Planning Zoysia lawn

Bermuda, St. Augustine, Zoysia, Centipede, Bahia, Paspalum, etc
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sh3rlock
Posts: 13
Joined: July 15th, 2017, 3:14 pm
Location: Milton, FL (FL Panhandle)
Grass Type: Unknown
Lawn Size: Not Specified
Level: Not Specified

Planning Zoysia lawn

Post by sh3rlock » July 30th, 2017, 10:36 pm

Howdy, y'all.

I just bought a house in a town outside of Pensacola, Fl and wanted to reseed the lawn. It is all bare sand and I think centipede grass at the moment. I was a little premature and bought Zenith Zoysia seed thinking I had enough time to kill it all and seed this fall, only to realize I don't. So, this fall I'm working on the beds and irrigation to get it ready for seed in the spring.

The lawn is around 2000 sq ft, facing south. I guess I'm just posting here to get feedback that it will be best for me to wait until spring. I know sod would be easier but I don't have that I'm the budget at the moment and have already purchased seed, so I'm going to give it a shot.

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Jayhawkmba
Posts: 287
Joined: August 3rd, 2014, 8:22 pm
Location: Atlanta, GA
Grass Type: Zeon Zoysia, tifGrand, & 419
Lawn Size: Not Specified
Level: Not Specified

Re: Planning Zoysia lawn

Post by Jayhawkmba » August 9th, 2017, 11:25 pm

Without irrigation...no chance in my opinion.

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Dchall_San_Antonio
Posts: 3341
Joined: December 17th, 2008, 1:53 am
Location: San Antonio, Texas
Grass Type: St Augustine
Lawn Size: 5000-10000
Level: Advanced

Re: Planning Zoysia lawn

Post by Dchall_San_Antonio » August 18th, 2017, 11:06 am

There's no bare sand.

Can you take another picture of the grass from a distance of 3 inches? Overcast days are best for photographing nature. If you can find places where the un cut tips of the grass is visible we can tell you what kind of grass you already have. It would be a lot less expensive to make the current lawn work than to redo the entire lawn.

By far and away the predominant turf in the area is St Augustine. I think it would be a mistake to veer off the path that so many have had success with.

Assuming what you have is already St Aug, there are a few tricks to make it very easy to care for. Start by raising your mower to the highest setting and welding it in that place. There is never any reason to mow St Aug lower than the highest setting. In fact it helps to let it go for 2-3 weeks between mowing. This seems to improve the appearance. Tall St Augustine will wipe out all the other grassy plants growing in the yard. It will help retard the broadleaf weeds, but not all of them. Clover, dichondra, sea grapes, and other plants will move into St Aug and smother it unless you use an atrazine herbicide once a year (only if needed). A second element to easy St Aug is deep and infrequent watering. This seems to be a hard concept for Floridians to get hold of. Perhaps it is due to inconsistent soil type in FL. In any case, daily watering should not be part of your lawn care.

For now I would apply an organic fertilizer to the yard. Sand is famous for eating organic matter out of the soil. Organic fertilizers really help. Milorganite is a popular commercial brand of fertilizer. Otherwise you should be able to find soybean meal, alfalfa pellets (rabbit chow), or corn meal at your local feed stores. The application rate is 15 pounds per 1,000 square feet. I would use an organic at least once a year if not instead of a chemical fertilizer program. I think if you fertilize now with an organic you will be less inclined to want to rip it all out.

THIS IS ALL BASED ON IT BEING ST AUGUSTINE. If you really have centipede then all this is crap. Need to see your 3-inch picture first.

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