|
|
Plant of the Week
Meyer Z-52 Zoysiagrass
Latin: Zoysia japonica
'Meyer Z-52'
Gardeners recognize lawns as a necessary evil in the landscape.
While most of us would like to dig it all up and replace it with real plants --
flowers and shrubs and the like -- we recognize that without a garden staff to
maintain the planting we best control our impulses.
Therefore, selecting the correct lawn is critical because we want a turf that
will set off our plantings without become an unnecessary maintenance burden or
becoming so invasive we have to give flower beds over to marauding waves of
grass.
Meyer zoysiagrass is a grass that provides characteristics that most gardeners
like in a turfgrass and can easily live with.
Meyer zoysiagrass is probably the best warm season lawn grasses for Arkansas and
is the most popular of the several strains of zoysiagrass that are available
from the sod industry. It is one of the most cold hardy zoysias and is grown
extensively across the U.S. in areas south of St. Louis all the way to the
southern tip of Florida.
In the winter it has an attractive golden brown color that is much more
appealing than the gray-brown of bermudagrass. Meyer forms a dense mat that is
so thick it will crowd out even some of the more troublesome weeds. It does
spread by stolons and is always on the move but its rate of spread, unlike
bermudagrass, is manageable.
Meyer zoysiagrass was released jointly by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and
the U.S. Golf Association Greens Section in 1951. It was tested throughout much
of the country under the trial name of "Z-51", a designation it has been slow to
shake.
The original plants were grown from Korean seeds collected in 1930. The Korean
site where the seeds were collected was along the Yalu River and was first
identified by USDA plant explorer Frank Meyer who visited the site in the spring
of 1906. Meyer, who later died while collecting plants in China, was
instrumental in introducing many Asian plants into the U.S., including many
soybean selections, the jujube, and the seeds that later produced the Bradford
ornamental pear. The turfgrass is named in his honor.
Meyer zoysiagrass does not produce viable seed and must be propagated through
vegetation. It is readily available as sod and will give an instant lawn. It is
sold during much of the year as fresh-dug sod, but quicker establishment usually
comes with late spring or early summer sodding.
For those with more patience or less cash on hand, plugging is the way to
establish the lawn. Three-inch plugs are planted on one foot grids in the lawn
area. Coverage will usually require two growing seasons but establishment costs,
if you do the plugging yourself, are about 10 percent of the cost of sodding.
Zoysiagrass does best in full sun. While it is often touted as "more shade
tolerant than bermudagrass", that comparison is meaningless because bermudagrass
must have full sun all the time. Zoysia will grow under very light shading
conditions but is not the lawngrass to choose if much shade is present.
Meyer zoysiagrass is drought tolerant and relatively pest free. It will develop
a leaf rust disease but the malady is usually not considered too serious for the
grass, but the orange spores play havoc with your shoe shine.
Zoysiagrass will respond well to fertility, but high rates of fertility should
be avoided because it increases the incidence of rust and other diseases and
results in more mowing.
By: Gerald Klingaman, retired
Extension Horticulturist
- Ornamentals
Extension News -
June 25, 1999
Back to Archives M - P
Back to Archives X - Z
|
