Zoysia help

Hawkeye – posted 11 October 2009 20:39

Hello…I live in Austin, TX. Planted my back yard in Cavalier Zoysia two summers ago. The 1st year it did pretty well. This summer, the drought was pretty bad. My yard, like everyone else’s was dormant by late July. The grass is coming back in now someplaces and not in others. Should I expect it to come back up next spring or should I assume that it’s dead?

Hawkeye – posted 12 October 2009 04:57

Also, I was considering fertilizing with Scott’s Turfbuilder Winter weed and feed. Due to weakness of the zoysia, quite a few weeds have popped up in a large area. Is this a good fertilizer and is this a good time of year to do that?

Lastly, I believe I need to topdress with soi and/or compost. Any suggestions on that?

green in atlanta – posted 23 October 2009 09:01

If your grass is drought stressed and your winter climate is cool enough to force your turf into dormancy anyway, I would discourage you from fertilizing at this time of year. I am fairly sure the Winter Weed and Feed is designed for cool season turf like fescue. Perhaps someone else will recommend a suitable weed killer sans fertilizer. Regarding your drought, we recently came out of an epic drought here in Atlanta. At the end of the summer of 2008, my empire zoysia was in bad shape. When it went dormant last winter I worried all winter long about whether it was alive or not. This Spring, 2009, it came back 100%, and looked beautiful. I don’t know if your cavalier will respond the same way.

[This message has been edited by green in atlanta (edited 23 October 2009).]

Turfguy_UF – posted 23 October 2009 11:11

Green in Atlanta is spot on with the suggests about not fertilizing as your Zoysia is about to go dormant due to lower temperatures. If your weeds are warm season weeds, they will also be killed due to the colder weather. If you know you get a lot of cool season weeds, you might want to consider pre-emergent weed control for those. Make sure it is safe for your Zoysia.

As for top dressing wait until the spring. Maybe try to spike/sold tine aerify your lawn, and then topdress. I would use sand based or the closest thing to your soil. You dont want to add organic matter to your soil, as it tends to contribute to the thatch, and mat layers. Also you dont want to layer your soil profile, with native soil, compost, native soil, compost, as this can cause drainage issues.

After you do topdress come back and then apply your fertilizer and weed killer.

Due all of this once your Zoysia is 100% out of dormancy. Most likely 3-4 weeks after last freeze, or where temperatures are no lower than 60 at night, and 80s during the day.

TurfGuy

saltcedar – posted 01 November 2009 05:58

October 15 is the correct time to fertilize warm season grasses like Zoysia in Central Texas. Unfortunately that window has passed. Your grass will likely fill in the dead areas next Spring, but you must be diligent in using a pre-emergent herbicidemid-February and mid-May to keep the weeds sprouting then from making a mess of the open areas. Hand weeding/spot treatment now is your best bet to control existing weeds.Adding organic matter does NOT cause thatch build up, it’s caused by over-fertilization of turf. If you only fertilize once or at most twice yearly and water only in the absence of rain you’ll have a much healthier lawn.Weed and Feed products are NEVER recommended for use here. They are designed to kill any plant that’s not a grass. (Think trees!) Also our weed germination and fertilization schedules are different enough that all you’re doing is allowing the unusable fertilizer to go into local lakes and river instead of feeding your lawn.

[This message has been edited by saltcedar (edited 01 November 2009).]