I just purchased a home with zoysia grass in the front and back yard.

Does anyone have any advice on how to care for this type of grass? I've read some things online, but would like some personal tips from people in the area that have dealt with it.

You might try the Home Improvement board - there's several folks over there who are likely knowledgable on this topic. Good luck.

Lauren - Do you live in College Station? If so, we will come out to your house and perform a water audit, for free, that will tell you how much water to apply to your zoysia, and how to set your irrigation controller to achieve that. Just call Jennifer at 764-6223.

Zoysia is know to dull down your lawnmower blades quicker than bermuda/anything else. But, it grows pretty good in shade and is very heat tolerant. The Houston Astros use it at Minute Maid Park.

"Anymore questions you wanna ask?"-John Wayne

Waterworks - yes, I live in College Station. I will definitely be calling. Thanks!

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But, it grows pretty good in shade and is very heat tolerant.

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I really hope that's true with time (heat tolerance) because my zoysia is suffering right now. My lawn was laid last August and it was doing fine until two months ago and has been burning up (turning yellow, thin, and brittle) in the middle of my back and front yard where there's no shade. I've been watering using 4 short cycles of 6-8 minutes per zone twice a week (starting at 5am) but it's not enough.

I just increased my watering to three times a week which is kind of scary seeing how my last month's water bill was already pretty high at twice a week (10 zones = 3+ hours of watering). I checked my sprinklers and they're fine but I'll definitely be making the call.

I'm hopeful that the problems I'm having are because my lawn is relatively new and it never got the deep watering that normally comes from the rain in the spring.

CN, I'm far from an expert but have been caring for my zoyzia in my second year. This year is not the typical as you know (we are something like 10 inches short of rainfall for the year). With the lack of fresh water (rain), the salt in our city water is doing a number on the grass and almost as much damage as the heat.

We are going with a higher cut (>3) and watering now 3 times a week. The amount per watering depends a lot on your soild and how fast it runs through. We aim for 1/2" of irrigation 2-3 times a week, with two cycles per watering session. The recommended time for spray heads is about 25 mins per session (we split this into two 12 minute cycles over the night per zone). For Rotator heads the time is longer at 45 mins. For MP Rotator (the little guys), they say around 1.5 hours.

Summary for zoysia (not official, but what the irrigation and lawn guys tell us):

Zones with Spray = (12mins x 2 cycles) every 2 days
Zones with Rotator = (22mins x2 cycles) every 2 days
Zones with MP Rotator = (45mins x2 cycles) every 2 days

We have 18 zones so have to begin watering at 9pm at night to finish at sun up.

Since we are moving to a 3 day a week schedule, we back off this amount and spread it over 3 days. I think the heat is just too much for letting it sit for 4 days. Yes, you need to train the roots to go deep but I believe this heat is quite intense no matter the root depth.

Hope this helps.

Oh, a plug for Tim at Aggieland Green. My favorite vendor!

[This message has been edited by mhnatt (edited 6/8/2011 3:52p).]

That water scheule makes no sense. Zoysia needs the roots saturated completely. You should be in the 12-15 minute per zone if you are going 2x a week and I'd say the same for 3x a week if the reason is the heat. You are giving it the equivalent of a Dixie cup after it has run a half marathon.

http://www.sodfather.com/news/platinum-te-installed-minute-maid-park.asp

Minute maid does not use zoysia. It uses Platinum TE paspalum. It is a much more salt tolerant grass and is better suited for shade under the minute maid roof.

My turf science prof would tell you that the key to a great looking lawn is regular mowing. This means at least once per week and honestly more like once every five days. St. Augustine Is one of the few grasses that will still look good with less frequent mowing.

My prof lives in pebble creek, and says that he has given up on telling people that mowing is the key. Most people think that watering a ton or in special intervals with extra fertilizer are the key, but truly mowing is the best indicator of how successful your lawn will be

+1 for rilloaggie...and when you do mow it, you need to use a reel type mower. You know, like what The Beaver used. Rotary mowers tend to tear the very tough blades of zoysia while a reel mower cuts it like scissors. They do make them with motors and self-propel now. If you don't mow zoysia often, at least every 5 days, you will end up needing to rake a lot of debris.

Mowing it is definitely different. The good thing is it grows evenly, so even if it is long, it doesn't look bad because the entire lawn is uniform ( or should be).

But if you let it go too much it is tough, slow going with a push mower. My options at that point are either A) Mow it with the bag and stop to empty it every pass, or B) mow it w/o the bag and then either go over the clippings again , essentially mowing the yard twice, or rake them all up.

