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.

The media could not be loaded. SEE UPDATE BELOW:This little tool is GREAT!! Just great. It could have some improvements and I will cover that at the end. There is no need for a long review, it just works. I have clay type soil in North Mississippi and the ground is still very moist from a recent rain. I had 72 St Augustine plugs to put in and this tool pulled out the square plugs of soil with ease. However, to push down on the rod with your hand is a pipe dream. That does not work. I simply took a rubber mallet and hit the round nob at the top each time to knock out the soil plug. It just was not worth the effort to try and push it out by hand.This thing works great for pulling up plugs to transplant as well. So if you have a source, for say St. Augustine, it will pull them up very nicely so you can then transplant them elsewhere. I purchased my first 72 plugs but I will be using this to go and pull 400-500 plugs from my inlaws yard to put in mine. If you pull 400-500 plugs, say 18" apart and fill in the holes with dirt, the grass will grow back over it within weeks. I could not imagine doing this by hand or with a shovel!!It they really wanted to make this thing 6 stars, they would have some type of lever to eject the plug out. There is definitely a way to use leverage with a lever to eject the plug. Also, they include some plastic thing on the top and I think that is to keep it from moving in shipping?? Cut that off as it serves no purpose and not sure why it is there. You will be very pleased with this item. Last statement, if the ground is bone dry, I just don't think it would work well (nor any tool similar to it). I would make plans to harvest plugs after a good rain or put them down after a good rain. Any tool of this type would not work well on bone dry soil (at least in north MS where I live). I 100% recommend this tool.UDPATE:Bottom line is I still recommend this but read on. I had originally said this was 6 stars if there was such a thing. What really gets 6 stars is the idea. After using this for a bit I have found the following problems:1. The 2"x2" metal plate that ejects the dirt/plug/ etc, is made of VERY thin metal... too thin! In a relatively short period of time the corners began to bend up. So you have a low center and high corners. This will help cause your so to break apart as it gets worse and worse. I can weld so I cut off the cheap piece they put on there and welded a thicker piece there. The same cheap metal piece is that the top and it won't last long hitting with a rubber mallet which is required for ejecting clay.2. There should be some type of hinged piece at the bottom to hold loose plugs in place until you get it out of the ground. When removing a square plug of soil (no grass) it is easy. Just step on it and pull it out to remove a 2" square brick of soil. However, when there are good roots, it can be hard to pull the plug out of the ground. A solution would be if ONE side of the 4 piece cutter had a hinge, then you could move the handle out like a post hole digger to "pinch" the plug and help it come out. If you are doings many many plugs, then something like this would be very helpful.3. The teeth are NOT sharp. So you need to spend the time to sharpen them with a file as it will make a big difference. If you ever use a dull hoe vs a sharp hoe, then you know it makes a difference. Unfortunately they will not spend the time to ship it sharpened so you will need to take the 15-20 minutes necessary to put a decent edge on every side of the every tooth using a hand file.4. As mentioned before, there should be some type of lever to eject the plug instead of having to beat the rod with a rubber mallet. But that is not a huge deal. And the fact is I could find out that a lever sounds good but is not practical. I would just have to try it to find out.I still recommend this. But hopefully this company or another company will make improvements to future productions so that it can be 5 stars!

Just used this gadget to dig holes for 72 grass plugs and am pleased with its quality and performance. As long as the soil was moist and more or less soft rather than dry and hard, using this gadget was pretty easy. It's sturdier than I thought it would be and appears to be built to last. Also, the cutting edges are suitably sharp. Hitting a stone will dull the edge, however, resharpening is not a problem.Fine-tuning came with experience. So, sometimes the gadget took a little coaxing, like using both thumbs to eject a sticky soil plug or learning how to get one foot then the other foot on the crossbar to give it the needed push. Sometimes the gadget accumulated mud as it went along, I believe because I moistened the soil too much. It worked regardless, though the plugs weren't as neat. Washing the caked mud off at the end of the day was a chore, but doable and worthwhile. Tip: try dipping the end of the gadget in a bucket of water between plugs. This may improve operation in some soils.I don't think this product was meant to be used in dry, hard soil. And in fact, I found it could not be used that way, at least not by me.

Where I live in FL, you don’t have to worry about clay soil (had that up north...ugh!) as soil is loamy/sandy for the most part. You do have to deal with tree roots and other grass roots. I found this very good at easily punching thru the soil. I’m not sure why other models don’t have the sawtooth edge; I would think it would make cutting into the soil very difficult without this feature. These “teeth” readily cut into the soil and pulled the plug out. When I encountered difficulty getting the plug I pulled out to drop out (i.e., I could not get rod at top to force it out, because there was a grass root stuck in there), I lightly tap the rod with a mallet. Works like a charm. Makes putting in plugs a breeze. Wish I had done this a long time ago! Tool is sturdy and well made.

I really wanted this product to work. My lawn is set in mostly clay soil in Ohio. Lawn has been established for 9 years, but due to summer months with less rain the bad grasses take over. My father had plugged his lawn in Kentucky with zoysia - a heat tolerant grass that spreads nicely in the 60's. This worked nice but turns brown too early and greens up late.The Yard Butler Sod Plugger is designed to make a nice size square plug. These plugs would be great for removing the undesirable grasses and planting new grass or sod in their place. The only problem is after a rain in late April and the ground was moderately moist, this tool could not cut thru the lawn and produce a plug. This might work well for sandy or black soil types but not for clay based soils. I imagine in the 2 to 3 week period right after winter the soil would be moist and soft enough use to use this tool.The tool is relatively sturdy, but could use a design change to work in certain soils. If a step on bar was raised higher - so as to allow more force it might work. I had limited success with a tulip bulb planter, but the edges were not sharp enough to properly penetrate the soil.