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Right now, I am certainly NOT pleased with the grass plugs that I received. I ordered in mid-March, they arrived May 21. As most comments suggest, they were very brown and dried out. I'm not really a gardener so I don't know what kind of bugs were on them but there were certainly quite a few. I was disappointed by this point but decided being I had spent the money already, I would go ahead with planting. I ordered 600 plugs and got 3 sections of sod. Most of the dirt was already gone so I could not see the scoring. I planted them the same day they arrived. I followed the directions and cut as close as I could to the correct size using a garden shears. The step on plug thing wasn't exactly "self cleaning" but after about 15 minutes I realized that shoving a spike through the cutting hole between digging holes would loosen the trapped dirt enough so that I could more easily dig the next hole. It took me about 3 hours to get all of the plugs planted. I have been diligently watering them every day in an attempt to get them established. It is now 46 days after planting. They really look pathetic (I planted some grass seed a week later in other areas of my yard which have fully filled in now). The plugged area is black dirt with little balls of brown "straw" still. However, if I look closely, there is 1 or 2 strands of green in each bundle. I'm still watering them every day and my husband says I got took but I'm still holding on that I just haven't given them enough time yet. After reading the posts, I am hoping that they will soon come around because right now, I'm really wishing I would have just bought an extra bag of seed and been done with "establishing" my yard.
On July 6th, 2009, klvester added the following:
So far the company representatives have been very kind to me. I did inquire about the delay in shipping so I did know that I would not be getting the grass until mid-May. The UPS log may have shown that they were delivered on May 19 but May 21 is when they showed up on my doorstep. We have had very little rain this year (about 3 inches total). I have been watering every day (except when it does rain at all...I skip those days) but it should not be enough to kill off anything from over watering. The soil is so dry that it is cracked where bare. I did read that you are only supposed to water it for 3 weeks until established. There was NO sign of life at 3 weeks so that is why I continued to water thinking maybe it just hadn't taken yet. The few strands of green that I now see turned up about a week ago so that is why I haven't completely given up on them just yet. Like I said, where I planted seed is a full lush lawn right now and where I planted the plugs is a grid of straw bunches with dirt background. I also read that it takes quite a while for this type of grass to fill in so I wasn't expecting immediate results but I was expecting more by this far into the process. I haven't given up yet and hope that they will come around someday. I'm just thinking "is it worth it". I really hope they can prove me wrong and it will look like I have something that actually resembles grass growing someday soon. On Jul 6, 2009, Zoysia Farm Nurseries responded with:
Minnesota is one of the states for which a USDA inspection is required before shipment. This is to insure the product complies with all required state agriculture standards. The first inspection for Minnesota shipments took place this year on May 13 and according to UPS this order was delivered on May 19. This order was held pending the inspection date.
With the limited information provided, it is hard to know why this customer had some issues with the step-on-plugger. Compacted soils can make the ‘self cleaning’ not very efficient and some wetting of the soil might have helped. I think the best advice is what this person did; try different approaches and use the one that works best.
From the posting, the Amazoy is being over watered. In our instructions we advise to lightly water for 21 days after planting. 46 days is too many. Amazoy zoysia loves hot dry conditions. A little water is necessary each day after planting, but too much water will damage the roots at a time it is attempting to establish itself.
We want all our customers to be successful and the good news is we stand behind our product. We guarantee to replace any plugs that fail to grow, even when the planting instructions have not been followed fully.
On Jul 7, 2009 11:27 AM, Zoysia Farm Nurseries added:
Minnesota certainly has been dry and that is just the way Amazoy zoysia likes it. The one thing it does not like is too much water over an extended period of time.
Zoysia does everything very slowly including turning green when coming out of a dormant state. It can take 45 days for it to start sending up new grass shoots, especially if it is getting too much water. Patience is the key word with zoysia. Just give it time. I’ve heard it said the more you ignore zoysia the better it does. Not literally true, but not bad general advise. The fact zoysia is so slow growing is one of its great benefits. Once established, it will not need as much mowing and will stay green even with less than 3 inches of rain.
Lets hope with less watering you will now start to see your Amazoy zoysia grow (slowly). Any questions please give us a call. We are here to help.
