turfgrass

Stunted Empire Zoysia

Stunted Empire Zoysia

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EZ Lover – posted 04 September 2005 21:53

Last May (2004), I sodded with Empire Zoysia. All has been good except for last Fall when I accidentally forgot to cut nback on the watering schedule and ended up with brown patch. Now I have noticed a semi-circular patch that appears to be “stunted” and growing larger by the week. It started as a 2 foot area and is now about 10 feet.

In the past three weeks, I have put down grub killer, chinch bug etc killer, Milorganite, granulated iron, and fungus control. Still, it continues to grow larger. The surrounding grass grows at normal rates while the “patch” hardly gows at all, yet it is still somewhat green and otherwise appears fairly healthy. It just won’t grow vertically.

Any ideas?

QWERTY – posted 05 September 2005 07:48

You need to stop using those chemical stuff and start nursing them back to health via organic care. You are killing your grasses with that much chemicals!

First thing I’d do is spread 1cubic yard of compost per 1000sqft to introduce microbes into the soil that you killed with those chemicals. Chemical fungicide is probably the worst thing you can use on the yard. Avoid it at all cost. In fact anything that ends with icide. They are nonselective so they will also kill benefical ones, the very same thing that help fight harmful ones. You just have to help them a bit via organic care.

Second thing is to spread 20lbs of corn meal (not corn GLUTEN meal) per 1000 sqft. Look for unlicensed ones at animal feed store. It’s cheaper than the licensed ones for lawn care. This is to promote growth of benefical fungus which in turn help fight harmful fungus. I’d say it worked on mine. I watered the heck out of my new lawn and nothing happened except for yellowing part and lots of growth.

Third thing is to get BENEFICAL NEMATODES if you think you’re having grub problems. They will keep them under control. Fleas,Ticks, ants, and many others too.

As for watering practice, zoysia generally dont need as much water but at the MOST, it should be 1 inch of water once per week during DRY and hot spell. Get a rain gauge for your house so you’d get accurate data and you’d know whether you need to water or not.

Go to this link – http://www.dirtdoctor.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=382

To get you started…

EZ Lover – posted 09 September 2005 18:09

I’m definitely willing to give that a try, and I have used corn meal in the past, to mixed results. However, can anyone identify what may be going on, specifically? Is it likely a fungus? Would a bug cause a stunted patch surrounded by normal growing EZ? I’ve put down fungus control, I’ve put down grub control, and I’ve put down chinch bug/mole cricket control. Yet “they”/”it” seem to be causing ever enlarging patches.

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