Emprie Zoysia in SW Florida
botanicalbill – posted 28 September 2010 22:03
Hello, Im Bill and just joined this site. I have read most of the Empire posts here since last January, just decieded to join now.
Last november/december I sprayed my 1/2 acre of bahia and weeds with glyphosate, killed it all. My soil is 99% fine sand (sugar sand). The lawn was perfectly flat and I tilled it up at the end of january.This past febuary I bought 8 pallets of Empire turf (400sq per pallet). I sodded solid around the house and on the slopes of my lawn and around the gutter down spouts. (to protect the sand from washing away). I took the remaining 4 pallets and cut them up into 8″x8″ squares. My arm has never been that tired, I think it was just short of 4000 plugs. They were spread somewhat evenly across the sand. They were approximated to 2′ centers (16″ appart from the edges). watered 3x daily for 10 days and tappered it down. The plugs were rooted down after 5 days with fine roots. They all rooted and grew tall. Sometime in mid spring, I noticed that the center of all the plugs turned brown and spread to the edges. This killed back all the plugs. It was later determened that this was from billbugs.The emprie has spread much faster than what I expected. A few areas have grown solid while most are about 10-50% covered. In the past month I have noticed the most growth rate. This was after I sprayed my lawn with bifenthrin (knocked out the billbugs) Most of the bare lawn filled with crab and or goosegrass.I guess in hind site I would have done a few different things. First, would have not tilled the sand (made the lawn lumpy) I would have burried all the plugs to soil level. I would have spayed bifenthrin at the same time. I would have put down a preemererent after getting it rooted.Next Feb I plan to hit the preemergent hard.
As for fertilizing, I have only sprayed the solid sodded area with mirical grow once in the spring. I plan to put down a 10-10-10 in the late spring at 1/2 to 1/4 pound per 1000sqft. Sand does not hold anything well, it all washes away. I notice the goosegrass and bermuda are growing bad without the fertilizer.
Anyway. That is my Empire Zoysia story.
Ill keep you posted and get some photos of the spreading areas.
mrmumbels – posted 29 September 2010 19:06
I sodded my sandy lawn 4 years ago and now I have root problems. The water flows straight through that sand dries up and my lawn dries up 2 days after a rain storm.
I recommend some top soil.
awin4me – posted 04 October 2010 22:54
Yeah if you are replacing bahia with Empire you’d probably have soil issues.
Chances are if you had St. Augustine installed though in a development they brought in topsoil.
I almost forgot Do Not over water. Floratan /Seville all strains of St. Augustine are suseptible to fungus from over…
I am from the north and it has taken me five yrs to learn and undertand seville lawns. No 1…
To insert an image into a new post, either first upload it using the "+ New" button in the upper…
To insert an image < 2 MB in size in a comment, below "Leave a Reply" click BROWSE.
How do you post pictures...found link to images, but still unable to post pics.