Zoysia Lawn – Reseeding

Q: I have a zoysia lawn that I established from seed four years ago. This year I noticed there were many zoysia seed heads. What should be my schedule of mowing to allow the lawn to reseed itself? 

A: I hate to dampen your idea, but it is almost impossible to collect enough zoysia seed to make it worth your while. Zoysia grass produces many sterile seed. Collecting viable seed depends on closely monitoring air temperature, soil temperature, seed head moisture content, and the parent plant’s health. It’s not likely you could do that successfully. Buy zoysia seed that has been tested for germination percentage and weed seed content and plant that instead.