I live in Oceanside, CA and plugged in approximately 1600 of them suckers. I would say 90% of the plugs were brown but I was okay with it knowing what I got I myself into. I also pulled out all my pre-existing lawn, mainly crabgrass, st. aug and fescue mix. I was able to get my yard tilled and mixed in with soil. I thought this would be the best chance to see if these plugs would grow faster without any competition on a complete bare soil lawn. I did use some pre-emergent weed killer to keep seeds from germinating. However, I'm starting to see all kinds of weeds sprouting so I'm not sure how this will play out. I'm thinking of using corn meal gluten as a natural fertilizer and weed killer later in the summer.
As of now I'm just pulling (weeds) what I can on a daily basis so it doesn't get out of hand. I'm not sure what else to do. As for the plugs, they are definetly green now but I 'm not sure if I can see any stolons because I don't know what they look like and I for sure can't see any rhizomes. What I do see from the plugs are new grass growing straight out but I'm not sure if it zoysia or not. Can someone show some close pics of these sprouting?
I don't think the work was all that back breaking maybe boring as hell. Pulling out my lawn was more of a back breaking job and I lost a few pounds in the process. I hope someone has some insight similiar to mine. I really hope this works out because I anticipating a beautiful yet lower maintenance lawn. If it doesn't work out I'm going with either Marathon sod or El Toro sod.
On Jun 10, 2009, Zoysia Farm Nurseries responded with:
This project is on the right track for success. The critical stage is getting the plugs planted and established. It sounds like that phase has been successfully completed.
Pulling out an old lawn, while not necessary for success, will definitely help in establishing any lawn and in this case your Amazoy Zoysia lawn. Keeping the weeds under control with a pre-emergent is also beneficial at any time as you are eliminating competition for nutrients.
Initially the plugs will work on establishing their roots in your soil and stolons will only start to appear once the roots are gaining nutrition from the soil. They are quite easy to see once they appear as they look a bit like an above ground root from which new grass shoots will appear while sending down new roots. Stolons are a bit hard to describe in words, but once you see them there is little mistaking what they are. As we always say patience is the key word with zoysia grass it does everything slower than any previous experience you may have had. The reward; the low maintenance lawn you are looking for.
One general word of caution, I recently read an article about corn gluten, in which it said this is commonly sold as animal feed and unless it is labeled as a natural pre-emergent herbicide it will not provide any weed protection.
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WOW!!!!!!!!! I'm not sure if I should try this grass or not. I live in Az where it is hot!!! HOT I SAY HOT!!!!! Today it's about 103 tomorrow it's 108 next day 108 next 102 the 87. Why out of all these comments I have not seen one from Az. I know that the diamondbacks use this grass in there dome. Controlled environment and they had the money to alter the conditions. Does anybody know if this grass will grow in the hot southwest desert? Give me a yell! I would love to here honest answers.
On May 18th, 2008, h2ojobless added the following:
Almost forgot. If the company reads this what type of grass do you send. I did a lot of research and know there at least 3 kinds. I would love to try the El Toro or Emerald type as out of the three these two seem to have the best comments on other web sites. The type I believe ZFN sends is the Zenith which is the third best kind of grass for this type of grass. I also contacted U of Arizona and they gave me some info. This grass is basically a far east grass grows in Japan to Korea. Just thought the folks would like to know.On May 18, 2008, Zoysia Farm Nurseries responded with:
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On May 19, 2008 4:07 PM, Zoysia Farm Nurseries added:
Zoysia Farm Nurseries has been in business since the early 1950's growing and selling only the original Meyer Zoysia grass released by the U.S. Deptarment of Agriculture . It was developed by the USDA in conjunction with the U.S. Golf Association which was looking firstly for a heat and drought tolerant grass for golf coursed in the hot dry desert areas from Souther California to South Texas. The beauty of Amazoy Zoysia (our brand name) is that it can also withstand the extreme cold often associated with winter nights in the desert and much further north. This is not true of all zoysias.
We are the original providers of zoysia grass for home owners. No one has been doing it longer. I think we know just about all there is to know about zoysia. Below is a testimonial from out website by one of our Arizona customers, I think it says it all. Be careful who you believe, not everyone is an expert on Zoysia grass
Wickenburg. AZ -- "Grew in desert conditions"
"When we moved here we were told by our landscape architect, that the zoysia would not grow here (we are intermediate desert). But we tried it anyway. Was he ever embarrassed a couple of years later when he saw our thick lush lawn." --J.N.
