Empire Zoysia Herbicide

awin4me – posted 18 May 2010 18:49

I just installed Empire Zoysia in my yard, its been 3 weeks, the sod is coming along nicely. Unfortunately, do to the initial watering needs I’m having some weeds pop up through the sod. I live in Central Florida and needed some help in finding a good herbicide for Empire Zoysia.

Any help would be greatly appreciated! It’s just typical blade grass weed, that pops up in any typical Florida flowerbed or bare spot in this sandy soil. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Love the turf so far it looks wonderful when mowed, cause those pesky weed blades are cut.

ken4255 – posted 19 May 2010 11:19

Just plain Ortho Weed-B-Gone should do it, unless you have a particularly difficult weed problem.

awin4me – posted 19 May 2010 13:16

Thanks Ken!

Yeah I have some purple Nutsedge growing through my Zoysia. I see most people recommend Sedgehammer, the local Lesco/John Deer dealer had something else. He said they use it and on Zoysia and told me its like “Sedgehammer on steriods” He said they used to use Sedgehammer. He had like 2 packets, but I needed more.

ken4255 – posted 19 May 2010 13:47

Actually, for nutsedge, I don’t think the basic Weed-B-Gone is going to help much. SledgeHammer looks like a good choice, though I haven’t used it. I have used Image. (If you use Image, make sure the zoysia has completely greened up first, and don’t apply more than the label calls for. I have stunted my zoysia by overapplying this.)

Free Man – posted 22 May 2010 08:44

I, too, just installed Empire Zoysia in Central Florida about 15 days ago now today. It is very nicely green as well. There are a few weeds popping up, particularly sedge grasses which of course pop up way higher than the zoysia itself.

A few things:

1. I thought that putting any type of weed killer on new sod was bad for the new roots which are still being established? Won’t it stunt the grass somewhat?

2. I assume that any of the sedge products you guys have mentioned will also kill most general broadleaf weeds too?

3. Has anyone actually used sledgehammer as I keep hearing it thrown around but would like to know if it is safe and effective on zoysia?

4. I went to a local pesticide store and the lady there told me she mixes three kinds of weed killer liquids in one application. This way she gets all the weeds in one mix. Anyone try this or recommend it?

Free Man – posted 22 May 2010 08:54

Oh, to the OP, you mentioned it looks nice when it is mowed. A couple of questions, how long did you wait until you mowed it (I assume you have only mowed it once)? Mine is 15 days in and does not need any mowing yet. Did you just mow for the first time at the three week mark?

How well rooted is your zoysia, if you tug on a piece?

awin4me – posted 23 May 2010 16:14

Free,

My empire will be in 4 weeks this mid week. It’s rooted in nicely. It started to take root rather quickly. I tugged some spots up within 5 days to repair a sprinkler head.

On mowing. I mowed mine at about 2 weeks. BUT, I did it very very delicately. I mowed at a high level anywhere their was any hint of unevenness of the sod.

Honestly, I have mowed it another 3 times since. I like to keep it mowed as it looks best and I got tired of looking at the nudsedge coming up (which is higher than the turf). I waited to apply herbicide until the sod was rooted in well enough.

Keep it watered and moist is the key until it gets rooted in well. If you prepped the soil prior to sodding you will be well ahead of the curve.

I’ve been mowing mine at 2.75″ this past week. I started mowing it at 4″ when I first did it. I have two spots that I will replace with new pieces of sod. I didn’t do anything wrong, they were the “weak” pieces of turf when they were installed. I noticed them the first day. Tried to keep them wet but half of the square is dead on each of them.

I’m in Florida, not sure where you are. Its been really hot and really dry this month. I wet it down with the sprinklers about 2 pm.

I’ve had quite a few compliments already.

Good luck!

awin4me – posted 23 May 2010 16:20

On Sedgehammer…….actualy I used Image. It is killing off the nuthedge slowly. I see the blades turning yellow. Their is some strain on the turf in some places, but this is kind of expected and it notes that on the instructions.

I wanted to get on the weeds before I had a mess on my hands.

Sorry, I did see you were in Florida too. Just keep it watered to relieve stress in the first weeks. I’ve actually only had one rain shower in my 4 weeks. So my sprinklers are going twice a day, (6 am and 2 pm). Any spots that do not get enough will tend to brown up, I have some edging like that on the edge of my property, I go out with the hose and soak them, by the next day they are recovered.

Good luck!

awin4me – posted 23 May 2010 16:23

From what I researched, I think sedge is more for hardy grassy type weeds and the chemicals in broad leaf weeds are a bit different.

