Help!!! Empire Zoysia still brown in April
B Ballard – posted 07 April 2012 14:47
I am coming out of the first winter for my Zoysia lawn and it is still brown and dry. There is a bit of green that came in on the edges of the yard, and new green growth that has invaded my islands, but 99% of the grass is still brown and dry. There are faint hints of green here and there, but that hasn’t changed in weeks. Both my front and backyards look the same.
Does anyone know when Zoysia greens up in Central Florida? Maybe I am just impatient but I have noticed several Zoysia lawns in my neighborhood that are almost completely green already.
Thanks to anyone who can shed some light on this for me. I am beginning to worry I wasted 2k last year on a new lawn that is already dead.
ocean – posted 07 April 2012 15:15
Sounds like something is wrong, but there is still a chance it is still dormant. Different Cultivars will green up at different times in the spring, Empire being one of the last. However, we have had a lot of warm weather this year so the lawn should have already started to turn. Mine is about 75% Green, and others with Emerald are about the same. Once lows get over 70degrees for about a month your lawn should be green Late April for sure). One thing you can try is to scalp it down to 1″-1.5″ right now before it gets hot. This will get rid of all the dead grass blades, bring it down to sticks and dirt, and allow the soil to warm up allowing the Zoysia to wake up. Once your lawn is 50% to 75% green add an Organic Fertilizer (6-2-0), or a Synthetic at a 3-1-2 Ratio. Make sure the 3 is slow release (e.g. a 24-0-4 with 16 fast release, give you a nice 8-0-4 ratio). In Florida we have all the potassium you can handle. If you add it too soon, it will just waste away or feed the weeds. Also test your soil before you fertilize and about two weeks after so you can see the difference and what is needed.
B Ballard – posted 07 April 2012 15:41
Thanks very much for the good information. I shudder at cutting the lawn down that much, but you are the second person who I have read mention this.
I will take your advice on the fertilizer if the grass greens up more. I have never tested the soil but imagine I can pick up a test kit at a garden center, maybe. If not, how would I go about sending a sample in to some place to test it? Is there something the city of Orlando offers?
Thanks again.
ocean – posted 08 April 2012 15:19
Look for University Extension centers in your ares. Most counties have them. The tests that you can get at the store are okay, but I have heard mixed reports. I have used both, and fortunately got he same results. It is VERY scary to scalp the grass down to 1″. Try it with Saint Augustine and you would have a dead lawn in two days. However, Bermuda and Zoysia are different animals. If you try it when the weather gets hot, you will hurt the grass, but right now, if it is dormant you might have some time left. If you do not do it, you will have a ton of dead grass blades that will be impossible to get ride of and eventually lead to disease long run. Also all those dead leaves will prevent water, fertilizer and sun light from getting to the soil and warming it up. If you have kept your lawn high, over 2″ Then it will take 2+ months for the lawn to return, as Zoysia grows slowly. However, next year, after keeping it at 1.5″-2″ all season, you will be able to cut it to 1″, let it grow to 1.5-2″ and it will be the best looking lawn on the street. Also remember the type of lawn mower and the frequency of watering makes a difference. Reel mower more freq watering, allows to you cut it close to 1″. Rotary with less water you might want to keep it at 1.5-2″……Good Luck.
B Ballard – posted 10 April 2012 08:19
This first year with the grass I cut it at 3″. After reading your post and verifying from a couple other turf sources on the web I took your advice and scalped it yesterday after work. I took it down to 1 1/4″. I bagged it because that was a tremendous amount of dead grass being cut. Then I walked the entire lawn with my blower and blew the rest of the dead off what was left of the grass.
There is definitely green coming in – most heavily on the edges when the grass meets the driveway and front curb – but then sporadic green throughout the rest. I have some beautiful dark green new growth where it has crept into and mulch island. Having that new growth be so green is what has me most worried that the rest is just gone. Time will tell.
