First Spring with Empire Zoysia

ocean – posted 06 April 2012 07:54

Spring 2011 – Installed Empire Zoysia in Northeast FloridaSummer 2011 – Great, rotary cut, 2-3″Fall 2011 went dormantSpring – 2012 – 1.5 months of 80+ degree weather, Lawn still has LOTS of dead stems. Cut to 2″ and experimented in some spots to 1″Used 24-0-4 (16 fast release) Synthetic FertilizerJust noticed several leaves starting to turn purple (especially in the areas I cut to 1″)

I am posting to this site in hope of getting some Empire North East Florida expertise. I had Empire Sod installed on my yard last Spring. Looked beautiful the entire year, went brown this winter, but is either taking forever to recover, OR I did something wrong. I had heard from another site that you were supposed to cut it to 1″ to get ride of all the brown grass once it starts to green. However, if I had done that it would have been all stems and dirt. Just did not seem right, considering nobody else was really doing this. I had been cutting it at 3″, but changed it down to 2″. However there is a mix of lots of brown stems mixed in with very green patches. Wanted to know if anybody else has taken their 3″ lawn down to sticks and dirt to get ride of all the brown stems, or if there is another way to tackle this. Also I recently noticed that there are purple tips starting to appear, especially in the areas where I experimented by cutting it down to 1″. Is this normal for Spring Zoysia, or something wrong.

http://i1147.photobucket.com/albums/o541/oceanfrank/Lawn/IMG_4655.jpg

http://i1147.photobucket.com/albums/o541/oceanfrank/Lawn/IMG_4652.jpg

[This message has been edited by ocean (edited 06 April 2012).]

mrmumbels – posted 06 April 2012 21:15

Mine’s even worse than yours. I noticed 4 years ago that scalping hurt my zoysia more than anything. Since it doesn’t go fully dormant it’s actually hurting the live stuff. This year I didn’t scalp but brought it down by 1 inch and it hasn’t grown in weeks. The dry weather isn’t helping at all. Some days I just feel like I should have done SA.

ezf – posted 06 April 2012 23:49

When my Meyer zoysia started to green up in Feburary, I observed that some blades had flat tips and some had sharp tips, and I had not mowed the grass. Last winter we had many freezing nights in north Atlanta, so Meyer zoysia must recycle some blades from previous growing season. I only mowed slightly shorter the first time so that it looks green earlier.

ocean – posted 07 April 2012 06:56

Thank you mrmumbels and ezf. As bad as it might ever get, I would never go back to St. Augustine. Far more expensive in the long***n (pesticides, water bills, bugs, disease, etc). I have seen a lot of great looking established Zoysia lawns, but have not had the opportunity to talk to anybody during the first Spring after a sod lay to know what is “normal.” Yesterday I did a soil test. Turns out I have over abundance of Phosph***s (as expected living in Florida), Adequate Potash, and ZERO Nitrogen. The funny part is where I put the tree spikes there are dark green rings. Originally I simply thought it was fertilizer***n off. Also I started to manually pull out the dead stems with a thatch rake. The part in the picture, I was able to pull 6 bags of dead grass leaves. WOW. So today I am going to add 6-2-0 Organic Slow release Fertilizer. I am hoping this will help normalize the yard. Just could not believe how depleted the yard was of nitrogen (I fertilized it one month ago with (24-0-4 [16 being fast release]. Here is a call out for soil tests and thatching. Next year I will drop it down to 1.5″ to start the season and let it settle at 2″. Hopefully that will help with the Thatch.

gt2201b – posted 08 April 2012 18:32

Mr Mumbels,Have you ever looked for brown patch or dollar spot? My zoysia was brown for a long time. I just chalked it up to over/under water, over/under fertilizing, bad soil, not enough organics in the soil, etc. Finally I got down and pulled some of the half dying grass up and found that I have classic dollar spot AND brown patch. I did not have the “classic” big brown circles, of course, that would have been too obvious. Instead my fungus was spread throughout the grass so it just looked like excessive thatch. Also, I learned that once you have these fungi, there is no cure, you will have to apply fungicide every year from now on. I hope this helps. I now many aday that I was wishing that I went back to SA. Now that I solved my problem, I would never go back to SA.

ocean – posted 09 April 2012 06:52

I am curious, one of my friends has a similar issue. When did you apply the treatment, how long did it take to take effect? Do you only apply it in the spring each year or monthly?

jugheadfla – posted 13 April 2012 09:53

Honestly, your lawn looks typical of a zoysia when it comes out of dormancy. Until it starts to get constant rainfall, it will never be %100 green. My Jamur here in Tampa looks pretty similar. The brown stems that you see are just the areas that may have died during its dormancy. The most important think you must practice when dealing with Zoysia is patience. It is a very, very, very slow growing grass. I remember a few months after I first sodded my yard, there were areas the literally just died off leaving dirt holes and I started freaking out. But, after 1 growing season and putting down some organic matter, those areas have filled in. Remeber that this type of grass grows horizontally at first, unlike SA which grows vertically using runners.