Yard Butler Sod Plugger turf cutter and grass plug tool for zoysia, St. Augustine, fescue, or centipede grass transplanting & repair - ISP-33

This tool works as expected. I transplanted many plugs of centipede grass from one part of our back yard to a bare area in the front yard. The grass plugs came out clean and about 3" of roots/soil attached. While making plug holes int the front yard bare area, I found it necessary to clean off the accumulation of dirt under the "pusher". I put a 5 gallon bucket of water nearby and cleaned the tool end between creating each hole for the grass plugs. Pusher worked well, too.

this plugger works well. material could be a bit thicker.

I use this to make a hole to put grass plugs in. Works great and is good quality

The tool it not affective. It did not serve my needs as described. I have St Augustine grass. Ive tried using this tool before and after the rain( ground has softened), this tool leaves half of the plug in the ground. This tool makes me work twice as hard. I should have returned it.

Excellent

I bought this tool because the grass plugs i ordered came in trays of 3x3 inches. Seemed perfect, only it doesn’t actually work very well at all. Have you ever been to the beach as a kid and tried to use a bucket to build sandcastles? Same thing here. unless the soil moisture is absolutely perfect to the bottom, this tool will not work as advertised. It just does not pull a plug without half the plug staying in the ground.I purchased 320 plugs. The first 5 attempts resulted in a partial plug (where some of the plug stayed in the ground). Over the next 315 plugs, I tried wetting the soil to various degrees. I got maybe 5 clean plugs out of 315 attempts. My soil is very sandy, so your experience may be different.But my experience was a complete disaster. I had to ‘fix’ the remaining 310 holes that i tried making with this tool. I used both a hand trowel and my hands. Both produced better results than this tool.It is well built and sturdy. It just doesn’t work at all for the intended job.

My first plugger was a sheet metal piece of junk that I bought with my zoysia sod. I used it and finally got the plugs in the yard, but the experience was sooooo bad that i didn't do any more transplanting for 10 years. But now, my 3 acre yard has a nice area about 30 foot square with nice zoysia that I am using to harvest plugs so I can expand the lawn. My first experience with the Yard Butler SP-33 sod plugger was when my friend loaned me his plugger to transplant plugs. I used it and transplanted 50 plugs in my yard. I liked it so much that I bought one from Amazon. My new plugger arrived in about 3 days and I tried it right away. After about 20 plugs, my new SP-33 plugger broke (incomplete fusion at one of the welds). But Amazon replaced it (and the return system is awesome). The second SP-33 that I received worked great and I transplanted 1000 plugs this summer. I would offer a few suggestions: 1. When it arrives, sharpen the cutting end. Use a flat hand file and sharpen the end of the square tubing that cuts the sod (sharpen so that the sharp point is the inside wall of the square tubing). It only takes a couple minutes and makes a huge difference. I sharpen mine after every 100 plugs. 2. Spray the inside of the square tubing with dry lube (Teflon) before you store the tool after use. The next time you use the plugger, you will notice how much easier it is to push the plugs out of the plugger. 3. It is much easier to use the plugger if the soil is damp (I usually try to plug the day after it has rained). 4. If you are harvesting plugs from an established lawn, fill the holes with garden or lawn soil that has fertilizer added (I buy mine locally at a garden supply store in 1 cu ft bags). 5. If you want instant results, plugging with zoysia isn’t the answer. Remember the saying about zoysia: “ The first year it sleeps, the second year it creeps, the third year it leaps”.

Well built and sturdy. A little pricey, but worth the cost to save my back. Thoroughly wet the donor and recipient areas to ease tool insertion and to create a perfect cube of soil.