Nobody has any tips? I’m desperate. I’m on the verge of spraying with roundup and tilling it all out and starting over.

 

I don’t think you will transform the yard to Bermuda by spreading Bermuda seed.

 

I can't speak for Emerald but I can tell you that bermuda will not take over Empire Zoysia. In fact, where they come together, the Empire is winning the battle.

 

I’m not sure it’s emerald, but I’m pretty sure it is some type of zoysia. All I know is I want to get rid of it. I know a lot people like it and spend good money to have it, but I just don’t think it mows well and I have to go in and cut it high and gradually lower the blade with each lap. I usually have to go over it three times and it never looks nice when I get done mowing it. I use mulching blades and on all of the places that don’t have this grass, the clippings can’t really be seen, but where the zoysia is, the clippings clump up and just get worse the more I go over it.

 

Sounds like you may just have emerald zoysia, and have found out why people use a reel mower on them. Rotary mowing thick turf at low HOC is not fun. Some pics would confirm if this is truly the case. If so you need to lol into thinning it out some. Zoysia can get quite dense esp if grown high at points in time.

 

Sounds like you're due for a verticut/dethatch. The fine bladed Zoysias can get quite thick and Emerald in particular can get very thatchy. I have to take my Sun Joe dethatcher to my Zeon at least once a year to thin it out and it makes all the difference.

 

Need pics of this to thick to cut zoysia. May be a simple solution to a great lawn many would love to have.

 

Well I have a nice tractor style lawn mower and it struggles to cut it. Granted, I do have mulching blades which is what I prefer for the rest of the grass that we mow, but my mom’s backyard has this zoysia stuff and it is literally like mowing wet carpet. I’m about to change to a regular blade with the side blow out and see if it does better on her grass. I really do prefer the mulching blades with no blowout on my own yard though, but I’m not changing it out every time. I do suspect the mulching blades and not blowing the clipping out is the most of my issue here.

it’s pretty grass, it’s just thick and holds moisture more than the rest of the grass we have. Yesterday I went in with my deck set to 4 and it was struggling bad. I basically had to reverse and forward until I worked out a patch to work with so the mower wouldn’t bogg down. I got it mowed at 4 and will go back in a couple of days and cut it shorter after it dries a bit.

 

I love my zoysia and wish I had it in my whole yard but I'm using a reel mower and verticut at least once a season.

 

An option might be to rent a sod cutter and sell it

Use the proceeds to buy whatever you want. I think you'll end up seeing it grow back through though, because the roots can go quite deep on zoysia. The fact the your zoysia grows so well that you accidentally have a thick, plush lawn, if you try to plant anything else, it's going to require soil ammendments, etc. Ends up being "reel" expensive. And I still think that the zoysia will grow back through over time and you'll be right back where you started in a few years.

So your best option might actually be to get a good reel cutting mower and verticutting annually as per @Redtwin advise and experience.

For what this tidbit is worth - About 10% of my yard is now taken over by Zenith Zoysia. it is not one of those enviously plush turf varieties. it's basically "somewhat better" than common bermuda. I cut i with a zero turn and it does not seem to negatively impact it. it might be a good variety for your situation. i've been using it as a St Aug replacement.

 

I should add that my neighbor has the exact same turf that is rotary mowed with a zero turn at around 3" and still looks pretty decent. He doesn't verticut and deals with thatch issues but it still looks pretty good. I consider zoysia to have significantly lower maintenance requirements so if you can't handle zoysia, I certainly would not recommend any of the other warm-season turfs. It takes less than half the water, half the fertilizer, and almost half the PGR that my bermuda takes. I can also get away with missing several mows in the zoysia. Just for comparison purposes, my bermuda requires regular verticutting to stay healthy as well but it will not handle the hard mows you are talking about like the zoysia will.

Like mentioned above, photos would be very helpful in making suggestions to get your zoysia manageable.

 

Verti-cut your zoysia now or within the next few weeks to thin it out, cut as low as your mower will go with a sharp blade (not mulching blades if you ask me), then raise HOC up 1 notch and cut once a week. I know a lot of people mow their grass every 2 weeks and scalp it each and every time because they wait too long between cutting. Healthy grass should be cut at least once per week, that way you wont have to make so many passes at different lowered levels when you cut.
If you dont want to cut grass every week, kill the grass and put down pea gravel.