maintain have zoysia and i prefer it of bermuda. Zoysia is a tough grass and is great in the heat.

[greenman]

Kirbyslawn-why does it have to be cut shorter? Most people here cut it about 3" or more. It is scalped on the first cut in the spring to get the thatch out then its cut higher as it gets hotter.
I guess I did answer my own question-kind of. I was talking about grass for the winter not the summer, its chokes out everything .

[AltaLawnCare]

Its mowed high here too. Pretty cool in the winter months...it looks just like cardboard layed out through the lawn. People have an interesting effect with green weeds and patches of other grasses mixed in. Very few lawns here have it.

I just heard of a company making Zoysia seed..:confused:

I can't remember the name, but I just heard the extension agent mention it yesterday.

[SLS]

WOW!

Here it is a year later and this thread pops back up. :)

As mentioned last year I've been working on my Zoysia. Check it out this year...along with my new toy:

http://hifiparty.home.att.net/TT1.jpg

I LOVE this turf! Hard to believe it was full of Dutch clover just a year ago. The 'rebound' factor of this turf is just amazing...two years ago it looked REALLY bad. :D

***I just KNEW I should have picked up those stray leaves before I snapped this pic...darn storm....;)

[The Mowerdude]

I'm going to try this pic posting one more time. Sooner or later, I'll figure it out.

[The Mowerdude]

Ok, I did it!!!:blob3:

This yard is showing a little stress from the heat as you can see by the brown spots. But if the weather cools just a little and we get a sprinkling of rain, it greens up like a pool table. Below is pic of the back yard. You can see that this turf has a real carpet like look to it. And it's choking out any weed growth. While there may be a few weeds, there is extremely little in comparison to the yards next door.

[The Mowerdude]

Also, you can see that it edges really well. This is Catalino. He works for me and he's an "artiste" with the T-270. I don't know how he does it holding it that way, but he does. BTW, he trimmed the bushes too.

[The Mowerdude]

Ok, final Zoysia pic. This is the sidewalk after Catalino edged it. We haven't come back yet with the blower, so the clippings are still there, but you can certainly get an idea of what this grass can look like. It can give a really manicured look. And this customer's neighbors have been biting their shorts for years. However, you can see also, that we have to fight it to keep it from eating the asphalt drive.

[trimmer]

It sounds like it has the same charctaristics of St. Augustine. They use Zoysia at Disney World down here and they cut it very low, instead of dethatching it they just replace it. I wish one of my customers would put Zoysia down. You can also clean up the edges of St. Augustine like that.

Leonard,

That is some sorry looking St. Augustine in that picture. I cut a lot of St. Augustine and hardly any of it looks that bad.

[The Mowerdude]

Trimmer let me ask you?

Does the St. Augie brown out in winter, or do you live far enough south that it stays green year round?

Also, if it does brown out, is it sensitive enough to cold that it would die in a hard freeze, or does it just go into dormancy the way the Zoysia does?

And do you plug it, or does it grow from seed? What about rysomes or stolins?

[trimmer]

The Mowerdude,

For the most part the St. Augustine in my area will not brown out. In a hard freeze Floratam will brown out and go dormant but all other varieties do not for the most part, none of my yards do. I cut St. Augustine every two weeks during the winter.

A couple of years back we had a couple of hard freezes that was cold enough to kill St. Augustine, only one I can remember though. The freeze only killed in certian spots, and with its rapid growth charteristic it all filled in within a couple months, so there was no need to replant.

Most of the replanting is done with sod. The problem with plugging is that weeds come through where the soil is exposed, most plugging is done by homeowners. Some people do sprig St. Augustine.

I hope I helped you out with these answers. If you would like I will take some pics and post them this winter of the grass, there is a condo around the corner that all the St. Augustine goes dormant.