zoysia plug

lbk_atlanta – posted 24 September 2004 09:31

I’ve got 15,000 sqft of fescue that gets reseeded and aerated every fall, looks great in spring, then gets FULL of crabgrass every summer. I’m sick of dumping time and money into it every year and it looks awful. I’d love to sod with zoysia but with such a large area, I thought plugs would be more economical. Can I plug directly into the fescue and wait for it to overtake the fescue or do I need to kill off all the fescue before plugging the zoysia?

cking – posted 24 September 2004 11:41

Have you tried going with two applications of pre-emergent to prevent crabgrass? I have had some luck with a February application and a May reapplication. Where do you live?

lbk_atlanta – posted 24 September 2004 19:46

I live in Atlanta. We’ve had a lawn service for almost two years and I discussed it with them and they did put down two applications of pre-emergents. I don’t know exactly when they did it but it hasn’t helped. That’s why we’re thinking of changing grass.

cking – posted 28 September 2004 16:21

It sounds like your neighbors are probably the cause – it only takes one lawn full of crabgrass to take out an entire street. I’m not sure about the plugging question, but I can tell you that I have emerald zoysia in Alabama and it does great. Good luck.

jimtnc2002 – posted 29 September 2004 05:23

lbk_atlanta, this is a repost answer to your previous post 9/24.

I really haven’t decided whether to bare the soil or seed through it, but I’m leaning toward a kind of slit-seeding process (I’ve got a spike aerator I’m gonna use for this), and seeding over top what I have now. I will of course cut the existing lawn very low prior to this. It’s just too much work for me to do otherwise by myself. I haven’t found the proper way to apply the seed yet because of the small size of the seed, but at $40 per 2lbs I better find out the best way to get it into the ground. I understand it’s slow growing, but with hot full sun I should see some good coverage the first summer.

[This message has been edited by jimtnc2002 (edited 29 September 2004).]