Winter Injury – Zoysia in Atlanta

BAnsley44 – posted 12 May 2014 13:40

I have approx. 2000 sq ft 3 year-old emerald zoysia lawn in Atlanta. Last few years my lawn has been incredible. Just a hobby of mine, but I have a company fertilize & spray throughout the year and I mow with a Trimmer reel mower.

As of today, my zoysia looks terrible. There are some areas that have not come back at all and Bermuda is starting to fill in the bare areas. To complicate things, I had a company come “top dress” the lawn a few weeks back (before I could notice the struggles) to get rid of some of the low spots/dips so my reel mower would not scalp.

I am trying to determine whether I should re-sod. This time with Zeon. But before I do, I wanted to ask a few questions:

1) anyone else was seeing trouble with Zoysia around Atlanta? We had a very cold winter and two ice storms and I’m wondering if my grass took too much of a beating to the point where I should just start over.

2) any chance top dressing could smother and kill the zoysia?

3) any suggestions about ways to try to give the grass a jolt back to life other than patience? I don’t want to over-fertilize and don’t want to spend any more $ on the grass if it is of no use, but also curious if there is something I can do to help give it some life. I am ok with managing bermuda with Fusillade and being patient for another month or two if the emerald will heal, but also want a good lawn this summer.

Any tips/suggestions/advice welcome — much appreciated.

mrmumbels – posted 15 May 2014 20:22

Try some alfalfa pellets. That always woke my lawn right up.

ezf – posted 21 May 2014 00:36

1) anyone else was seeing trouble with Zoysia around Atlanta? We had a very cold winter and two ice storms and I’m wondering if my grass took too much of a beating to the point where I should just start over.

I have had a large patch of Emerald zoysia in my Bermuda yard north of Atlanta for 4 years. I find some scattered brown spots in it now due to the unusually cold winter. But it is repairing itself slowly as far as I can tell.2) any chance top dressing could smother and kill the zoysia?

I maintain the grass at 2 3/4 inches so that I don’t need to weed and seldom water it. It is much denser and stronger than surrounding bermuda although it’s hard to tell the difference from a distance. My little son uses the patch as a bouncing bed. I don’t worry about the bermuda growing in Emerald zoysia at all, because at this height Emerald zoysia will choke out bermuda gradually. I have observed this many times. I once top-dressed the Emerald zoysia patch with about 1/2 to 1 inch of sawdust and it did wonders and effectively helped it preserve water during the hot days. Zoysia loves topdressing with compost without doubt. I apply soybean meal or some other organic fertilizers only during the summer. And I expect it to fully recover itself after applying soybean meal in June.

[This message has been edited by ezf (edited 21 May 2014).]

[This message has been edited by ezf (edited 21 May 2014).]

leweezo – posted 07 July 2014 10:28

Conyers area I had 4 large spots in my Jamur that was from winter root rot. All that rain last year coupled with the 2 ice storms were rough. I was thinking of buying more sod to throw on top of it but this Jamur just took off and closed 90 percent of it sofar. I would agree with the alfalfa pellets, that stuff helped me so much in my first year. You can also make some Black Cow tea and apply it to your yard, it seems to make my trouble areas do better. Don’t know if you have taken a soil sample to your county extension but if you can.. do so. the better the soil, the better the recovery..