If you would, please answer these last fiew questions for me.
1. I have read that once the grass is 80-90% green I can fertilize. Apparently the grass wont utilize the fertilizer until is is most of the way out of dormancy. Do you agree?
2. Zoysia is supposed to be a bear to remove once it is established. Does this mean that even though some of mine have have died off, since I have new growth sporadically about, that the yard will eventually come back on its own. Even taking a couple seasons?
3. What is the optimal height for me to keep the grass. Should I go from 3″ down to 2?
I really appreciate your insight.
mrmumbels – posted 10 April 2012 18:45
Personally I wouldn’t have scalped it. Anything that was alive will now be dead and the weeds will start coming in much more.
I tried the scalping thing my first year and it was rough. The last 4 years I have left the dead stuff there because zoysia doesn’t go fully dormant in central florida. Only dormant grass should be scalped.
Also, in the last year I have started mulching instead of bagging the leaves and blades. With our sandy soil I noticed 1. the bag always had top soil/sand in it.2. without organic material in the sand you’ll never have enough moisture in the to support zoysia at mid day. It’ll always curl up and look like crap. It won’t die but it’ll thin out and look like crap until about 7pm when it starts to uncurl again.
5 years I’ve been fighting my empire zoysia with one hell of a water bill.
mrmumbels – posted 10 April 2012 18:46
Do you have any pictures of your lawn currently?
B Ballard – posted 11 April 2012 08:06
The scalping was horribly dusty. There was a lot of dead stuff. After walking the lawn and looking more closely I see where it appears nothing is left but 1 inch brown stems in wide areas. And those stems are really spaced apart. My first thought was I will be back to fighting weeds like I was prior to this zoysia being put in.
I will take a few pictures after work today. Will I be able to post them on this site?
I hear ya about the water bill. My first year I had to water like crazy. I thought that was because it was new sod and once established, I would benefit from the grass’ drought tolerance. Looks like I won’t find out now. I always had to spots in the front yard that would brown or almost turn black in the middle of the day. No matter how much I watered them, every afternoon those spots looked terrible.
I am starting to regret spending 2k on the sod and who knows how much on water bills for grass that appears to have died in 9 months. I looked fantastic before winter came. I wonder if I should have put fertilizer of some sort on it prior to winter. I also didn’t water it this winter because I didn’t think it needed it when dormant. The grass turned the color of hay, but that yard kept its form, nice and thick, the whole time. Maybe what I thought was dormant was actually death.
ocean – posted 11 April 2012 10:04
At least you only had a few spots that were nothing but sticks and dirt. The whole area I experimented with was when I did it . I like in North Florida, and it took months to convince me to do this. However, I did it on a back yard section to test the theory. And, yes it took about 1.5 months to recover (not sure if I did this too soon), but it came in beautiful and saves you from that thatching rake.
I do mulch, to put the nutrients back into the soil. Being mostly sand, on a pond, I fear the “Top Soil” was less than choice, more like non-existent. This was proven correct with soil tests I had done. Knowing all that I know now I would not have let the (let’s get it done quickly) landscapers talk me out of scrapping the top 6 inches and laying a new top soil even at a premium cost. Oh well, next life right.
None the less, I was also maintaining it at 2-3inches, but now keep it at 2″ and it looks night and day better. I get too nervous going below given how hot it get here. Since I have a well, I am not water restricted due to cost. I was watering twice a week for 1/2 at a time, but trying to go to once a week at 1″. However, several people have told me that is not realistic in Florida, which I have to believe.
So in Florida I have come to understand, Organic Fertilizer may not work, more often watering, and keep it a little longer than the rest of the country due to the heat.
I do not suffer from the intranet wilting the other poster discussed, but I live in zone 9, not 10.
B Ballard – posted 11 April 2012 10:22
Ocean – Are you telling me that even though I have bare sticks and dirt throughout the yard, and some new growth here and there that my yard may still come back from this? If so, I won’t stress as much as I am now.
