zoysia vs. st. augustine — which will win?

ibroussard – posted 13 August 2005 20:11

Which zoysia japonica varieties keep st. augustine from encroaching on it from neighboring areas, or will the st. augustine ultimately overtake the zoysia? I’m sodding the zoysia solid, and I have a watering system. There’s no practical way to put a barrier between the two in my situation, and I can’t kill the st. augustine. I’m about 50 miles south of Houston, 15 miles from the gulf coast. Mostly full sun. Zero to six inches of sandy clay on top of a black gumbo clay soil. I’m putting in about 3000 sq.yds. of zoysia if it will beat out the st.augustine.

Thanks,Ira

PS: tried using the search function, but everything I searched on came back with a completely blank screen.

kyleinmarietta – posted 13 August 2005 20:45

The St Augustine will probably win. It is much faster growing and has larger leaves. It’ll probably start by spreading on top of the zoysia, shading it out. Once the zoysia thins, the St. Augustine will establish roots and continue its march.

There are several herbicides that are fairly safe on zoysia but are labeled as no-no’s for St Augustine, so might have some success at finding a herbicide that will keep it at bay.

Tungsten33333 – posted 13 August 2005 21:45

Neither will win out once they’re established in the full sun. I will have to check out my mom’s backyard (in houston) to see if there has been any changes. It’s been a while since I’ve seen them but once established, zoysia isn’t going away. St augustine will spread out a lot faster if plugged. I know… I’ve played around with those grasses. My new experiment in Midlothian, south of DFW, is to see if my new enclosed area of 2 weeks old zenith zoysia can compete with bermuda even though there arent bermuda grasses in that area but the rest of the front yard are bermuda and growing seeds everywhere. I half expected to see new bermuda seedlings in that area that might have gotten blown into. I just can’t tell the difference between bermuda and zoysia seedlings at the moment…