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Any recommendations between these two Zoysia strains?

14 years ago

I am planning to sod my yard with Zoysia in next month. THe sod farm that I am getting it form offers two varities, El Toro and Cavalier. One is thin bladed and one is thick. The both looks aesthetically fine to me. Does any one have and ideas about which would be a better lawn, IE hardier, quicker growning, recovery, weed tollerant, etc.

I am on VA Beach, Zone 8 , I have moderate shade, an inground sprinkler.

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Comments (5)

auteck
14 years ago
Any heavy traffic expected on the turf?
texas_weed
14 years ago
Cavalier (Z matrella) is the finer bladed grass and will give you the higher quality look with excellent disease and web worm resistance. It was developed by TAMU, and scored the highest quality ratings in NTEP trial over a 3 year period.

El Toro (Z japonica) is a coarser grained grass and directly related to Meyers Z-52, and developed by U of California. Most notable characteristic is it has similar cold tolerance of Meyers, but grows and spreads much faster.

So IMO it depends on the texture (quality) you want; fine (Cavalier), or coarse (El Toro). Both have good cold tolerance, but El Toro should green up a little sooner (week or two) in spring.
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texas_weed
14 years ago
A little more is known about Cavalier, as it has under gone extensive testing in many states including Virginia. You can read up on it here:

http://dallas.tamu.edu/turf/cavalier.html

U of California has not had a lot of public information available to the public
keithw
Original Author
14 years ago
I will have relatively light foot traffic on it. I am interested in fast growing so if El Toro spreads faster and greens up sooner that is a big plus.
auteck
14 years ago
Keith, I will stay away from Zoysia if I were you.

If light foot traffic and in semi shade, then Fine Fescue is your friend. Even Tall Fescue will grow under those conditions.

Zoysia suffers from winterkill here in Raleigh, as well as disease. Fairy Ring seems to be Cavalier's worst enemy when over fertilized. When damage occurs, you can't just throw some seed down and fix it, you either buy new sod, plug, or wait the entire season if not longer for the grass to repair itself. Bermuda is no better, and it get's bombarded by all kinds of weeds due its low density canopy and long dormancy period.

The few Zoysia lawns people plant here to replace fescue look good the first year, then it turns to crap (excuse my French) the following years. Some spend tons of $$$ on Fungicide, fertilizers, Surfactants, sprayers, iron, organic, compost, dethatching, reel mower, etc, to try to rescue/save their "investment"

The few good looking Zoysias around here are the ones at Golf Courses with Golf Course budget, knowledge, and maintenance.

Save your money and efford put some seed down in the Fall, UNLESS you love warm season grasses and you have to have it then go for it - but you've been warned.

Zoysia grasses are tropical in nature, the weather in V.A. is anything but tropical.

Click on the link for more info Zoysia/Bermuda winterkill:

Here is a link that might be useful: Zoysia and Bermuda Winterkill

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