Zoysia Plugging; Buy or cut your own plugs?

dpvanemburg@cs.com – posted 12 May 2001 06:15

A quick question concerning plugging with Zoysia:

I have reviewed a couple of companies who sell plugs. This seems expensive compared to buying a pallet of zoysia and cutting the plugs myself. I assume cutting the plugs takes some work, but might be worth the expense (new house, much to do!).

Does anyone know of other reasons to buy plugs versus cutting your own from sod? What am I missing?

Thanks in advance for the input.

basshead151@hotmail.com – posted 23 May 2001 20:00

I just finished planting about 1000 sq ft of lawn with approx. 3 yards of zoyzia sod that I dug up from a relative’s house to install a flower bed. Once broken up, I spaced them about 8″ o/c using a hand trowel. About 8 hours, but no cost. I believe it will do well in my N. Atlanta yard, but I think I would have much preferred the result had I ran the stolens through a mulcher and blown it over my tilled and rolled yard, topdressing it w/ rich soil- might have provided a much quicker lawn.

cmpeter1 – posted 09 May 2002 13:23

I ordered a plugger, from a site on the internet, and it takes out a 3X3 inch plug. The soil has to be fairly moist for it to work, and pushing the plug out got old.

I bought a pallet of sod from a local sod farm since it was cheaper than a pallet at home depot. When I picked up the sod, it was really nice looking. (Meyers Z52).

Anyway, I have a large lawn and started pulling out plugs, and quite frankly, it got old in a hurry. The sod was so thick, it was hard to cut and I ended up using a bush ax to cut it, which kind of killed the accuracy of matching the plug to the plug hole.

I suppose plugging would work, but I ended up making plugs out of three or 4 sheets of sod, and laying the rest out in bare spots.

Here is an idea though. IF you have access to a rototiller, till a stright line and put sod in it and space it out like 2 feet in between rows. I did that in some places also, and will likely go that route again. I figure a sheet of sod will expand faster than a plug, but I may b wrong.

I would also recommend buying the sod from a good sod farm, I paid 165 a pallet, and I think the stuff was cut and shipped the following day, so it was very green when I got it. Unless you catch the sod coming in at Home Depot, it is not worth having. IMO.

rmcdowell40 – posted 09 May 2002 20:26

I’ve been plugging away now for about 15 years on my yard. I have about 2 acres. My original zoysia came from a relative’s house, which I divided up into smaller plugs and forgot about it for a couple of years. It all grew together very nicely. From that I started cutting 1 ft square pieces out with a butcher knife. I would go to my non-zoysia area and use a cheap plugger to cut the holes. Then I would cut the zoysia up into smaller squares using the same butcher knife and fill in the holes. Very labor intensive!

The cheap plugger didn’t last very long so I had a double plugger made from ¼ inch steel. It’s heavy duty and still serves me well.

Here lately I’ve just been digging out a scoop with the shovel and plugging 8-inch plugs.

I’ve been thinking about making a plugger that would go on the back of my riding mower. I would convert a lawn aerator by removing the smaller tubular spikes with larger steel tubes. Anybody ever heard of this?

[This message has been edited by rmcdowell40 (edited 09 May 2002).]

amicol – posted 03 September 2007 10:16

I started the process of transplanting zoysia plugs from my inlaws to my house about a month ago. I’m using a 3X3 plugger. Everything is going great except pushing the plugs out of the plugger sometimes is hard and a killer for your hand and elbow. I started soaking the plugger in a bucket of water with a mild soap as lubrication and it really does the trick. Make sure that the soap is a very sof one, like the liquid soap that you use to wash your hands.

mx-40 – posted 19 April 2010 14:49

I’ve got a decent stand of Zenith Zoysia about 5 years old. My son-in-law bought a new house about two years ago and wanted to replace the fescue with zoysia. As a good father-in-law, I pitched in to help. He bought one of those pluggers that pulls a square plug (one at a time) and we went to work. It didn’t take long to realize this wasn’t going to work very well. With our clay soil, we had to beat out the plugs…VERY hard work. We ended up finding a round plugger (ProPlugger was the name) that took a dozen plugs quickly and then we would turn it upside down and the fell out. Things went MUCH faster from then on. His lawn is coming in very nicely and the Zenith Zoysia is at about 95% coverage this spring.

Alex_in_FL – posted 15 May 2010 03:01

I had great success buying a few pieces of sod and making my own plugs (strips about 2 inches wide and 5-6 inches long). Cut the sod, then soak it in a wheelbarrow full of water for 10-30 minutes then plant the soaking wet plugs/strips.

I also shredded some sod and tried planting really thin strips (like 1/4 inch wide and 3 inches long) but these did not work nearly as well. Maybe if I had watered it more it would have worked.