Seeding Cool Season Grass (Fescue, Rye, etc)

Get Off My Lawn

Get Off My Lawn

Artist formerly known as Pink Vapor
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Right now is the best time, it’s warm enough for them to get established, the winter allows the roots to grow so it has a much better shot at surviving the heat of next summer.
Use a Starter fertilizer (higher in phosphorus, the 2nd number, like 10-10-10) to aid in root growth. Then hit it again in mid January. I have spread fertilizer here with snow on the ground, the fescue was amazing the following years.

If you’re in the middle or eastern part of the state I wouldn’t bother with that much annual work. Zoysia Zeon is an amazing plush carpet, but expensive, or labor intensive to install.
 
Pink_Vapor said:
Right now is the best time, it’s warm enough for them to get established, the winter allows the roots to grow so it has a much better shot at surviving the heat of next summer.
Use a Starter fertilizer (higher in phosphorus, the 2nd number, like 10-10-10) to aid in root growth. Then hit it again in mid January. I have spread fertilizer here with snow on the ground, the fescue was amazing the following years.

If you’re in the middle or eastern part of the state I wouldn’t bother with that much annual work. Zoysia Zeon is an amazing plush carpet, but expensive, or labor intensive to install.
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What's good for the central part of the state?
 
+1 on zoysia. I've seeded it in two houses now, and it's amazing. It grows slower, spreads along the ground to choke out weeds, doesn't need water, and I don't have to aerate/seed every year.

I just did my house a few months ago, and it's coming in solid. It will take another season or two to really fill in.
 
Geerubb said:
+1 on zoysia. I've seeded it in two houses now, and it's amazing. It grows slower, spreads along the ground to choke out weeds, doesn't need water, and I don't have to aerate/seed every year.

I just did my house a few months ago, and it's coming in solid. It will take another season or two to really fill in.
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The cool thing about it is the more you mow the faster it spreads. It sprouts new branches everywhere it's cut.
 
Cowboy said:
The cool thing about it is the more you mow the faster it spreads. It sprouts new branches everywhere it's cut.
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Yup. I've been mowing twice a week trying to get some more to spread before it goes dormat.
 
My backyard looked the best it ever has this spring. I seeded and fertilized but mid season I hit it with Spectricide weed control and killed everything. With the rain nothing but crabgrass came in. Next week I am killing everything with RoundUp. I’m looking for someone to scrape up three inches and haul in topsoil. Not sure of the grass yet but Zoysia sounds like a win.

My front yard was amazing and I had compliments galore and all new grass died. I have zero sun in the front from the house and two trees. Not sure anything short of tree removal will improve it. If Zoysia grew under trees I would do the entire yard.
 
Chuckman said:
What's good for the central part of the state?
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Are you asking about grass in general, or a specific cool grass? Someone else will have to suggest a cool season variety.
The last 3 homes, 20+years, we've had hybrid bermuda or zoysia. We now have all zoysia, Zeon in the front and Empire out back. Noth these strains do not require the yearly de-thatching process. I chose them wanting the best lawn with the lowest maintanence. I thought the empire would be tougher and faster to fill in from dogs and kids. The Zeon is like walking on a super plush spnge carpet.
 
The bad thing about zoysia is you track in brown grass ALL winter long....PITA
 
Pink_Vapor said:
The last 3 homes, 20+years, we've had hybrid bermuda or zoysia. We now have all zoysia, Zeon in the front and Empire out back.
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We really wanted zoysia, but the yard was done at the wrong time of year and we didn’t have enough GPM on the well for sod. I’d be almost tempted to plow it up and redo it.
 
noway2 said:
We really wanted zoysia, but the yard was done at the wrong time of year and we didn’t have enough GPM on the well for sod. I’d be almost tempted to plow it up and redo it.
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I bought one pallet and have been cutting out plugs. It's a slow way to get a lawn, but its filling in amazing.
 
noway2 said:
We really wanted zoysia, but the yard was done at the wrong time of year and we didn’t have enough GPM on the well for sod. I’d be almost tempted to plow it up and redo it.
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We have had two fescue yards that we killed off, tilled in, and seeded with zoysia. I'm in the middle of the 2nd yard coming in, and it's growing like crazy.
 
