Zoysia vs. St. Augustine – Battle Royale

turfnewbie – posted 05 August 2007 16:16

I live in College Station, TX. Just moved into a house where previous owners put in zoysia (I think Zorro) a few years ago. Neighbor’s St. Augustine has grown into my front yard (looks like it was left to invade for a year or two) and now about 5 feet of one side of my yard is a mix of zoysia and St. Augustine.

I’m using MSMA on the St. Augustine and it looks like I’m winning. My question is:What do I do with all of the dead St. Augustine thatch in order to let the zoysia fill in the gaps? Do I need to remove it? Will the zoysia fill in the gaps eventually? How long is eventually?

Any thoughts would be appreciated!

tommy – posted 06 August 2007 11:13

If you want to speed up the process, a steel rake or thatching rake will pull up a lot of runners- so that you can mow short and remove quite a bit of St Augustine. If the area is large, consider renting a power rake.

turfnewbie – posted 06 August 2007 13:42

Thanks tommy.

Will using a rake cause damage to the zoysia that is mixed in with the Augustine?

Alex_in_FL – posted 20 October 2007 12:18

I almost said just use any rake to get up the dead grass/thatch and avoid raking too deeply. And that might work just fine.

However, Floratam (a variety of St. Augustine) does not like to grow over dead Floratam. My empire zoysia does not have this reservation. So, you may just want to do nothing and let the zoysia grow as it will.