New Companion Zoysia Lawn

Timmy813 – posted 06 February 2007 15:24

To begin I am a first time home owner so this is my first real experience with lawn care. I have been doing a lot of research and reading about the different types of grass and have decided to go with companion seeds. Here is my gameplan and I was wondering if I could get some verification/comments on what to do.

BackgroundAbout an acre yard mostly flat in Jackson, TN. It is a new construction house and the builders are putting down ryegrass just to get a lawn going for closing on the house (bank required some kind of lawn). So in the next few months some rye should start coming up but dying off by the time I want to plant the seed (plannning on early June).

1.) Soil test to find out the amount of fertilizer and lime to put in. Right now I am estimating about 200lbs of lime for an acre and about 200lbs of fertilizer (15-30-15) or around that.

2.) Add above sometime in the next couple months to let it get into the soil.

3.) Kill off remaining rye grass and weed as needed

4.) Till the soil about 4 inches deep

5.) Seed the soil using about 50 lbs for the acre

6.) Shallow rake the soil

7.) Cover with straw

8.) Water the heck out of it (twice a day for ???)

How well is this going to work? I have patience so I don’t care how long it takes as long as in the next couple of years I have a nice zoysia lawn.

On a side note I am thinking about an irrigation system to be put in before I start doing all of this work (beats having to do it later) and that will help with watering the new lawn. Planning it isn’t going to bad but I am having trouble figuring how to incorporate a common drain system for all the different zones. Any help there would be most appreciated.

TexanOne – posted 08 February 2007 03:22

I don’t have any actual experience with seeded Companion, but I do with seeded Zenith Zoysia and they are very similar, if not identical. If you do a search for keyword “Zenith” on this website, you will find 70 articles written about it – some of the comments I wrote.

Overall and after eight years of seeded Zenith experience, I would not do it again if I had it to do all over again. The primary complaint I have about seeded Zoysia is it is too slow to germinate, establish, and cover. No amount of water, feeding, or care will speed it’s growth. The stuff is just naturally very slow – plain and simple.

I used the equivalent of 1.0 t0 1.5 lb seed / 1000 ft2 to seed 4,000 ft2. I would estimate germination rate at 50%, and what did come up took over 2 years to establish anything that resembled a tight-knit sod with stolons and rhizomes. The biggest drawbacks during establishment were washouts from any substantial rain before the seed had a chance to take root, and the constant water requirement during establishment (I had an automated irrigation system to take care of the water issue).

After eight years, the Zenith that remains is about 10% total coverage (about 400 ft2 total). The rest of the 3,600 ft2 have been taken over by the prevailing Texas Common St Augustine so common to the rest of the neighborhood. I would like to also point out the 4,000 ft2 turf area was isolated by concrete curbing from neighboring St Augustine invasion. It is not so much the St Augustine took over, but the Zenith died out and St Augustine just filled in the dead Zenith areas.

If you have your heart set on seeding a Zoysia Japonica lawn, you may have different results being in temperate Jackson, TN, as opposed to where I am in western Texas. I would use the following checklist before I considered seeding a Zoysia lawn:

1: Is your seedbed relatively flat? (Is there no possibility of erosion or a washout from heavy storms?)

2: Is your irrigation system up to the task of watering or syringing the emerging seedlings 2x or 3x / day?

3: Is your soil neutral, or slightly acid in reaction (pH 5.5 – 7.0)?

4: Do you have a good, plentiful, quality irrigation water source (pH 5.5 – 7.0)?

If you can answer yes to all of these questions, I would say seeded Zoysia would be a good candidate to consider. If any of the above answers are “no”, I would reconsider.

Another thing – if you decide to use Companion (or Zenith), cut it high – 3” during hot summer weather, regardless of what the brochures say to do. Zoysia does not like low cutting during hot summer weather.

I did try a mix of sodded El Toro and Palisades Zoysia in a small, isolated area of my yard (450 ft2) eight years ago. In my opinion, the El Toro and Palisades are far better Zoysia varieties than Zenith, and these varieties are very healthy and continue to thrive where they are planted.

Hope this helps in your decision…

Timmy813 – posted 14 February 2007 10:43

Thanks for the info. My property does not have a run off issue so I am hoping that the seeds will be able to take. I have also heard about keeping the grass long and I wonder if I will even have to mow it once this year. If in a couple of years I wind up in your situation then sodding will be a viable option. I will keep you posted on the project.

On another note how do different types of zoysia mix? I can get some sod now (a couple of pallets) to go around parts of the front yard but am still planning to seed the remainder. When it is all said and done will there be a huge difference or will it pretty much just blend together. Thanks in advance.