I just mowed last week, this thread is a good reminder that I should get out in the heat and mow it again this week.

@CSTXAG2015

I should've said 6-8 minutes each cycle, 4 cycles per zone, not 6-8 minutes per zone. My front yard slopes a good bit so I'm trying to limit the runoff which is why I do so many cycles.

@rilloaggie

That's good to know. One of the things that sold me on zoysia was that since it grows so slowly, I could mow less often. I'm currently having it mowed once every two weeks so I guess I'll have to increase that. My lawn guy has his mower set at 4.5".

http://aggieturf.tamu.edu/answers4you/selection.htm

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/archives/parsons/turf/publications/zoysia.html?vm=r

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Zoysiagrasses grow from early spring through late fall when moisture and nutrient requirements are met. Although zoysiagrass is considered to be a drought tolerant species, it ceases growth and begins to discolor during extended dry periods. To maintain growth zoysiagrass requires 1 to 1° inches of water per week during mid-summer, although it can survive on less than 1 inch of water per week. Water should be applied 2 to 3 times per week depending on temperatures and soil conditions. Sandy soils require more frequent irrigations than heavier clay soils; and, as temperatures increase, irrigation frequency must increase. During prolonged droughts when it is impractical to water enough to maintain growth, weekly applications of as little as 0.5 inch of water are adequate to keep the grass alive.

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CSTXAG2015:

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That water scheule makes no sense...You should be in the 12-15 minute per zone if you are going 2x a week and I'd say the same for 3x a week

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Actually, the amount per zone depends on what type of heads you have. For example, an MP Rotator puts out half the volume as a continuous spray, and a full rotator is in between these two. Not sure it's a good idea to blanket everything with a 12-15 minute watering without knowing what type of heads each zone is on.

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You are giving it the equivalent of a Dixie cup after it has run a half marathon.

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Not exactly. Your 12-15 minute per zone recommendation on any type of head, just twice or even 3x/week is not even a "Dixie cup" for zoysia. That's hardly a 1/2 inch of rain for the entire week on even your most liberal heads (spray).

Perhaps you misunderstood my post. As I mentioned, we aim for 1/2" rain twice if not 3 x per week. Based on the head flow rates I mentioned, we are applying a little more than that. It is mowed once a week and fertilized quarterly. Looks great!

Here's a photo:

I am very interested in going to zoysia. Is it about the same cost to establish it as St. Augustine? Who in town (vendor) is the "expert" that I should talk to?

It (zoysia) is little more initial cost than St Aug, but somewhat save in the long run with reduced water and less disease problems (cinch bugs, fungus, etc.). Just about any landscape company can help you.

Are you talking about the cost to water and fertilize or the cost of the grass itself.

Zoysia can be started from seed and that is generally a cheaper route than sodding. The seed head on St. Augustine is very hard to separate from the seed itself, and it is rare to find seed for St. Aug.

The cost for St. Aug sod should be somewhere around $250 per 1000 sq.ft. The cost to seed 1000 sq.ft. of Zoysia should be less than $100.

I know that comparing sod to seed is apples to oranges but if you are looking for the cheapest method of putting a lawn down than seed will almost always be cheaper(not including st aug seed which is hard to harvest and find)

@mnhatt

You know, those were the things that were pointed out to me as advantages of zoysia over St. Augustine too. However, I did notice what appeared to be fungus late last fall. It looked just like brown patch (which I had a lot of experience with from the last house) but it was a small area. It could've been just low spots in the lawn that were oversaturated with water because I seem to remember us getting a lot of rain for a stretch back then.

I recently Googled chinch bugs and zoysia and it sounds like it's just as susceptible as any other grass. I don't know what to believe.

And to the question of cost, it's been a while but I think I paid 1.9 times what I would've for St. Augustine (new construction).

I'm guessing zoysia is less prone than St. A because it requires less water and thus less chance of fungus (brown patch). I'd recommend contacting the pros though. Our experience has been great with zoysia (we have lived with both).

I also have zoysia grass and the advice here has been enlightening. Kudos.

I have a couple of questions too. Does the zoysia grow in shade ok. I have a fairly shaded back yard and planted St. Aug but still have some areas with no grass as I ran out. Which leads to the second question - Could I plant the zoysia seeds on the side of my house where I dont have anything and let it meet up with where the St Aug is?

I have some friends in McKinney that have a beautiful yard. It is very shaded and they had got some fescue sod out of Lubbock. Their yard guy who does the golf course recommended it. Does anyone in this area have any thoughts on fescue grass? Lost almost all the st.ausgustine to disease. It got takeall patch fungus. Looking for something for shade.

