Are most zoysia’s better than Celebration Bermuda?
New in Pensacola, FL – posted 07 April 2010 02:43
(not knowing whether I should post this under bermuda or zoysia…) I have researched and researched different zoysia’s (for Pensacola FL area, which is mostly like southern Alabama), and love the soft feel, and the weed-crowding out ability of zoysia. The main ones available to me, I believe, are empire, and BK-7 (a cross between meyer and emerald). There may be others, but I’d pay a heftier delivery fee. (like for zorro, diamond, palisades, el toro, and others). Then, I come across this Celebration Bermuda, and just don’t know how to compare it to any type of zoysia. It is explained that it is super shade tolerant, and is super soft. Those are my primary concerns, as I have one section of my front yard with two huge, ugly water oaks that I’m not allowed to cut down due to Home Owners Assoc. rules. The rest of my lawn gets at least 7 hours sun, but this front lawn part only gets about 3-4 hours of filtered sun. (I detest the current st augustine there, as it just isn’t doing well under those two trees, and I don’t like it’s look or feel or diseases)So should I sod with a zoysia type or this celebration bermuda?? My main desires are:1) lush green and soft to play on2) shade tolerance3) keep this nasty florida weeds outI don’t care how much work it is to mow/water/maintain, as I’m willing to do the reel type and I have a deep well for irrigation. Any comments are very welcome and thank you!!
SodMan – posted 04 May 2010 11:20
Celebration is a wonderful bermudagrass cultivar, but if shade is one of your primary concerns, I would go with something else. Celebration is very shade tolerant compared to other bermudagrasses. However, it doesn’t have the shade tolerance of a St. Augustine like Palmetto. Zoysia’s are better at dealing with shade than bermuda’s. However, much depends on your yard. How much direct sunlight do you get in those areas? 3-4 hours per day or less? I have EMPIRE zoysia out under a shade tree that gets probably 3 hours of direct sunlight per day. EMPIRE is a beautiful grass but in the really shaded areas, it is thinner than the areas that get much sunlight. If shade is your number one problem…which it sounds like it may be, you may want to go with a shade tolerant St. Augustine like Palmetto. Hope this helps some.
Alex_in_FL – posted 15 May 2010 02:22
Zoysia or Bermuda (Honda Civic or Toyota Corrolla). By this I mean pick the one you like. I personally do not like Bermuda (many do) and like Zoysia (some don’t). The new Empire zoysia is a pretty green and soft and reasonably shade tolerant. I have it in my back yard (HOA requires Floratam in the front – and I do not really care for it personally).
Can you thin some of the limbs in the oaks without cutting it down to increase the sunlight somewhat?
Just remember to kill the existing grass completely (spray with round up, then 2 or 3 weeks later spray any green areas again).
[This message has been edited by Alex_in_FL (edited 15 May 2010).]
I almost forgot Do Not over water. Floratan /Seville all strains of St. Augustine are suseptible to fungus from over…
I am from the north and it has taken me five yrs to learn and undertand seville lawns. No 1…
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