The thought of tilling and laying a new round of sod (and paying for it) is painful.
ocean – posted 11 April 2012 12:00
Well I can hope for the best right? I am not saying that WILL happen. I am simply saying that is what general practice is. To cut it low in the spring, and let it grow a little longer for maintenance. This ASSUMES the lawn is still mostly dormant. Zoysia is hard to kill off. If it end up being dead, I would recommend investing in a Soil test before starting again. DO NOT TILL. It will leave way to many ridges and you will not be able to cut your new sod low. If yo do go the route of a new Lawn, MAKE SURE you lawn guy box grades it. This will NOT TILL it, rather smoth it out. You will welcome that smoothness when it comes to cutting. Secondly, make sure of the cultivar of Zoysia you want to use (Fine blade, course blade, etc etc). Next Make sure the Sod you get is even. Don’t except 2 inch sod mixed in with a lot of 1″ sod. Doesn’t matter what it is, as long as it was all cut the same height. Otherwise you can go the plug route in the front yard and sod the back maybe. This will give a a great carpet effect in the front. The important thing if to keep it short. Letting it get long will lead to a lot of problems.
Here is some great info I just found yesterday.
mrmumbels – posted 11 April 2012 19:41
I will put money down that you didn’t kill it. Once we start getting rain it’ll flourish. My lawn actually looked ok about a month ago before I brought it down 1 inch. This stuff does not like to be brought down at all.
“drought tolerance” means it will not die in drought but instead it’ll look like crap. Look around, most St aug lawns are dead right now and will have trouble coming back but yours will come back.
jod788 – posted 12 April 2012 15:09
I have 2 different varities of Zoysia in my yard. There is a very noticeable difference in how quickly they green up in comparison with each other. I’d say one variety is a full month behind the other.
B Ballard – posted 12 April 2012 18:30
Hey jod,
Do you happen to know if one of your types is Empire? And do you live in central florida?
ezf – posted 12 April 2012 19:32
I suspect one is Meyer zoysia, which greens up earliest. There are a few patches of zoysia in my lawn which had never been watered during the drought near Atlanta last summer. Of course they were dormant in the heat from time to time. This Spring we have had only 1/4 of the regular rain fall so far and these patches look most healthy compared to other zoysia patches that got babied.
jod788 – posted 13 April 2012 07:31
No, I’m in TX. The Palisades is what is greening up fast and the Jamur is taking a long time to green up. Maybe Empire is comparable to Jamur, I don’t know.
jugheadfla – posted 13 April 2012 09:43
quote:Originally posted by jod788:No, I’m in TX. The Palisades is what is greening up fast and the Jamur is taking a long time to green up. Maybe Empire is comparable to Jamur, I don’t know.
My Jumur here in Tampa is about 95% greened up. Unfortunately, there are a couple areas of my lawn that are quite dry only because I need to get some of the sprinkler heads repaired. It sucks right now because of the drought conditions we are having here, at least until the usual Summer rain cycle starts up. No matter how much you water right now here, it will dry out after about 2 or 3 days. I am currently watering 50 minutes per zone twice a week and usually the day before I water the grass is totally dried out and doing its dormancy dance.
B Ballard – posted 09 September 2012 08:01
Hope the folks that tried to help me still get notifications for this thread. I wanted to let you guys know what my problem turned out.
Two words: Grub Worms.
First I started finding a ton of these little black beetles throughout the lawn. I took a couple, and a soil sample, to get tested. Soil ph came back normal. The beetles, well, they weren’t sure if if hey were the type that mature from grubs but said it was a good possibility.
The next day I was raking leaves off the grass when I noticed the ground moving. I bent down and saw probably 30 baby grub worms within a two square inch area. They were all over the place.