Spectracide and Bayer have some broadleaf weed killers safe for zoysia.

Free Man – posted 24 May 2010 13:05

Thanks for your replies. Yes, here in Central Florida. I actually checked and I am right on 14 days today so I am about two weeks behind you.

Here are some things I learned from reading the UFL guidelines.

1. You should not mow your grass until the corners can no longer be tugged up, which for me is right now at the 2 week mark. Basically you should wait as long as possible before your first mow, and subsequent mowings for the first 3 times. The main reason is that the more you cut off the top the more energy the grass diverts into top growth and AWAY from root development, something you don’t want during the first 4 weeks of being laid down.

2. You should not fertilize sod until after your first three mows, or a minimum of 30 days. Before that it either goes straight into the ground, or stresses the roots and neither is good.

3. Do not apply any herbicides until you have mowed your law at least three times. So, by my estimates the first time should be after 2 weeks, the second a week later, and the third a week after that. Which would put that estimate sometime after a minimum of 4 weeks before apply any herbicides.

4. I found a handy watering guideline for new sod as follows:

a. First 7 to 10 days: Water 2-3 times a day lightly each time – 5 to 10 minutes each zone.

b. Next 7 to 10 days: Decrease to watering 1 time a day, but increase your watering times to hit 1/4 inch each zone.

c. Next 7 to 10 days: Decrease to every other day at 1/2 inch each zone.

d. At this point you are 3-4 weeks in, your sod should be fully able to go to being watered as needed only.

See source:

awin4me – posted 24 May 2010 14:03

Yeah, just think you will be an expert for anyone who needs advice in the future!

I went to the local Lesco/John Deere dealer as well. They were very helpful.

I watered much more than the UF guidelines, but I have essentially 100% full sun, which is probably why its growing so well. My 4 week anniversary is Wednesday and all my sod lines from the turf edges are 95% gone.

I began to cut back the watering last week. I’m on city water so I have a big bill coming lol. But I’d rather pay a couple hundred and get the grass in healthy. It’s an investment after all and you have to take care of it.

ken4255 – posted 24 May 2010 15:11

The rule about not applying herbicide for 3 mows or 30 days sounds like the one that refers to how long you have to wait before applying pre-emergent on seeded lawn. What’s the source on this?

Free Man – posted 24 May 2010 18:39

awin4me, one would hope! I just picked up a couple of post-emergence products: Sedgehammer and Green Light Wipe-Out. Both address sedge, both purple and yellow, which I believe I have some of both. The Wipe-Out was only $8 a bag while the Sedgehammer was $11 for enough to make one gallon, which is more than enough to spot treat the sedge that is popping up a couple of times. It is not designed to spray the whole yard as many post-emergence products are. The Wipe-out does sedge too and is safe to apply in the summer months, unlike most selective herbicides. The trick will be to find a period where it does not rain for at least 24 hours after putting down Wipe-Out.

So has anyone else used, or experienced Green Light Wipe-Out? The active ingredient is Penoxsulam and it is in granular form, so the grass needs to be wet when applied, either from the morning dew or after running the sprinklers for a few minutes.

I’ll keep up with you on “Image” and see how it works for you, you had mentioned it is now yellow but still there. How long has it been?

By the way, I too have 100% sun with no shade, except two small trees which are just greening up nicely from our freezing winter this past year. I simply spot watered any areas on the edges where the zoysia dried out, that worked for me. Looks like rain this whole week in our area, yeah for the water bill.

I had my sod rolled with a roller filled with water gushing out, so 80% of the lines were gone the day it was put in. If you get up on top of the sod you can see some edges still, but it is quite nice looking and I can only imagine how it will look in two weeks.

For now, until I can surpass the 30 day mark, I am going to hand pull all of the sedge, a little each day. There must be hundreds of them throughout!

The rule about 3 mows comes from UFL’s recommdnations. In addition I just came from a local herbicide shop and that was the first thing they told me in regards to applying any herbicide. Here is the UFL link, hope this saves you some potential damage!

ken4255 – posted 25 May 2010 08:10

yes, the label on the Image for nutgrass (imazaquin) says for use on “established” lawns only and “not for use on newly plugged or planted lawns.

Free Man – posted 25 May 2010 11:26

Ken, yes they want you to put it on as soon as possible so they can can sell more which is why they conveniently don’t tell you what “established” is. At least UFL gives us a good solid goal, after three mows or 30 days (assuming you are following the other establishment guidelines which will ensure “established” grass within those timelines).

