More about zoysia on highway medians in Thailand

Last year I wrote about manilagrass (Zoysia matrella) sod on highway medians in Thailand. I showed photos of a recently planted median, and explained why zoysia doesn’t persist in this environment when maintained without supplemental irrigation and regular mowing.

In that post, I shared more photos and wrote this:

I arrived at the inevitable consequence for all unirrigated zoysia in Thailand. Weeds. During the dry season, unirrigated and infrequently mown manilagrass gets replaced by species that can tolerate such conditions. Manilagrass survives, and in fact thrives in this climate, where it is provided with irrigation and with regular mowing. But roadsides and medians tend to get irrigation at the time of planting, and after that no irrigation and infrequent mowing.

I was on that same highway again recently, and took a couple more photos.

For zoysia to persist, it needs irrigation during the dry season, and regular mowing. You’ll find it as the climax species in full sun in parks and lawns in Southeast Asia where it is provided with those two inputs.