New Zoysia Installation

carolinafishing – posted 01 May 2011 20:36

I apprecicate all of the great posts on your experiences and have learned alot just reading the posts. I am in Raleigh,NC and have a good size yard (approx 14K sf of fescue). I have not installed an irrigation system but plan on doing so in the future. I have decided on Zoysia and am leaning towards Jamur due to the shade I get in the afternoons in the back yard from tall trees. Current lawn has alot of weed problems. I was planning to install sod in the front yd (2K sf) and plugs in the side & back yard.My question is do I need to kill and completely remove the fescue/weeds in the front yard before sodding or can I scalp it and put down a thin layer of organic material and sod on top? Thanks for any help.

ken4255 – posted 01 May 2011 20:59

You can lay sod without killing the fescue first, but it is much harder to kill the fescue later. I laid zoysia on top of live fescue, and it rooted fine, but some fescue grew through the sod. I tried Image, and I was not satisfied how fast a normal dose was working to kill the fescue, then I tried concentrated image, which killed fescue and seriously stunted the zoysia. I also spot sprayed with Roundup, which kiled the fescue and the zoysia. After a couple of years, the zoysia filled in and covered up my mistakes. Save yourself a lot of trouble and kill that fescue first.

mrmumbels – posted 02 May 2011 07:02

I’d kill it with roundup then till it in. Wouldn’t hurt to throw a few bags of alfalfa out too.

carolinafishing – posted 16 May 2011 12:42

Thanks to both of you for the advice, anytime I can save myself some heachache I’ll do it. Took a while to learn that.