Wow! I'm glad this came back around. I think everyone has learned something since this thread was started. And now Houzz does notify you when messages you have posted on get more action. So maybe we can tune both of you up at the same time. You should not have to core aerate, ever, with very few exceptions. If you have hard soil there are chemistry reasons and biological reasons for that. The chemistry reason is most often an imbalance in the salts (magnesium, calcium, sodium, and potassium). Those can be addressed with a good soil test. The better lawn forums have been recommending Logan Labs in Ohio for soil testing for the past few years. Their $25 test is what you need. They will email the results to you. If you post them here morpheuspa will give you an extensive reading of the results and get you on your way toward soil perfection. The other reason the soil might be hard and clay-like is biological. There are fungi in the soil that will soften the soil for you once they have been well fed and watered. Spraying the yard with a surfactant will go a long way to allowing water to penetrate the soil and create the environment needed for healthy beneficial fungi. The surfactant can be anything but some are better than others. Ordinary shampoo is a good one. Any clear shampoo, like baby shampoo, will work. Spray the yard at a rate of 3 ounces of shampoo per 1,000 square feet and follow that up with 1/2 inch to 1 inch of water. Allow it 3 weeks to work. If you have other reasons for core aeration, please, lets discuss them. You should also not have to treat for insects unless you have found them in sufficient numbers to treat. The first clue you might have a grub problem is when you see beetles swarming your porch lights in May and June. If you see that then in July, before you see any damage, dig up a square foot of turf down to about 2 inches looking for grubs. If you see fewer than a dozen, then you don't have a grub problem. If you see an uncountable mass of them, then spray. Chinch bugs are more of a southern problem because they like hot soil, but it is possible to see them elsewhere. Spraying insecticide as a preventive measure is not good for the soil biology. Insects are an integral element of healthy soil. Spraying insecticide kills off the bad bugs, but if you don't have bad bugs, then it just kills the beneficial insects. I suspect both of you have watering and mowing height issues. Here's something I wrote a while ago that summarizes what I've learned over the past decade or so. 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 (unless you use organics in which case you may overdo it without fear of hurting anything). 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.

That looks like the picture of a plant that suffered sudden death. When all the pitchers wilt like that, plus the developing pitcher dies. I have the feeling that the rhizome is dead. I may be wrong but that looks like symptom I've seen before. The rhizome id dieing but the leaves are still green & look normal. But once the the rhizome is dead, the next thing that dies are the developing new immature pitchers, like the little developing pitcher. Then the rest of the developed leaves die and the pitchers kinda acquire this wilted drying, its a sudden collapse. Like I'm seeing on the photo you provided. You may have purchased a plant that was dying. Hope I'm wrong

If you're planning to overseed this spring, then Tenacity is good to use as a pre-emergent until you can use a normal pre-emergent. You would do an application at seeding, then another application a month after germination or after the second mowing (of the new grass), then a normal pre-emergent after that (read the directions on how soon it can be used). If you're planning to overseed next fall, then that limits you on using a normal pre-emergent later in the spring. It will be about 4 months before you can seed again and that's using the minimum amount of product. So maybe you ought to decide whether you want to seed in the spring or the fall instead of trying to do it twice. Fall is a better time to seed for many reasons. Tenacity is good as a pre-emergent against poa annua but it is not listed as an effective post emergent (though some have had luck using a frequent low dose strategy in the spring). Most of the poa annua you have germinated last fall. Save the fertilizer for late May, unless you are using it to help correct soil deficiencies. If all you did last fall was a home soil test, you should do a Logan Labs test ASAP and get Morpheus to interpret it. Best use of $25 you can do for the lawn.

My first thought, before I saw the pictures, was that the lawn got too much water from the rains we had up into early July. I believe the pictures tell the same story, but they add another plot. The fact that the initial sod pieces have not knit together tells me you got sold the wrong turf for your shade situation. There are shade tolerant varieties of zoysia but Zeon is not well known for being one of them. Here is a picture of Shadow Turf, a variety of zoysia developed in Abernathy, TX (near Lubbock). It is growing under the shade of a dense, English walnut tree. The only sunlight it gets is what you see. The turf was plugged a year earlier with 1-inch plugs on 12-inch centers. You can see some areas where the plugs have not quite grown together just north of the tree, but still, they have grown from 1 square inch to 10 square inches. Unfortunately Shadow Turf is no longer being grown or sold. I've seen many a zoysia lawn converted to St Augustine once the owner sees what you're seeing. There is a decent chance that your zoysia is dormant from being overwatered. I've experienced it myself. If you stick it out, the grass will come back fine next April, but until then, it will look like what you have...or get worse. If we get prolonged rains next year, the problem will recur. Is your lawn company in charge of watering? Because watering for 4 days straight is a big mistake for any lawn in any condition. I'm not saying you should not let them go (core aeration on a new lawn was a mistake in my book), but understand why you are letting them go. If you hire another company and continue to overwater, you will go through a lot of lawn companies.