El Toro Zoysia needs help

dottmar – posted 18 March 2004 22:11

Approx. 2-1/2 years ago, I sodded a side yard area (1000 sq feet) with El Toro Zoysia. The area recieves 4-5 hours of direct sunlight per day, and filtered light throughout the day. This variety was chosen for its better than average shade tolerance for zoysia grass. Shortly after laying the sod, it was struck with a fairly severe case of anthracnose, and by the time it was diagnosed properly several weeks had passed and the grass was headed into dormancy. The ensuing two summers saw high heat and little rain, which has basically amounted to a devastated lawn. There are a few small healthy patches, and many sparse stolons running through the area, but otherwise there is a lot of bare ground. The area is slightly sloped, and when it does rain, it carries topsoil with it, making it even more difficult for the grass to recover.

Is it possible to overseed with a cool season grass, keep it mowed shorter than usual and still allow the zoysia to recover? I would consider resodding or plugging the area, but sod will not be available for a few more months and I need to get the bare areas covered now.

If anyone has any suggestions, they are appreciated.

Dchall_San_Antonio – posted 19 March 2004 10:32

Bare soil on a slope always needs to be protected from washing away regardless of any consequences with weeds or whatever. Use the best resources you have. In this case, sod should have been laid down when the soil was exposed the first time. Failing that, overseeding with winter rye would have worked. Now it is probably too late for seeding. I would think about a mechanical protection like some of the green landscaping fabric rolls I’ve seen used in newly seeded areas. These fabrics break the fall of the rain drops so they don’t wash away the minerals in the soil.