I emailed the extension office with a picture I took of the worms. They confirmed, and told me to but a Bayer product that kills grub worms. I put a double dose of the stuff on the lawn over a three day period. My yard has gone from about 5% green to 85%. Even the most barren areas have filled in with all new growth.
BTW, I applied the stuff in mid-June. Both the extension office and the product instructions said that June is when the worms are just coming around. That is when you want to nail them. The worms eat the roots as they mature to beetles. Once they are beetles, they do no damage. So the beetles I first found were the culprits that ate my roots as worms.
Add this to your library of possibilities.
lc818 – posted 10 September 2012 20:17
Good to know. This is my first time putting down Zoysia sod this year. Thank you.
Danewood – posted 07 December 2012 21:34
My sprinkler guy recommended Empire Zoysia. Ordered 2 pallets and the stuff looked great right off the truck , very low nap not too thick of pieces, laid down like carpet. I ordered batch2 of 2pallets to finish my front from another guy(1st guy hit my truck ,so I tried someone else) stuff showed up yellow and looked like hay. My wife is like “is that the same grass?” This batch was like considerably thicker. Scared it won’t match(someone mentioned not to mix thicknesses , I just didn’t realize it would look so different. Batch 1 looks like a croquet court and batch 2 looks like Wilbur’s lunch. Should I pull this stuff up or is it hopefully just dormant and a little fluffy? I have Scott’s lawn svc coming out next week and was going to ask them as well.
SodSolutions – posted 14 March 2013 09:16
The only way to know whether you received authentic Empire is to check where the grass came from. You can see a list of all authorized distributors and licensed producers of Empire at
B Ballard – posted 18 March 2013 09:26
Thanks Sod Solutions for some great information! I did purchase my Empire turf from an authorized distributor as I found them at the link you provided.
I have just a few more questions I would appreciate some insight on.
1. Is there a fertilizer brand you recommend? Last year I used Scott’s Bonus S but don’t think it did much. The bag says its good for zoysia, but maybe not Empire.
2. Can I put down just straight ironite a little while after I put down a high nitrogen based fertilizer for spring? And when is the beginning of spring in Central Florida – as far as when you think I should feed the lawn the first time. With the heat and sun coming this week I am thinking I should do it now.
3. I bought Ortho Grub Ex for a retardent this year. Last year I put down the Bayer 24 grub killer when I had a bad worm problem. The grass came back really well from near entire kill off but the grubs got me again months later because the Bayer product wasn’t meant for prevention. Luckily I new the signs of grub infestation from last years experience and put down the 24 hour Bayer product when I noticed the brown grass again.
When in Spring do you suggest I put down the Grub Ex? And can I go ahead and put it down in the summer to to be sure I have lasting protection, or will it hurt my turf to do it twice?
SodSolutions – posted 15 April 2013 11:14
B Ballard, sorry for the late reply! Hope this helps.
1) No real preference from us on Fertilizer, but I will say that we strongly encourage supporting your local landscape supply or fertilizer store because they generally have very knowledgeable staff and in general better quality products. For fertilizer, the N-P-K is what you are getting, but the minors that make up the other 50-70% of the bag do matter.
2) You can also use an iron supplement product such as ironite or milorganite in the spring along with your fertilization, but do take into account any additional nitrogen you may be putting down.
3) Bayer also has a product called Bayer Advanced Season Long Grub control that is an excellent preventative and only needs to be put down once. From our experience it does an excellent job for the entire year in most areas. Ortho I would imagine will also do the job, I just dont have any personal experience with it.
ezf – posted 16 April 2013 02:28
Empire zoysia greens up very late compared to Meyer. I wouldn’t worry about it at all.
therock050383 – posted 18 April 2013 12:30
I wouldnt sweat it. You’ve got to have consistently warm weather for a while.
Remember, its the soil temps, not the temperature outside.
Guess you cant load up pics on this site, but here is page that has a few pics of zoysia that isnt all the way green yet, but they were already willing to cut it into sod from the farm…
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…
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