Fescue works well in the panhandle because of the low nighttime temperatures. It, along with kentucky bluegrass are considered cold season turfgrasses. It really won't do well in areas with nighttime temps above ~75 degrees.

As to the zoysia and shade question, it will grow in shade but not as well as St. Augustine. St. Aug is the most shade tolerant but also needs more water than most other grasses. Zoysia is a good choice if you have moderate shade.

Chinch bugs are a problem in most grasses unless you have the improved Floratam St. Augustine. It is resistant to St. Augustine Decline and Chinch bugs.

[This message has been edited by rilloaggie (edited 6/11/2011 8:48a).]

I think this fescue out of Lubbock is probably one of the new hybrids such as reveille, or turffalo, or something like that.

Anyone have experience with that type of grass in bcs? It would need to be salt tolerant to handle our water.

I'm pretty sure those fescues aren't going to work down here. It's too hot. Those fescues aren't really salt tolerant either IIRC. I could be wrong and will defer to ISUAgro or tur***gie24.

St Aug is yes, shade "tolerant" but that doesn't mean it's "sun not required." Even St Aug is going to need approx 6 hours of sunlight a day, so if you've got a spot that doesn't get that, your best bet is to landscape it with shade loving plants.

http://brazos.agrilife.org/contact/
Contact Zimmerman or Anthony.

http://aggieturf.tamu.edu/answers4you/selection.htm

http://aggieturf.tamu.edu/answers4you/publications/Turf%20Selection%20SCS-2009-05lr.pdf

http://aggieturf.tamu.edu/answers4you/publications/Select%20&%20InstallSod%20SCS-2009-07lr.pdf

http://www.txsod.com/docs/TurfgrassEstablishment.pdf

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/archives/parsons/turf/publications/estab.html

I read more about turffalo and the shade version from Texas tech. They have the map of where it grows and it grows all along the south all around the gulf.

I stand corrected. Sorry for the false facts, they must have changed it since my 302 grass class.

best place to get a pallet of zoysia?

Try All American Turf and Stone. That is where I got mine. They got it from a farm in Millican. I have Zorro type

Love my zoysia and will never go back. But i think I've discovered an added bonus in that it's more suitable for a battery powdered mowers. The big juicey St Augustine grass blades take their toll on batteries, but the power used to mulch it is even worse. Zoysia just doesn't put on as much growth per week. If you don't have an electric mower now, you very well might in the future. Engine speeds are dropping to meet emissions regulations while electric mowers remain high. This, combined with the stiffnrss of Zoysia, and I'm getting a rotating impact cut that looks more like a shearing reel mower.

Howdy, Tim from Aggieland Green here! I wish i had seen this thread sooner!
We care for lots and lots of Zoysia lawns, as well as all turfgrass varieties that grow in Texas. I must say, Zoysia is an extremely high quality turfgrass. I agree with the comments above on mowing. Proper mowing is a key to a healthy zoysia lawn. We've observed that the lawns that are mowed in the 2"-2.5" range perform much better with less problems. The theory of mowing heigh does not apply, and leads to problems.

Proper watering and fertilization are obviously important as well. Regular fertilization including slow-release is helpful for achieving the optimum density, color, and health. Begin in April or May, and do not fertilize with any soluble Nitrogen after Aug 15th. Water as needed on a deep, infrequent schedule. 1" per week is optimum during the summer months. Zoysia does not like to be overwatered.

Pros:
1. Not susceptible to chinch bugs and armyworms, and much less susceptible to fall webworms.
2. Much lower susceptibility to brown patch, although brown patch is still a concern in late fall.
3. Performs much better in shade than Bermuda hybrids, and slightly better than Raleigh St. Augustine.
4. Slower grower than St. Augustine
5. Does not require as much water as St. Augustine, and is less damaged if severely drought stressed.

Cons:
1. Slower to fill if damaged by winter damage or other circumstances where it needs to fill in.
2. Fairly high susceptibility to dollar spot. We are seeing a ton of dollar spot right now in Bermuda and Zoysia due to all of the recent moisture.
3. Mildly susceptible to late fall brown patch.
4. Performs its best if mowed with a reel mower, although not required. 99.9% of zoysia owners use rotary mowers.

Water in the morning, not at night with a sharp blade on a weekly basis between 2"-2.5" and keep it properly fertilized and protected from brown patch in the late fall. If you do that, you will enjoy a beautiful zoysia lawn!

Aggieland Green watering guidelines:
https://www.aggielandgreen.com/watering-guidelines