On Apr 2, 2008, GuyGirlTruck Madison Heights, VA wrote:
I wish I'd have found this site before I placed my order,Luckily I ordered small! I'm going to withold judgement until I get my sod,and see how things go. I am however very interested in zorsia,and may have to look for a new source
On Apr 2, 2008, Zoysia Farm Nurseries responded with:
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On Apr 2, 2008 11:54 AM, Zoysia Farm Nurseries added:
As the leading supplier of zoysia grass plugs, you have come to the right place. We have 50 years experience helping many millions of homeowners have beautiful zoysia lawns. We are confident once your zoysia fills in you will also have a beautiful lawn.
With your shipment you will receive complete planting instructions covering different planting situations. Please follow the simple step by step instructions, it is really the best and simplest way to insure success. If you have any questions, beyond our planting instructions, please feel free to contact our customer service team, who can give you expert advise. We are here to help. They can be reached Monday to Friday 8 AM - 5 PM eastern time at 410-756-2311.
I am interested as to why there is no shipping to Oregon or Washington?
I am very interested in this product, however I can't get it...
On Apr 1, 2008, Zoysia Farm Nurseries responded with:
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On Apr 2, 2008 10:52 AM, Zoysia Farm Nurseries added:
Amazoy zoysia grass is very drought tolerant and as such does best in the heat of summer in dry conditions. Unfortunately, Oregon and Washington get their fair share of rain and as such we have decided not to ship to these states. Zoysia is really not a good choice for lawns in the northwest. Additionally, we offer a 100% replacement guarantee for any grass that doesn't grow, thus our desire to only sell Amazoy into areas where it will do well. This protects both the customer and our farm.
There are many good choices for lawns in wet areas and the northewest. As zoysia experts, we can tell you, Amazoy zoysia is not one of them."
Prior to my retirement to South Carolina, I bought a starter house and planted Zoysia plugs on the front lawn (from Zoysia Farms in 1973)...a few years later only half of the plugs survived. It was a lot of hard work. Never again.
Moved from the starter house in 1985 to larger house and the lawn in the back yard already had Zoysia grass established, very uniform growth and green. For the next 22 years, I appreciated the efforts of the previous owner who established the Zoysia grass, because I only mowed the grass in the back yard once or twice in the summer seasons I lived there. And I never watered the backyard. Mother nature took care of that. Occasionally, I would give it some 20/20/20 fertilizer when I thought about it. Maintenance is almost non-existent with Zoysia grass. A few years before I retired, I decided to cut small portions of the Zoysia grass from the backyard and plant it between the sidewalk and the street curb. It had covered 75% of the area before I sold the house.
Now I am down here and bought about 100 3-inch square plugs to start. The plugs are packed in garderner's crate separately and very green. If you do not plant immediately, take the crates out of the boxes and put them in full sunshine and water everyday (crates have drainage holes). Then plant them at your leisure.
The only problem I had with Zoysia is that of concrete slabs or walkways. It will find the slightest crack and grow....once established, it is very difficult to remove it. I used table salt to limit its gowth during the summer season. After any rain, re-salt the cracks!!!!! Also used salt liberally on the seam between the curb and street with good results.
On Mar 20, 2008, Zoysia Farm Nurseries responded with:
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On Mar 27, 2008 9:09 AM, Zoysia Farm Nurseries added:
We are sorry that not all of the plugs took 35 years ago. Today, we continue to offer a replacement guarantee for any plugs that don't grow within 45 days.
As to the zoysia gowing into cracks in the concrete, commercial weed killer should do the trick. Salt is a good environmentally friendly alternative. Vinegar actually might work a little better. The best solution, is patch the concrete after putting down one of these alternatives. Good luck and hope you continue to enjoy your zoysia lawn."
We recently recieved our Zoysia plugs from Zoysia Farms - and have planted about 100 plugs so far. Back Breaking work - and had I known then what we know now - I would NOT have ordered this grass.
Ours, too, came brown - we read the message about "don't be alarmed" - yea - ok. We've been watering our squares for 3 weeks, and we do have some green shoots among the brown sod.
We are keeping it watered, and we are slowly planting the plugs - however - after reading the reviews - I don't feel so hopeful!
