Lawn care for Zoysia yard

[appstate1998]

After 4 summers I've finally gotten my zoysia lawn looking great.

I use Team Turf for treatments, but I cut my own lawn, which is about the size of a postage stamp.

I bought the highest rated reel mower on Amazon and after 3 seasons, I got rid of it. Zoysia is too thick for a push reel mower. You can buy a really expensive gas powered reel mower, but be prepared to spend money on repairs... those machines are expensive and break.

I agree that reel mowers are the best, but you're not going to find a lawn maintenance company that uses them for residential properties. I searched a few years ago with no luck.

My advice- accept that reel mowing is not realistic... no pun intended. Instead, stay on top of lawn treatments. The past two summers my lawn guys have used something called Primo Growth Factor. It stunts the zoysia turf so that it doesn't grow up, but down and out... making the turf much healthier.

Good luck!

[fp_911]

I have a Bermuda lawn, not Zoysia but they both have similar needs for care. I ended up purchasing a used greens mower off of Craigslist and use that to cut my lawn.

I still use a lawn service for weed and fertilizer treatments but I do the cutting myself. Since my lawn isn't huge and the machine is intended for golf courses I really only have to perform yearly maintenance on it. I also tried the manual push mower route and couldn't get the cut I wanted. But when I moved to this greens mower things improved substantially.

I also tried the Primo mentioned above and it does work! You have to be careful how much you apply and do it evenly or you'll end up with portions of your yard not growing as quickly but it's a good option to cut down on mowing frequency.

[appstate1998]

Originally Posted by fp_911

I have a Bermuda lawn, not Zoysia but they both have similar needs for care. I ended up purchasing a used greens mower off of Craigslist and use that to cut my lawn.

I still use a lawn service for weed and fertilizer treatments but I do the cutting myself. Since my lawn isn't huge and the machine is intended for golf courses I really only have to perform yearly maintenance on it. I also tried the manual push mower route and couldn't get the cut I wanted. But when I moved to this greens mower things improved substantially.

I also tried the Primo mentioned above and it does work! You have to be careful how much you apply and do it evenly or you'll end up with portions of your yard not growing as quickly but it's a good option to cut down on mowing frequency.

Just curious, but how much did you pay for the used mower?

[fp_911]

Originally Posted by appstate1998

Just curious, but how much did you pay for the used mower?

Under $600 if I remember correctly. It is a Toro Greensmaster 1000:

https://www.toro.com/en/golf/greensm...ter-1000-04055

I knew nothing about these mowers but found that my lawn would need it to really thrive. It's an older one but considering a new one is $9000+ and is industrial quality so as long as it's maintained you should be ok.

This model will only cut up to 1" in height though so be prepared to be out there every week with Bermuda grass. Zoysia grows a little slower so you might get more time between mows. I've been happy with it and my lawn does show improvement over using my previous Honda rotary mower (that was a great mower itself but not really intended for these types of grasses).

There are a couple of other forums I can point you to if you're interested in this topic that got me up to speed on what it takes to maintain these southern grasses.

[SupDawg22]

Thanks for all of the suggestions. I have a TruCut commercial reel mower, and if all I had to do was cut the grass I'd be perfectly fine doing it (it takes 45 mins). However, blowing the yard off prior to cutting (to protect the mower blades), edging/trimming, then blowing again, takes 1.5 hours or so. Really I'm looking to cut out that time, as well as the leaf service time.

Do y'all think there would be a service willing to do the leaf service, mulch beds, and edging/trimming? Any suggestions?

Thanks for your help!