OT: need some advice from a yard/grass expert

[Rod Dangerfield]

Moved into a brand new house this winter. Planted some Rye just so I wouldn't have mud for a yard. It's done well. I have 2 questions:

1-when will the rye die out

2-can I plant zoysia seed in an existing yard with rye grass (really want zoysia)

Thanks. I'll hang up & listen.

 

[sanfordcock]

I plant winter rye every year since my wife wants the grass to be green all year. Will die out once the heat and dry weather get to it (usually May or so).

I don't think planting zoysia see is a problem at all. Not sure of the time of year to plant seed though. If zoysia is like bermuda or centipede, you have to wait until it gets warm.
This post was edited on 3/3 9:48 AM by sanfordcock

 

[gamecockfan04]

Depending on the size of the yard I wouldnt bother trying seed. I wasted soooo much money of bags and bags of seed and finally spent like $170 on a pallet of palisade zoysia (500sq ft worth) and it looks great and well worth the $$. I need another pallet to finish my front and will do it soon, but the first pallet has been down for about 3 years now and requires no watering just mow it about every other week in the summer.

 

[CrestwoodRicky]

Taking a Turfgrass Management course currently, from notes below:

ZOYSIA


3 species

Japanese - Widest leaf,
forms the least dense turf, greatest cold tolerance.

Mascarenegrass - Finest
leafed, forms the most dense turf, and has the least cold tolerance of the
three species. Not widely used.

Manilagrass - Ranks between
the latter in leaf width or texture, density, and cold tolerance.




All three types form a dense, high quality turf.

Even though they have rhizomes & stolons, all species have a
relatively slow growth rate and are very slow to establish.

Japanese are most vigorous.

Established by vegetative methods; seed results in poor germination.



Zoysia requires a medium level of maintenance.

Excellent heat, drought, and wear tolerance.
Shade tolerance is fair to good.





Grows best on moist, fertile, fine textured soils with ph range of 6 to
7.

 

[Rod Dangerfield]

Originally posted by gamecockfan04:
Depending on the size of the yard I wouldnt bother trying seed. I wasted soooo much money of bags and bags of seed and finally spent like $170 on a pallet of palisade zoysia (500sq ft worth) and it looks great and well worth the $$. I need another pallet to finish my front and will do it soon, but the first pallet has been down for about 3 years now and requires no watering just mow it about every other week in the summer.

Unfortunately, I have way too much yard to be sodded. It'd probably be 1k or more to sod my yard. If it was optional, I'd do it, but that's a lot of dough for grass when I can get a couple of bags for $200 & do it.

 

[Easypeasy]

Originally posted by Rod Dangerfield:

Originally posted by gamecockfan04:
Depending on the size of the yard I wouldnt bother trying seed. I wasted soooo much money of bags and bags of seed and finally spent like $170 on a pallet of palisade zoysia (500sq ft worth) and it looks great and well worth the $$. I need another pallet to finish my front and will do it soon, but the first pallet has been down for about 3 years now and requires no watering just mow it about every other week in the summer.

Unfortunately, I have way too much yard to be sodded. It'd probably be 1k or more to sod my yard. If it was optional, I'd do it, but that's a lot of dough for grass when I can get a couple of bags for $200 & do it.

I don't know your deminsions but if I was you I would do some combination and sod a selected area (just the front or a perimeter around your house. You can do seeding but you need to plant maybe some fescue as well. Zoysia will choke fescue out but it is slow to take over an area. Your yard will look like Fido's ass in the winter for a while but in your circumstance I think you have to take the good with bad. If you do not get something going you are going to washing problems. Unfortunately this is not the optimal time to plant fescue either but it is probably your most economical solution and it isn't your long term goal.

 

[vacock#]

Question and comment

When I lived in Columbia (50s through early 70s), my Dad didn't want to buy zoysia sod so we bought one piece and planted separate sections over the lawn and let them grow. It eventually worked. When one section gets think, you can transplant some of those pieces to other sections of the lawn that needs more.

I'll be moving to Greenville/Simpsonville, this year and was wondering if people put down a mix of grass. Seems to me that different types of grass grows better in shade, sun, wet, dry, etc. soil conditions. Around the DC area of VA, many of the bags of grass seed are a mix of types of seeds. Is that the case in SC?

 

[spinrbait]

Re: Question and comment

i know i was big on centipede in anderson for a long time. but now i am a bermuda guy. its just what is best for this area. the bermuda 419 or 451 sod, (i forget which it is) thrives in this area. for seed, i like the sahara bermuda seed. i am going to get a couple pallets of the 419 when growing season starts. then i am going to throw out a bunch of the seed around may 25 to june first. i just put out pre-emergent today. it will be gone by june first.

 

[UpstateGC]

First of all - don't overspend in the Spring because depending on where you live, young grass will most likely struggle and die during the summer if planted late Spring or early summer.

My advice would be make up your mind soon on what type of grass to plant and plant it early Spring. Keep it watered deeply so that a deep root system will develop. Once the grass germinates - one good soaking is much better than several sprinkings. The strongest of the bunch will survive during our hot summer. Then implement your Big Plan and Big Labor in the Fall of the year.