Free Man – posted 26 May 2010 08:44

Oh, Awin, what was the stuff that you found at LESCO that was better than Sledgehammer by the way?

awin4me – posted 26 May 2010 12:57

Free,

Sorry I can’t recall. The John Deere dealer said that they had switched completely off Sedge to the other product. So I would guess whatever any Lesco/John Deere dealer is using is the stuff. The price was like $105 or close to it but that did an acre.

tpun – posted 07 June 2010 13:28

Hello and thanks for the info regarding Empire Zoysia care. I recently sodded my backyard in Empire Zoysia after much research on which grass to go with. I’ve been happy so far, but I’m always second guessing if I’m watering enough or not etc… Don’t want to hurt my investment.

I’m less than 7 days in from laying the sod and am also starting to see weeds popping up. I’ve got sedge, some clover looking weeds that I’ve never seen before that have roots similar to dollar weed and another low growing grass-like looking weed. I’ve been pulling by hand, but would like to find the best herbicide to take care of the issues.

Based on the info in this thread, it seems like I should wait a while longer before applying anything. I was planning to cut around the 10 day mark based on other info I’ve read.

Any suggestions?

BTW… looks like my neighbors are going the Zoysia route as well. I think this grass will be everywhere in a few years.

Thanks

awin4me – posted 07 June 2010 18:07

My advice is you should wait until your new sod is rooted in sufficiently prior to worrying about weeds. A good measure would be 4 weeks. I waited until about that time prior to putting out some herbicides to kill off some sedge.

Even after that time I did have some initial yellowing of my zoysia. The good news is that quickly went away. I’m at the 6 week mark right now. My grass is green and lush. I mow it every 5 days at about 3″, sometimes I mow it at 2.75″.

I had pre-fertilized the dirt. If you did not do this you might want to use a starter fertilizer after about 4 weeks for your new sod. I know some say differently, but I kept my sod pretty wet for the first 3 weeks. I did not want it stressed from the heat in central Florida. My initial 4 weeks were quite dry and hot. I continue to hand water spots that need a bit of nursing. My initial watering was twice a day 30 minutes per zone. Now I’m watering twice a week 20 minutes per zone or as needed if its a particularly dry/wet week.

If I can figure out how to upload a photo to the forum I’ll do it. The sod looks great, makes my neighbors Saint Augustine look like garbage and feels wonderful to walk on in comparison to my Saint Augustine that I used to have. I’m a total convert at this point.

awin4me – posted 07 June 2010 18:28

Lets see if this works.

Here is my Empire at 5 weeks. Just mowed it so you can see some tire tracks.

Free Man – posted 07 June 2010 18:41

Well I watered about half of what awin did, and posted a UFL guideline that should be a good place for anyone to base a initial watering plan upon.

Personally, my Zoysia is at 4 weeks now and I have not water it for an entire week, 10 days as here in Central Florida it has rained every other day for at least that. Once you get to your fourth week you should plan on only watering it upon the signs of water stress (again, I listed above). The number one cause of grass disease, bugs and other issues is over watering.

Further, upon reading up on most Florida lawns (due to our wet months) it is highly recommended for Zoysia that you do not water from June until October unless needed – of course this is after the lawn is at least 4 weeks established. In other words, don’t leave your automatic sprinklers set to once a week, twice a week or whatever UNLESS you are out of town for a long period and are not home to see if it is stressed from lack of rain.

Tpun where are you out of?

One recommendation, other than coming up with a good plan for watering for your first 4 weeks, is to go and pickup a bag of Potash (the K part of N-P-K). This is the most important piece of the puzzle for the development of deep grass roots and this makes it extremely important for new sod establishment. It also cannot burn a lawn, like Nitrogen does and does not promote top growth so it is perfect. I put it down just shy of three weeks and let me tell you it’s good stuff. Lesco carries it in 0-0-20 and it is easy to spread in any spreader. Doing this step will mean that your new grass has deeper roots and therefore needs LESS watering 😉 The sad part is that most big box stores do NOT carry it by itself, and what little fertilizers they do have very little to almost no Potash.

As for weeds, I plan to only spot treat with some Ornamec for crabgrass and other weed grasses and use Sedgehammer on the sedge group, in a few months when the weather is cooler. For now I am hand picking a little each day.

I too am pleased with my Empire Zoysia and have had many positive comments and lots people stopping to look at the “new” lawn. It is much deeper green then St Augustin ever dreams to be.

