Help Identifying…

ManoNegra – posted 29 May 2012 20:18

Early in the year I decided to work on the lawn in front of the house.After killing off the old grass, tilling, raking, flatening and contemplating Palmetto St. Augustine I decided to on a Zoysia lawn. Since plugs can’t be shipped to CA and sod isn’t cheap I decided to give Zenith Zoysia seeds a try.Bought 4 lbs of the stuff and laid out per instructions.

According to zoysias.com this is how Zenith sprouts should look like:

http://www.zoysias.com/images/seedling.jpg

and I do notice this type of sprouts in some regions of the lawn.

The thing is that I also got these type of grass in the lawn (after ~4 weeks):

http://img690.imageshack.us/img690/6743/img0641lj.jpg

http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/9323/img0640h.jpg

http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/8985/img0638vv.jpg

I didn’t recognize them as any of the weeds I’m familiar with so I left them alone.They are getting ‘bushier’ and some have gotten as tall as 5″ in ~5 weeks.

Are they part of the zoysia or are they weeds?Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,-juan

[This message has been edited by ManoNegra (edited 29 May 2012).]

[This message has been edited by ManoNegra (edited 29 May 2012).]

jugheadfla – posted 30 May 2012 07:05

quote:Originally posted by ManoNegra:Early in the year I decided to work on the lawn in front of the house.After killing off the old grass, tilling, raking, flatening and contemplating Palmetto St. Augustine I decided to on a Zoysia lawn. Since plugs can’t be shipped to CA and sod isn’t cheap I decided to give Zenith Zoysia seeds a try.Bought 4 lbs of the stuff and laid out per instructions.

According to zoysias.com this is how Zenith sprouts should look like:

http://www.zoysias.com/images/seedling.jpg

and I do notice this type of sprouts in some regions of the lawn.

The thing is that I also got these type of grass in the lawn (after ~4 weeks):

http://img690.imageshack.us/img690/6743/img0641lj.jpg

http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/9323/img0640h.jpg

http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/8985/img0638vv.jpg

I didn’t recognize them as any of the weeds I’m familiar with so I left them alone.They are getting ‘bushier’ and some have gotten as tall as 5″ in ~5 weeks.

Are they part of the zoysia or are they weeds?Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,-juan

[This message has been edited by ManoNegra (edited 29 May 2012).]

[This message has been edited by ManoNegra (edited 29 May 2012).]

They are some sort of broadleaf grass/weeds. This is basically the reason that it is not recommended to grow Zoysia from seed. The Zoysia grows very slowly which allows weeds to grow rapidly while the Zoysia takes its time. Zoysia will never grow 5in in 5 weeks so you can guarantee that it is not Zoysia that you see.

ManoNegra – posted 30 May 2012 12:12

quote:Originally posted by jugheadfla: They are some sort of broadleaf grass/weeds. This is basically the reason that it is not recommended to grow Zoysia from seed. The Zoysia grows very slowly which allows weeds to grow rapidly while the Zoysia takes its time. Zoysia will never grow 5in in 5 weeks so you can guarantee that it is not Zoysia that you see.

Bummer, but it’s odd that in the 3 years that I’ve been at this houseI never noticed this type of grass.

The lawn stayed bare for a couple of weeks after tilling and raking while I played phone tag with the sod farm about St. Agustine. Weeds, the kinds I’m familiar with, immediately started sprouting.

These tuffs of grass only starting coming out ~10 to 15 days after I lay down the zenith seed.Maybe it’s something that was in the bag of zenith…?Honestly it looks to good to be a weed lol.

Took closer/better pictures last night when I got home. You can also see the ‘traditional’ zoysia sprouts. The brown/dead pieces the can be seen are strands of Bermuda trying to come back that I’ve hit with Round Up.

http://img829.imageshack.us/img829/6514/img0657mi.jpg

http://img818.imageshack.us/img818/9210/img0658x.jpg

close up of the expected zoysia:

http://img39.imageshack.us/img39/3598/img0659j.jpg

any help identifying the phantom weed would be appreciated.

-juan

[This message has been edited by ManoNegra (edited 30 May 2012).]

[This message has been edited by ManoNegra (edited 30 May 2012).]

jugheadfla – posted 30 May 2012 13:52

I doubt it was something that came in the bag of seed. These weeds coud have been covered up by the bermuda that you had there before or whatever other grass you had prior. It’s difficult to say exactly what kind of weeds they are, especially because I am only familar with native Florida weeds. To me it looks like some sort of crabgrass or a variation of it. It also could be some sort of foreign grass. Regardless its a broadleaf grass/weed and definately not Zoysia. That is the good thing about Zoysia, you can always tell what are weeds and what is Zoysia. If its growing quickly and its broadleafed, its definatley not Zoysia. I would try and see how much you can hand pick out as I would not recommend spraying a broadleaf killer at this time. Take a good look at the stocks of the weeds and see if you can see little white hairs on them. If you see them then its definately crabgrass. good luck!

[This message has been edited by jugheadfla (edited 30 May 2012).]

[This message has been edited by jugheadfla (edited 30 May 2012).]

ManoNegra – posted 30 May 2012 15:03

quote:Originally posted by jugheadfla:I doubt it was something that came in the bag of seed. These weeds coud have been covered up by the bermuda that you had there before or whatever other grass you had prior. It’s difficult to say exactly what kind of weeds they are, especially because I am only familar with native Florida weeds. To me it looks like some sort of crabgrass or a variation of it. It also could be some sort of foreign grass. Regardless its a broadleaf grass/weed and definately not Zoysia. That is the good thing about Zoysia, you can always tell what are weeds and what is Zoysia. If its growing quickly and its broadleafed, its definatley not Zoysia. I would try and see how much you can hand pick out as I would not recommend spraying a broadleaf killer at this time. Take a good look at the stocks of the weeds and see if you can see little white hairs on them. If you see them then its definately crabgrass. good luck!

[This message has been edited by jugheadfla (edited 30 May 2012).]

[This message has been edited by jugheadfla (edited 30 May 2012).]

Thanks for the response.

I emailed Hancock – where I bought the seed – and they got back to me quickly: Definitely not zoysia so weeds it is. I’ll get to up-rooting them asap.

-juan

ManoNegra – posted 05 June 2012 18:10

update

weeds have been pulled for the most partnoticed runners starting to spring yesterday. Yay!

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/392522_10151014105333764_1865341831_n.jpg

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/551222_10151014104743764_645218109_n.jpg

jugheadfla – posted 06 June 2012 07:17

quote:Originally posted by ManoNegra:update

weeds have been pulled for the most partnoticed runners starting to spring yesterday. Yay!

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/392522_10151014105333764_1865341831_n.jpg

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/551222_10151014104743764_645218109_n.jpg

Keep and eye on it, looks like there is some crabgrass in there. Look down at the stems and if you see any of them with white fur on them pull it!

ManoNegra – posted 06 June 2012 12:27

quote:Originally posted by jugheadfla: Keep and eye on it, looks like there is some crabgrass in there. Look down at the stems and if you see any of them with white fur on them pull it!

Oh there are are still plenty of weeds. I make time almost every week to pull the more aggressive ones.It’ll be an ongoing process until the lawn is established I’m afraid.