Can You Plant Zoysia Seed With Centipede Grass?

Centipede Grass Features

• Centipede grass (Eremochloa ophiuroides) grows slowly and spreads via horizontal stems, called stolons, that run on the soil surface. During the warm months, the leaves take on a light green color. When healthy, a centipede grass lawn becomes a dense carpet but doesn't tolerate poor maintenance. It requires lots of sunlight, less mowing and fertilizer compared to other warm-season grasses. If shaded, over-fertilized or over-watered, a centipede lawn can become thin and sparse.

Over-seeding Issues

• Over-seeding an existing centipede grass lawn with any warm-season grass seed leads to problems later. The scattered seeds must come in contact with the soil in the lawn to sprout, not just dangle in the thatch below the green leaf blades in the lawn. If the grass seed germinates and the plants grow, the addition of the new grass species into the centipede lawn creates competition. Both of these warm-season grasses compete for the same light, soil nutrients and moisture during the heat of spring to fall. In some parts of the lawn, centipede grass will be more successful, but blotches of the other grass may succeed elsewhere, creating a patchy-looking lawn.

Zoysia Grass Seed

• Of the three species of zoysia grass available in the United States, only Japanese zoysia (Zoysia japonica) can be started from seed. All others are sold as either sprigs or cut sod. Zoysia grass seed is slow to germinate, sprouting only when temperatures are warm enough. The seedlings then grow slowly. If you start a new lawn from bare soil, it can take upward of two years before it becomes an attractive, dense carpet of green. Scattering zoysia seed into a centipede lawn results in inconsistent germination, competition among grasses for the same resources and a patchy-looking lawn that may not be aesthetically pleasing. Any zoysia that grows then creates a thatch layer that may further choke out remaining centipede grasses.

Recommendations

• Rather than introducing zoysia grass into a preexisting centipede grass lawn, modify your maintenance regimen to promote better growth of the lawn. Increase the sunlight exposure and mow, fertilize and water the centipede lawn to increase its density. A dense, healthy lawn does not need to be over-seeded. If you want to change from a centipede grass lawn to a zoysia grass lawn, first pull up all of the centipede grass and start with a clean soil surface. Then sow zoysia seed or plant plugs to develop the new lawn.