I, too, emailed them when we first got the "grass" and that was on 5/18 - it's 6/1 and I have not heard from anyone. I also called on 5/25 @ 4:24pm - and am still waiting for a return phone call.
I will post an update in a few weeks, when we have hopefully planted all of our plugs. And let you all know what is going on. But your negative comments definitely have me worried now.
I'm not sure if I would have ordered from Zoysia Farm Nursuries if I had read some of these reviews but I felt compelled to post as my experience has been different from so many here. After much research regarding grass types for my Atlanta area lawn, I settled on Zoysia. I found Zoysia Farm Nursuries online and ordered the plugs. It did take a couple weeks to recieve the "plugs" by UPS. I called once to check on the order and I was told that they were going to ship to Georgia the following week, and I got them Thursday of the following week. I got the impression that they ship an area based on the weather/planting season. That is just an assumption, so don't count on it. The sheets did have some soil attached. I cut them with a garden shears and it was apparent rather quickly that I was cutting too big to cover the area I planned. I ended up covering about 2/3 of the area I thought I could with the material shipped. The plugging tool was very cheap, but it was relatively easy to use and performed as advertised. If I had covered the intended area if is doubtful the plugger would have made it. As of this writing the plugs have been in the ground since Friday, it is now Monday and they are already starting to turn green and some new grass (very small blades) are coming up from some of the plugs. It is too early to say if I have been scammed, but I don't think so. Other than the sheets of sod not going as far as I hoped I'm pretty happy thus far. If it all dies and I don't get any grass I will amend my post.
On May 22, 2006, Zoysia_fan Virginia Beach, VA wrote:
Zoysia farms out of Maryland. Ordered what I thought was about 8000 plugs to do my entire yard - front and back. I only received enough to make 6000. I was short about 2000 plugs. I called them the next business day and was assured that amount would be shipped to me. Their customer service department has always been helpful with my questions.
Their literature states you can get 150 plugs from 1 piece of 10x15 sod. I was getting about 70-80 plugs per piece just because the sod did not come scored and it is difficult to cut a 1 square inch piece of grass. The cutting itself is not difficult, it's just that the grass starts falling apart when you cut it that small. I recommend using a serated kitchen knife. That worked the best after trying pruning shears and scissors.
Long story short. I ended up doing about one quarter of my enitre yard with the amount of plugs I did receive. It is a long process and I had a lot of help from friends and family, but all the plugs are in the ground and they are all brown. They should stay brown 3-6 weeks and then go green and start spreading, we shall see. If not, I will take them up on their free replacement policy.
On Mar 13, 2006, surfmurf Clearwater, FL (Zone 9b) wrote:
I had gone through Zoysia Farm Nurseries (ZFN) website and was preparing to buy and that would have been a pretty large order. I sent them a detailed letter with many questions about my yard situations, with spaces for them to write an answer after each of my questions (saves them writing a reply). I received a nice typewritten reply that covered about 1/4 of my questions. Their ad seemed almost too good to be true, especally the replacement policy . But after reading the 4 negative vs no neutral and no positive reviews I am about convinced not to try them. Or if I do, to do so with a very small order VS the large ofder I had planned.
They also say they have been in business for decades, but can only fill a 1/4 acre order. That is quite odd. For a larger order they recommend I buy seed. Yet in their web site literature they do NOT recommend seed and state why (e.g.: its weak compared to plugs). There is more material that raises questions.
Somewhat confusing advertising.
A key (and my first) question, which they did not answer, was regardng my mower. I have two different type modest-size ROTARY riders. But I believe Zoysia requres a REEL type mower vice a Rotary (which means I'd have to get at least one new mower) Anyone out there know for sure? Anyone in the Tampa Bay, Florida area who has had experience with Zoysia? I asked the U of FL 3+ decades ago and was told Zoysia (specificially, Zoysia Tenifolia, also known as Korean or Flagstone Grass) will not grow in a sandy soil. {Z. tenifolia grows great in Long Beach, CA, where I frst saw it in 1968.} ZFN says theri Z. Meyer 52 will do just great here / everywhere. Something seems not right here?!?
Help!
Thank you writers (each of whose complaints were similiar), and this web site's provider, for the heads-up.
Murf