Unfortunately the new grass will compete with the Rye for moisture that it will need. So you do have a dilemma. Just plant early but don't over-do-it. I'd say, once the rye dies-out - of course never plant it again, especially in large quantities.

One option, especially if you live in a neighborhood - is to develop a lot of natural areas with some shrubs, flower gardens, ground covers, etc while waiting on next Fall to come to put your Big Final Plan.

 

[bdblack]

First time I planted rye on my yard, it looked great up to about Father's Day in June. What's that, like the third Sunday?

 

[cockgun]

I have the new Zeon Zoysia at my Lake Murray weekend house up in the Prosperity area. Last year was the third year since it was planted and it rebounded from a disastrous year two. It looked good, even though we get a good deal of morning shade. You can check it out on the internet. It is supposed to be the best.

 

[Rod Dangerfield]

Lots of good suggestions. Anyone ever planted any Argentine Bahiagrass?

 

[HuntsvilleCock]

Here is a vote for Bermuda, but getting seed to take is near impossible. Had my whole yard sodded last year with a new house and the coldest winter in Alabama history killed every last bit of it. Builder tried as an option seeding it, which never worked. Ended up replacing the whole yard in July, which looked great by September.

My neighbor has zoysia, which is moving into our yard maybe 8' last year alone. Funny thing, we had an infestation of army worms in August, ate my Bermuda to the ground. Once I figured out what it was and treated, the Bermuda came back. But they didn't touch the zoysia. We didn't get the insect treatment from our yard service due to the yard being replaced.

 

[Rod Dangerfield]

Originally posted by HuntsvilleCock:

Here is a vote for Bermuda, but getting seed to take is near impossible. Had my whole yard sodded last year with a new house and the coldest winter in Alabama history killed every last bit of it. Builder tried as an option seeding it, which never worked. Ended up replacing the whole yard in July, which looked great by September.

My neighbor has zoysia, which is moving into our yard maybe 8' last year alone. Funny thing, we had an infestation of army worms in August, ate my Bermuda to the ground. Once I figured out what it was and treated, the Bermuda came back. But they didn't touch the zoysia. We didn't get the insect treatment from our yard service due to the yard being replaced.

So you're endorsing Bermuda....but it kinda seems like you're speaking negatively about it??

 

[HuntsvilleCock]

No, I am endorsing Bermuda. There were around 100 new homes in the area that had the same issue with sod not living through the winter last year. Bermuda sod has a small root system provided with the sod, and the sod has been detached from the rhizome. Just an anomaly associated with record temps. The sod did not experience initial temps over 30 for more than 3 weeks, and money of those were single digits.

Army worm thing was preventable, again more hard luck associated with lawn being replaced.

If not mistaken, zoysia requires a special fertilizer, and some fertilizers will kill it. I think zoysia looks better, but is more sensitive. With shade, zoysia is the better choice by far.

 

[world famous 3rd base hecklers]

Originally posted by Rod Dangerfield:
Moved into a brand new house this winter. Planted some Rye just so I wouldn't have mud for a yard. It's done well. I have 2 questions:

1-when will the rye die out

2-can I plant zoysia seed in an existing yard with rye grass (really want zoysia)

Thanks. I'll hang up & listen.

Call Modern Turf Care at 803-691-9890 or 803-786-5640. Ask for Dustin.

They have several locations around Columbia and they can tell about zoysia sod.

 

[JRS9572]

Rye could die out earlier if the temps get hot enough. Once we get into spring keep the Rye cut low and that will accelerate it's dying off. The folks that work on fields like WB, and Carolina Stadium do a lot of that and they use some chemical to treat.

I'm a Bermuda guy (1st yard in 419. Did the last with Celebration and I liked it even better.), but you can plug zoyzia and let it grow together. It will take a while to fill in, but that's a way you can save money. I linked a video that shows how to do it.

Plug it

 

[cockhornleghorn]

Originally posted by gamecockfan04:
Depending on the size of the yard I wouldnt bother trying seed. I wasted soooo much money of bags and bags of seed and finally spent like $170 on a pallet of palisade zoysia (500sq ft worth) and it looks great and well worth the $$. I need another pallet to finish my front and will do it soon, but the first pallet has been down for about 3 years now and requires no watering just mow it about every other week in the summer.

I did too; with the amount of time and money I wasted on repeatedly seeding, I could have had beautiful sod put down.

 

[cockn'fyr]

Speaking of sod, who is the best to go through for centipede? Anyone know a current price?

 

[bucketdad]

I'd substitute Bermuda for what you want to do with Rye. Bermuda is one of the easiest to grow (it grows natural in my area if you didn't plant anything at all). I'd seed with that to get a quick sustainable lawn. At the same time, I'd buy a pallet of Zoysia or whatever your preference and break that into plugs. Nearly any grass such as that, centipede or whatever will overtake the Bermuda and in a few years, you'll have the lawn of your dreams.