Zoysia and Shade
brevard – posted 24 September 2007 21:05
Hey all-
I have a jungly backyard in Melbourne Beach, FL- Zone 10a
I have a large Royal Poinciana tree that gives quite a bit of shade in one area. The shade is certainly nice to have, but my St. Aug has liquified to the point of being bare sand underneath it.
I am, however, having other problems with my St. Aug – overwatering in the shadey area, for one.
It’s gotten so bad, and I’m not much of a St. Aug fan anyway, that I’m considering redoing the whole backyard with something softer like Empire Zoysia.
I got a couple test pieces of Empire Sod around june 07 and laid them out in various spots of the yard. The ones in sun took just fine and seem to be doing well even with my terrible lawn service’s scalping (another part of the grass problem I have)
The pieces in the shadey area pretty much liquified away.
I’m not sure if it was 100% due to the shade, or if my overwatering there played a big role in its decline.
Does anyone have experience with Zoysia grasses and shade? Particularly Empire / Empress?
What are the main differences between Empire and Empress?
Will these Zoysias go yellow or brown during the cold months here? (30s-40s)
tommy – posted 25 September 2007 15:03
Zoysia will turn brown with night time lows as you described. You might want to try and seed ‘Zenith Zoysia’ in the spring. Somtimes its better to start a lawn from seed, because sod somtimes will not root properly when moved from the farm- to a different light and soil condition.
brevard – posted 25 September 2007 22:25
Ah thanks
I’ve heard that Zenith doesnt take heat very well, and that Empire is better suited to my area (10a)
however, Empire does not have seed- just sod and plugs.
I figured I’d use Zenith seed to patch empty spots if need be.
I wonder if “Empire” will get brown in winter as well?
tommy – posted 26 September 2007 15:00
Color retention on Zoysia is usually better than bermuda, but don’t expect it to hold color when temps. get into the 30’s. Zenith should be able to handle the heat, as long as its in the shade.
saltcedar – posted 02 October 2007 10:16
Zoysia especially the improved ones tend to be nearlyevergreen in Zone 10 especially grown near the coast.It’s really a bad idea to mix several different varieties as each has it own texture, water, fertilizer, mowing and dormancycharacteristics. My experience with Empire in shade leads me to think it will thin out in the shade you describe.However that may not matter as much as nematode damage in Florida’s sandy soils. Empress is a much finer varietylike a dwarf bermuda and may have fungal problems grown in shade when watered heavily, not to mention the daily afternoon showers so common there.
[This message has been edited by saltcedar (edited 02 October 2007).]
[This message has been edited by saltcedar (edited 02 October 2007).]
dehrle – posted 03 October 2007 10:22
I have Palisades (4 months of Spring/Summer). It is doing well with 1 1/2 to 2 hr of Overhead direct sun. However, in areas where it get 4 hrs of direct sun from 7am to 11am it is thinning. In an area with 1 hr or less direct sun – mud. I think in has more to do with how many ergs it get from the sun than the hours.
Alex_in_FL – posted 20 October 2007 12:39
I live in Merritt Island near you. I had empress zoysia and it did okay in part shade. The new owner killed the zoysia to redo the landscape and add a deck.
This time I have plugged a few areas with Empire (I like it better I think). It is doing okay in the shady areas but these are not full shade.
All I can really say is that the old zoysias (emerald, meyer) live in shade but do not spread very well.
Good luck. I will keep you posted on my empire zoysia progress (but I can’t find any more of it locally since Duda lost their crop).
I almost forgot Do Not over water. Floratan /Seville all strains of St. Augustine are suseptible to fungus from over…
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