“Florida” Zoysia vs. Emerald Zoysia

jstaple – posted 23 April 2004 15:33

Is there such a thing as “Florida Zoysia” or a strain of the grass that does well only when the weather is quite hot? Know anything about it?I have a Zoysia lawn but lost part of it to disease. Replaced with sod that was identified as “Florida Emerald Green Zoysia.” The next spring, it looked totally dead, but when the weather got very hot, it turned green and looked fine. I’m assuming the same thing will happen this year.

Meanwhile, a number of people in the Birmingham, Alabama area where I live, have also had lawns repaired late in the year with so-called “Florida Zoysia.” Likewise, the stuff looks totally dead this spring.

Is there any info — technical or otherwise — that will help us to understand … or something?

ted – posted 23 April 2004 15:44

it’s very unusual to “lose” zoysia to disease, almost impossible. you should be seeing greening up to your zoysia by now. sounds like you’ve been sold a bill of goods

KRA – posted 07 May 2004 09:59

I suspect that it’s a matter of “Florida Zoysia” vs. “Alamaba Zoysia”. Here in the southeastern U.S., sod growers have farms spread out in Alabama, Georgia, and northern Florida. Sod from the Florida farms tends to come in a sandy topsoil while the Alabama and Georgia farms usually look more red and clay-like on the bottom. Of course, there may not be much difference in the soil between north Florida and south Georgia or Alabama. Personally, given a choice between sod grown in dark, sandy soil and sod grown in red clay, I’d prefer the sandy, “Florida” soil.

Alex_in_FL – posted 10 June 2004 20:25

Zoysia turns brown in winter once temps get near freezing. Never heard of “Florida Emerald zoysia” or any zoysia with “Florida” in its name. I live in FL and have Empress zoysia in my back yard (my HOA only allows Floratam in front yard…I am on the board and hope to change that however).

Agree with previous poster, very unusual to lose a zoysia yard to anything in central Alabama. My Dad go interested in lawn care for two or three summers several decades ago. The first time he turned the zoysia medium brown via too much soda but it came back. The next year he burned it and it came back. He even had it disced (I think he thought he was getting the surface slit not turned under!!!) and it came back. Drove by the place last year and the lawn still looks great even though the owners obviously take zero pride or care of the yard.

Alex

janmcduffie – posted 07 July 2004 18:19

Wow. I also live in Birmingham AL. Four years ago, I had my yard sodded with Emerald zoysia. The landscaper ran out of grass before he was finished, so finished the job with a pallette ‘from another batch’. The grass from the other batch is awful. It greens around a month later than the other. It is also less healthy, with weaker growth and brown spots that just never go away. I’ve had a professional lawn service since day 1. The landscaper stopped returning my calls. I’m planning to have that part of my lawn redone. Worth noting is that each year, it looks a little better than the last. I don’t blame it on the landscaper but I got stuck with a bad deal.