Pink_Vapor said:
Exactly https://proplugger.com/
This picture of the lower part of the yard was taken in April. You can see the plugs spreading, and the strips of sod the plugs are coming from.
View attachment 245417
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What time of the year have you had most success doing it? Also putting anything special or doing anything special under the plugs when you plant them? Done a little but had mixed sucess but also didnt put a big effort into it when I tried it.
 
Jp8819 said:
What time of the year have you had most success doing it? Also putting anything special or doing anything special under the plugs when you plant them? Done a little but had mixed sucess but also didnt put a big effort into it when I tried it.
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We’re on this God awful brick making clay, I’m punching a 4” hole, pouring in 2-3" of humus/topsoil and placing the plug on top.
It doesn’t seem to matter what time of year I plug, Zoysia’s riots continue to grow, very slowly, through winter.
The same spot this morn, the plugs to the right will fill in next summer.
E9079BA7-BD39-40F1-910C-446416475EAF.jpeg
That’s a quarter.
2B6C4F1A-813E-4C8B-BB7F-91BB32ED7EC0.jpeg
 
Pink_Vapor said:
We’re on this God awful brick making clay,
]
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Sounds like you have some of the same fine potting soil! The type you of soil you make the pots out of. Thanks for feed back and similar condtions is reason I wanted to ask. Have one of the pluggers but wasnt sure if it would try to freeze out doing it later in the year.
 
Jp8819 said:
What time of the year have you had most success doing it? Also putting anything special or doing anything special under the plugs when you plant them? Done a little but had mixed sucess but also didnt put a big effort into it when I tried it.
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The best time of year is early summer late May to June when your ground temp is going to be over 50 degrees. Plugs might be a little different but with seed you break the ground up really good or use a slit seeder to get it in the ground. It will do the rest.
 
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BlackGun said:
@Pink_Vapor. With the plugs in how do you keep weeds from coming in before the plugs have spread?
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The same thing the sod farms, use a quality pre-emergent, NOT Scott's. The couple of sod farms I spoke with use Ronstar. I'm getting a granular 50lb of 0.86% strength for ~$22 locally. Lesco is the only brand I'd buy from a big box retailer. 2-4D mixed with Cimerron+ knocks down anything else that grows up later.
The plugs take off if they're fertilized and kept moist. The only problems I've seen with Zoysia is dog piss will kill a spot that slowly fills back in, and ONLY water in the morning or you could have mold problems. I had mold spots last year, I watered at all times of the day and A LOT. This year I fertilized more and only watered in the morning, the spots went away.
 
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Pink_Vapor said:
The same thing the sod farms, use a quality pre-emergent, NOT Scott's. The couple of sod farms I spoke with use Ronstar. I'm getting a granular 50lb of 0.86% strength for ~$22 locally. Lesco is the only brand I'd buy from a big box retailer. 2-4D mixed with Cimerron+ knocks down anything else that grows up later.
The plugs take off if they're fertilized and kept moist. The only problems I've seen with Zoysia is dog piss will kill a spot that slowly fills back in, and ONLY water in the morning or you could have mold problems. I had mold spots last year, I watered at all times of the day and A LOT. This year I fertilized more and only watered in the morning, the spots went away.
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^^^^^^^^
This is all good stuff. I grow grass for a living (golf course), and zoysia is pretty good stuff. Benefits are slow growth, nice color, turf density when mature, and pretty decent shade tolerance when compared to other warm season grasses. I plugged a section of the yard at my old house with a different variety (El Toro), and it took about two years to fully fill in. Zoysia only tillers by rhizomes (underground runners), unlike most other warm season grasses like Bermuda and centipede that both spread by rhizomes and stolons (above ground runners). Downsides to zoysia are some sensitivity to certain herbicides and slow growth and recovery from damage. Make sure you check the label before applying any herbicides and, like you said, a sod farm is a great resource for information. Ronstar is an old tried and true pre-em that works pretty well for weed control in new turf where other products can cause root pruning and hamper tillering. Avoid late season nitrogen applications, as you may invite fungal diseases. Where I am it’s common practice to apply Roundup on dormant Bermuda in the winter or early spring to kill Poa on days that shoot up to the 50’s when the Poa will metabolize the herbicide. Don’t do this with zoysia. It’s a common way to damage the turf.
 
tbafile said:
^^^^^^^^
Where I am it’s common practice to apply Roundup on dormant Bermuda in the winter or early spring to kill Poa on days that shoot up to the 50’s when the Poa will metabolize the herbicide. Don’t do this with zoysia. It’s a common way to damage the turf.
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I'm glad you said that. The last lawns we had were bermuda and I'd roundup weeds ~march. I was afraid to try on the zoysia because the roots grow in winter.
Question:
I have two different weeds types that look similar to sand spurs with no spikes. Cimmeron+, 2-4D and Fusilade II have only yellowed the Zoysia. Any thoughts?
 
