Yup. Looks like it's too hot. Here is a link that might be useful: MSMA

My 2 cents... The great thing about Zenith Zoysia is that it grows slooooooowly!!! The curse of Zenith Zoysia is that it grows slooooooowly!!! Try to not love the lawn to death with fertilizer and, as always, the less chemical toppings the better for us all. My experience with ZZ tells me that it would rather be starved than fed. I only used real fertilizer one time on part of the sod and the sod didn't seem to like it. Now, I only occasionally use corn gluten meal and used coffee grounds, but 99% of the time God takes care of the lawn. Also, ZZ is supposed to be âÂÂa little shade tolerantâ , but it still prefers sun, so too much shade may be a deal breaker. Just my 2 cents. I have assorted plots of ZZ on my property: North side, West side and South side- some from seed, some from plugs and some from sod. I first seeded ZZ in 2002. Initially, it looked like a bust until little by little over years the ZZ established as the alpha grass, but it took a few YEARS!!! -all this without fertilizer other than the random tossing of used coffee grounds. Note: I mowed it high just like my fescue and did NOT bag the clippings most of the time and that doesnâÂÂt seem to be a problem. I am making the change to cutting it lower because the âÂÂexpertsâ suggest that I do, but IâÂÂm not convinced that is ideal and I feel the only benefit of cutting low *may* be related to overly fungus prone locations where low cutting might allow better drying and air circulation. Just my 2 cents. This post was edited by louvox50 on Sun, Oct 26, 14 at 9:06

No, that is correct. Zoysia is in fact a hybrid of Bermuda grass. I have gone at it different ways in different areas and at different times. The worst my first home. There was about 5 years worth of B' growing in dense mats over the entire place. Only where the cars had driven in and pressed down a path was it short enough to walk through. I tried lots of ways. That's where I learned just how incredibly well it grows right through a foot of mulch. Anyway, what finally worked was I got a hold of a load of water damaged dry wall (sheet rock) and laid it out. After 3 months I pulled it back and scalped again, getting what had tried to grow under the dry wall. I then watered and yep, there were sprouts right away. I dug these out, meticulously following ever little bit of root as it traveled underground. Watered again and cleaned every speck again. these 2 watering/cleaning cycles took about 3 to 4 weeks. Then I started planting into areas, and row by row making sure it didn't come back. I reclaimed a good 1/2 acre + that way. I do recall "talking" to it, as I think you have from the sound of it ::smiles his jolly smile:: My first crop was okra and that was rather good at competing with what did try to grow. I lost a couple of plants where I just had to get the grass and the okra was in the way. All told, over the course of one year it was all gone. The following year a very few spots would see a sprout, I just stayed with it, digging out the entire root like an archaeologists digging for fossils. I could not have been more through if the stuff was selling for $1000 per ounce. But really the covering with the drywall did 95% + of the work. Scalping to start did a big part too.

That last picture is a particular style seen in some oriental gardens. They do it because they can with the right varieties of zoysia. Applying a preem in early Feb in northern GA is, uh, a waste of your money, but a great way to for them to make their boat payments over the winter. Late March preem is probably still a little early, but much better than Feb. The rest about fertilizing helping in transitioning from dormancy is pure bull crap. When grass is dormant it is not taking up nutrients. Applying fertilizer to grass that has not yet awakened from winter is a financial waste but also not great for the soil or wherever the rainwater runs off to. The warm season gurus wait until May for the first app of chemical fertilizer. If you feel the need to apply something earlier, at least wait until after the second mowing of green/growing grass to apply fertilizer. Mid to late May is the proper timing for the FIRST application of a chemical fertilizer for the year. So what I'm doing is painting a picture of what your lawn care company is doing. What they're doing is making lawn care look more difficult than it is. What they are not doing is telling you how to water and mow. Proper watering and mowing are more important than fertilizing to make the lawn look nice. I don't like lawn care companies, but I'm going to defend them in your dead grass from last year. I don't think they could have over done the fertilizer to the point of killing the lawn. Zoysia is persnickety despite what all the ads tell you. I'm thinking it got dry on the pallet when it was delivered and just appeared to die (or go dormant) coincidentally after the fertilizer folks left. Here is the 1-2-3 of lawn care as put together by me over the past 12 years in the lawn forums. In the mowing part I ignored zoysia because it is such a small proportion of lawns. In your case (Emerald) I would keep it mowed short more like bermuda than like anything else. Basics of Lawn Care After reading numerous books and magazines on lawn care, caring for lawns at seven houses in my life, and reading numerous forums where real people write in to discuss their successes and failures, I have decided to side with the real people and dispense with the book and magazine authors. I don't know what star their planet rotates around but it's not mine. With that in mind, here is the collected wisdom of the Internet savvy homeowners and lawn care professionals summarized in a few words. If you follow the advice here you will have conquered at least 50% of all lawn problems. Once you have these three elements mastered, then you can worry about weeds (if you have any), dog spots, and striping your lawn. But if you are not doing these three things, they will be the first three things suggested for you to correct. 1. Watering Water deeply and infrequently. Deeply means at least an inch in every zone, all at once. Infrequently means monthly during the cool months and no more than weekly during the hottest part of summer. Do not spread this out and water for 10 minutes every day. If your grass looks dry before the month/week is up, water longer next time. If that does not work, then you might have to water more than once per week during the summer's hottest period. Deep watering grows deep, drought resistant roots. Infrequent watering allows the top layer of soil to dry completely which kills off many shallow rooted weeds. You will have to learn to judge when to water your own lawn. If you live in El Paso your watering will be different than if you live in Vermont. Adjust your watering to your type of grass, temperature, humidity, wind, and soil type. It is worth noting that this technique is used successfully by professionals in Phoenix, so...just sayin.' The other factors make a difference. If you normally water 1 inch per week and you get 1/2 inch of rain, then adjust and water only 1/2 inch that week. 2. Mowing Every week mulch mow at the highest setting on your mower. Most grasses are the most dense when mowed tall. However, bermuda, centipede, and bent grasses will become the most dense when they are mowed at the lowest setting on your mower. In fact there are special mowers that can mow these grasses down to 1/16 inch. Dense grass shades out weeds, keeps the soil cooler, and uses less water than thin grass. Tall grass can feed the deep roots you developed in #1 above. Tall grass does not grow faster than short grass nor does it look shaggy sooner. Once all your grass is at the same height, tall grass just looks plush. 3. Fertilizing Fertilize regularly. I fertilize 5 times per year using organic fertilizer. Which fertilizer you use is much less important than numbers 1 and 2 above. Follow the directions on the bag and do not overdo it. Too much organic is better than too little*. At this point you do not have to worry about weed and feed products - remember at this point you are just trying to grow grass, not perfect it. Besides once you are doing these three things correctly, your weed problems should go away without herbicide. * This used to read, "Too little is better than too much." Recent test results show that you cannot get too much organic fertilizer unless you bury the grass in it.