Plugs are pieces of sod, one and a half or two inches or so in diameter, of creeping grasses. When planted, they quickly grow together and cover the ground. They differ from sprigs in that each consists of many rather than a few shoots and includes the soil in which the roots grow (sprigs carry little or no soil with them). Zoysia grasses are the ones chiefly propagated by plugs. They make good turf sooner when grown in this way rather than from sprigs.

Make the soil ready as you would for seeding. Plant the plugs with a trowel, six to twelve inches apart, setting the surface of each level with or very slightly below the soil surface. Make the soil about the roots firm. Water thoroughly after planting. Old lawns may be plugged with zoysia, which will gradually intermingle with established grasses and eventually may take over entirely.