Zoysia grass

[Rick Potter]

Is zoysia grass just another name for what we in California call bermuda grass?

Bermuda has roots that can go down 3' allowing the grass to go right under planters and come up in the flowers, then you can't get rid of the stuff without killing everything.

Zoysia sounds good in the ads, and on the net ads, but I suspect it may be a nuisance once it gets going. Anyone have experience with it?

Rick Potter

[Zach England]

It is not the same as bermuda grass, but it is very invasive.

[Steve Peterson]

There are enough adds in Popular Science that they must be selling it to someone.

I live in a rural area with no close neighbors. The front lawn is small, maybe about 30 feet by 120 feet. I don't like wasting water just to have grass that needs to be mowed later. The Zoysia ads make it sound like you only need to water and mow a few times per year.

I am in California where the summers are very dry. I wonder if it would stop spreading at the edge of the sprinkler system.

Steve

[Zach England]

There are enough adds in Popular Science that they must be selling it to someone.

I live in a rural area with no close neighbors. The front lawn is small, maybe about 30 feet by 120 feet. I don't like wasting water just to have grass that needs to be mowed later. The Zoysia ads make it sound like you only need to water and mow a few times per year.

I am in California where the summers are very dry. I wonder if it would stop spreading at the edge of the sprinkler system.

Steve

My whole lot is (significantly) less than 30x120 My front lawn (actually all perennials now) is about 15x10. I dug up my front and back turf grass years ago and am still fighting it. Maybe it was zoysia grass? I pull and pull and it keeps coming back.

If I were going to keep a turf lawn in the arid west I'd use gamma grass, buffalo grass or a fescue blend like this:

http://www.highcountrygardens.com/ca...product/52000/

[Al Wasser]

You mean grama grass. There is no lawn grass that is perfect. One needs to consider how the lawn is used. Do you have dogs or kids, then blue grass is hard to beat because it is user friendly and heals itself pretty well. Grama and Buffalo grass take a lot less water but weeds tend to come into the inter-spaces. They also go dormant early and green up late.

I have no experience with the Zoysia but know it will not grow everywhere. Any one considering it should check with the local County Agent before buying into the hype

[Steve Peterson]

I have no experience with the Zoysia but know it will not grow everywhere. Any one considering it should check with the local County Agent before buying into the hype

That's a good idea. It is much more likely that a local professional would know what grows best in my lawn than someone that might live 3000 miles away.

I always crack up when reading gardening books that mention the need to water during the summer if you get less than 1" of rain per week. In California, we would be lucky to get a total of 0.1" of rain between June and October. The variations in climate across the country are pretty large.

Steve

[Peter Stahl]

My last house all the grass was zoysia and you could see where it was moving into the neighbors yards. When it was green it looked really nice but it browns un in the winter. It was there when we moved in and we liked it.

[Rick Potter]

Thanks guys,

Suspicion confirmed. I think I will just go with marathon II like I put in the front yard.

Rick Potter

[Jeffrey Makiel]

The only thing that stops zoysia from spreading is shade. That is, it's very aggressive in full sun. Regular grass doesn't have a chance.

My front yard was zoysia. In order for it to be green, it had to be very warm. Therefore, in my end of the world, the grass was brown for more than 6 months. It never really gets deep green either.

Be careful with 'weed and feed' fertilizers. The weed ingrediant is harmful to zoysia.

Walking on it barefoot is not very comfortable. You also need a strong power mower (6hp) because it's thick like carpet.

However, zoysia is not as tuff as some make it out to be. For some unknown reason, large patches would die. No bugs, no fungus, no evidence of anything. It would just die. And, shady areas like under trees and northern side of structures are likely not to sustain zoysia. Weeds can also co-exist with zoysia, and it still needs water albeit less than regular grass.

I ended up getting Roundup concentrate and applied it with a portable sprayer. Two applications when it was actively growing in August killed the entire lawn. After two or three weeks I scraped it away with a rented sod cutter and then planted new sod.

I've been zoysia free for 4 years!

-Jeff

[Leigh Costello]

I wish I had my Zoysia back. We lived in St Louis county for 10 years and our lawns were Zoysia. Thick and hard to cut, yes, but cut more often if you like. We just set the mower higher and enjoyed the lawn. The golden color we got in the fall and winter and early spring was not unattractive. Now we have a fantastic collection of hay crops and sturdy "honey, what kind of grass is this?" for a lawn, as well as dandelions, chickweed, clover....

[Lee Koepke]

I have zoysia for most of my lawn here ... its pretty nice, dont care too much if it spreads, we have woods on all four sides, so no big deal.

the shade comments are correct, have a large 'dead' zone in the back where my house shades the grass most of the day.

personally, i like the soft feel walking barefoot on it ...

[Alan Trout]

Grass is funny, really depends on the part of the country you are in. If you want turf grass in my part of the country, the hybrid Zoysia grasses such as El Toro is one of the best most drought tolerant grasses out there. It is as drought tolerant as Buffalo 609 and most of the Bermuda grasses. stays green and takes traffic very well. In this part of the country for generations St. Augustine was the grass of choice until people realized that a turf yard on a typical city lot took about 20K gallons of water a month just to keep it alive in our semi arid conditions.

Other grasses that make sense in my area is the hybrid Bermuda grass such as Sahara, and Black Jack both of which are incredibly drought tolerant.

Fescue, blue grass etc will last about 5 min in South Texas, to much heat and to arid most of the time.

What is not desirable in one section of the country is very desirable in other parts of the country out of shear necessity.

Good Luck

Alan

[Lavy Garcia]

Well this is really nice to differentiate between Zoysia Grass Bermuda Grass.There are the really nice differences between both.Artificial grass are really nice to spread and benefits a lot.

[Charles Wiggins]

I have no direct experience with Zoysia but this seems authoritative: http://www.uri.edu/ce/factsheets/sheets/zoysia.html

[William Adams]

It was invading our yard from the neighbour's when we started renting --- since then we've bought the property, and I've gotten started on eradicating it. First step was to establish a perimeter --- that took 2, 3 weekends, next step was to get some fill to make up for the lost volume removing it (long, agonizing story taking up much of last summer). Current plan is to resume removal early this year --- I guess I'll put it on pallets and see if there're any takers on Craigslist's free section.