Free Man – posted 07 June 2010 18:45

Oh, I fogot to mention that I have only mowed my lawn one time in 4 weeks, right at the three week mark (you really should not bother it before that if you can help it as mowing promotes energy into top grown instead of root growth which is what you really need right now!). It is as green as can be and even has seed pods throughout (sterile I am told). With it raining at least every other day for the past 10-12 days I can only estimate that I will only have to mow one every 2 weeks at most in the rainy season which we have just hit. That is pretty impressive.

awin4me – posted 07 June 2010 19:30

Freeman,

Just curious, is your zoysia in full sun? I saw you only have mowed it once. I’ve mowed mine regulary the last 3 weeks as the sod is really growing. To me, it always looks best after being mowed. I have zero shade in my yard other than house shadows.

I know we are both in central Florida. I have been unlucky in the rain department. Up until this evening I’ve only had sprinkles twice in six weeks. I finally got a good shower tonight.

Good advice on the watering, it really is as needed.

tpun – posted 08 June 2010 06:32

Freeman,I’m in SW Orlando. I believe I’m the first to put in Empire in the neighborhood. Thanks for the advice on the Potash. Things are greening up nicely after the last heavy rains. Sure enough my neighbors two doors down had my same installer put Zoysia in their front yard yesterday.

Now I’m not the only one.

Nice pics of the lawn awin4me. I’m in full sun also so I have been watering like crazy this first week to keep the stress level down. Looks like I can back off a bit this week. I’ll try to get some pics posted as well.

Tpun

Free Man – posted 12 June 2010 12:22

Awin4me – Yes, my sod is in full sun and I really don’t have much shade in terms of trees as there are only a couple of palms and a two newer trees which don’t yet provide any shade to speak of. I am in Central Florida but have had rain every 3 days until this week over the past two weeks. It has not rained since Monday and it is now Saturday so we are on a dry spell for the first time in two weeks.

So it rained Sunday morning and my lawn looked fine until Thursday mid day. At which I could see some select areas where the blades were shriveling and stressed coloration. So in effect it had been four full days of dry, hot sun before it needed any water. That is pretty good for 5 week old sod I think. Believe me St Augustin would not have gone 4 days like that, maybe 2 if I was lucky!

So as long as I am at home and not away I don’t have my sprinklers set to automatically water, but instead I just hit it when it first shows the warning signs as mentioned. While I am gone I leave it on the regular Wednesday, Saturday schedule we have here.

I mowed at the 2 inch mark the first time around, but I think I am going to raise it to 2.5 – 3 this next time as a couple of spots were lower and it scalped them. I think 2.5 – 3″ is good.

Your sod looks good Awin! That is about what mine looks like after I mowed it the first time, which was two weeks ago now. A couple of things:

1. I don’t water as much as you I don’t think, but then you had less water it seems2. It appears that your mower height is lower than mine, perhaps 2 inches while mine is closer to 3.3. I have not fertilized at all, not before the grass went down or after. I have put down some potash at week 4, but no N or P product.

So I am going to mow tomorrow, right at the week 6 mark and that will be only the second time since it was laid down. I could have mowed a few days ago, but basically I am mowing about every 2.5-3 weeks so far this season in full sun and in keeping with the watering schedule above.

Tpun, yes definitely do the Potash thing right away! From everything I am told that will truly force the grass to grow more roots and does not promote any top growth at all, thus perhaps one reason why I am not having to mow as much?

My neighbors too, are all talking to me about my yard. I have seen several stop and stare at it, one even finally stopped and got out and walked over to me (stranger, basically) and asked all kinds of things about it. In my section there is no one else with Zoysia, but there are probably about 4 lawns other than mine in my whole community that have it. Many of them are mixed though, only two others are the entire front yard, or entire yard for comparison.

One thing that I have noticed is that water deprived (stressed) Zoysia recovers within minutes of receiving even the smallest amount of water, something I can’t say for St Augustine.

Tpun how long has your sod been down now?

[This message has been edited by Free Man (edited 12 June 2010).]

ropok – posted 14 June 2010 14:37

Has anyone used the herbicide certainty for nutsedge?

vivona – posted 02 October 2010 00:00

quote:Originally posted by awin4me:Lets see if this works.

Here is my Empire at 5 weeks. Just mowed it so you can see some tire tracks.

I will be putting in an Empire Zoysia lawn in a week or so and can join in the conversation, but until then, awin4me where did you get the edging stones shown in your picture?

awin4me – posted 02 October 2010 11:29

It’s just concrete curbing, any company that does curbing will be able to identify that pattern. They simply pour the curb, then go over it with a stencil pattern to give it the finish. It’s a common choice. I’d just ask your local landscaper (who might do it) or look in the yellow pages.

ropok – posted 04 October 2010 18:29

awin4me, Any new pictures of your turf?

awin4me – posted 04 October 2010 22:17

It still looks as good as in those pictures.