I couldn’t say what kind of weed it is just by your description. If you can take some pictures of the weed maybe I can help. What you’ve already sprayed seems to cover a pretty wide spectrum of weeds. If you’re getting yellowing I definitely wouldn’t increase the rate any.
 
Pink_Vapor said:
Right now is the best time, it’s warm enough for them to get established, the winter allows the roots to grow so it has a much better shot at surviving the heat of next summer.
Use a Starter fertilizer (higher in phosphorus, the 2nd number, like 10-10-10) to aid in root growth. Then hit it again in mid January. I have spread fertilizer here with snow on the ground, the fescue was amazing the following years.

If you’re in the middle or eastern part of the state I wouldn’t bother with that much annual work. Zoysia Zeon is an amazing plush carpet, but expensive, or labor intensive to install.
Click to expand...
Biggest ass chewing I’ve ever received was for planting fescue back in a dude’s “$40,000 zoysia lawn...well, only $20,000, but it had to be replanted once.”

I’m still trying to figure out if he was serious...
 
9outof10mms said:
Biggest ass chewing I’ve ever received was for planting fescue back in a dude’s “$40,000 zoysia lawn...well, only $20,000, but it had to be replanted once.”

I’m still trying to figure out if he was serious...
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Oofff! I'd hava a fit if fescue weed was seeded in the lawn. Someone would be on their knees wiping the tops of the fescue with roundup.
The Zeon sod is ~$1/sq ft, add labor and delivery, its stupid expensive. Thats why I bought one pallet to take my time to plug the lawn.
 
Pink_Vapor said:
Oofff! I'd hava a fit if fescue weed was seeded in the lawn. Someone would be on their knees wiping the tops of the fescue with roundup.
The Zeon sod is ~$1/sq ft, add labor and delivery, its stupid expensive. Thats why I bought one pallet to take my time to plug the lawn.
Click to expand...
The rest of the story is we couldn't get in touch with the guy for weeks and had a sinkhole forming in his side yard over a storm pipe. My crew did what they are trained to do: stabilize the site and leave it looking good. Up to that point, we hadn't encountered a fool with a lawn that cost more than my truck. Now I know...
 
tbafile said:
I couldn’t say what kind of weed it is just by your description. If you can take some pictures of the weed maybe I can help. What you’ve already sprayed seems to cover a pretty wide spectrum of weeds. If you’re getting yellowing I definitely wouldn’t increase the rate any.
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The first two are the same weed, you can see the damaged Zoysia.
61206D9F-48F2-4FB6-B587-34FF2F7BCE31.jpeg
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AFC62AC7-D1F9-42FE-AA2C-916EAFF02699.jpeg

This one is 2.5’ tall, it’s not much of a problem in the lawn, unless it’s one of the others grown up.
2B957B9A-694A-4975-8262-33DDED5F5BAA.jpeg
 
9outof10mms said:
The rest of the story is we couldn't get in touch with the guy for weeks and had a sinkhole forming in his side yard over a storm pipe. My crew did what they are trained to do: stabilize the site and leave it looking good. Up to that point, we hadn't encountered a fool with a lawn that cost more than my truck. Now I know...
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That makes sense, I’ve made it very clear to any contractors to NOT seed over any work, I’ll take care of it.
 
The pictures appear to all be sedges. There are many different sedges, but what they all share in common is a triangular stem and leaves that come out in threes. Some products that we spray on golf turf for sedge are Monument, Sedgehammer, and Tribute Total. I can’t remember all the active ingredients right now for these, but a google search will provide the answer. I think Sedgehammer is one of the cheaper of these products, but I’ve never seen any that provided control with just one application. Repeated apps, sometimes over more than one growing season, are often necessary for control.
 
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