chiledog – posted 09 August 2010 14:43
I sodded Jamur Zoysia in my back yard this May. I love the grass. It is very soft and thick.
My only complaint is how fast this stuff grows. I was under the impression Zoysia was a slow growing grass, but I am having a hard time mowing it twice a week (and may have to mow it three times a week).
I mow the grass at around 2″. The grass grows about 1/2 or so in 3 or 4 days.
Is this normal?
Free Man – posted 10 August 2010 16:37
I don’t have Jamur, but Empire, so I can’t speak for that specific variety. Where do you live exactly and how much fertilizer and what makeup of fertilizers have you used since you installed in May?
I am in Florida and I mow once every 7 days and it is the peak of rainy season, so this applies for July & August. However in before this and from September on I would mow every 7-10 days, sometimes less often.
What height are you cutting yours at? I go to 2.5″ in the summer (currently).
I have put down one slow release fertilizer 6 weeks after it went down, and no other since. The Nitrogen should only be slow release so as not to cause spikes in vertical growth. High P, or Potash, is recommend for root growth while not promoting top growth which you apparently have a lot of.
chiledog – posted 11 August 2010 07:27
Thanks for the response.
I live in Durham NC. This summer we have had very hot/dry weather. Pretty much every day for the last 2 1/2 months has been in the mid to upper 90s (some in the 100s).
I applied fertilizer once in mid June. I applied 1lb per 1000ft of 29-0-4.
From your earlier post, it sounds like I wanted something with high P and low N (I had the opposite).
On the plus side, before I applied the fertilizer the grass was sparse in a few places (some of the sod wasn’t that great). After the fertilizer the grass is thick and lovely.
I would also like to change out the front yard to zoysia (I currently have fescue, mostly dead fescue and weeds…). I am not sure I want to mow both the front and back twice a week.
Thanks again.
ken4255 – posted 03 September 2010 07:54
I thought I wanted a slow growing grass when I had my Meyer installed. But try waiting a couple years for the grass to recover from drought damage. Fast(er) growing is a good thing.
sdowney717 – posted 05 September 2010 04:53
http://www.agry.purdue.edu/turf/report/2004/p43.pdf
shows the growth speed of many many zoysia cultivers