4 Week old Zoysia sod looks tufted and brown
I just had a landscaper lay down 1000 sq ft of zoysia sod 4 weeks ago. We live in tough-soiled Austin but he tilled up the dirt and laid out nutrient rich dillo-dirt before the installation. I followed his watering schedule and several that I found online - 15 minutes every morning for the first 3 weeks, then 15 minutes in the mornings every other day. Now on week 4, I am left with some tufted grass that has brown spots throughout. Did I water too much and what do I do now to get it healthy again?
Comments (6)
Michael Marzano
6 years agoRelated Discussions
New Zoysia Sod yellowing at 3 weeks. (Photos)
Comments (8)Got bad news for you. You have watered it to death. What you have now is a fungal disease. It could be brown patch (if you want to look it up) or something else. The grass that is yellowish or brown now is dead and will not come back. You'll have to rely on the rest of the grass coming back to fill in. I'm not sure how fast Palisades will return. Is Palisades the shade tolerant one??? If so I have something similar. If that's what we're talking about, it is probably gone for the season and will return in 2011. If it is not the shade tolerant one, then you have too much shade and it might be gone forever. Most zoysias like full sun. I have taken an organic approach to this disease since 2002 and have had superb results. Prior to that I had a terrible problem every spring. Now I apply ordinary ground corn meal at a rate of 20 pounds per 1,000 square feet and wait 3 full weeks. My turf is St Augustine, though, and it responds much MUCH faster than zoysia. For anyone else reading this, zoysia is not all it is cracked up to be in the magazines. If you are in zone 8, the predominant turf grasses are bermuda and St Augustine. Most of the zoysia lawns I have seen in my neighborhood have converted to St Augustine within the first year due to disease issues. We have one zoysia lawn around the corner that is starting its 3rd year with no issues. I watch it very closely....See MoreSix Week Old Sod - Does This Look Healthy?
Comments (19)2kk, I assume you have St Augustine. Getting a disease in brand new St Aug sod is very common. It is very sensitive to being covered up, so sitting on the sod truck pallet is the problem. It needs to be put down ASAP when it is delivered. That was sales pitch from the Scott's guy. Your lawn is always recoverable. Michael's 2-week pictures are interesting, but it really does take 3 full weeks (21 days) to see the improvement. I don't see any disease in his most recent photo posts, but there are some yellow blades laying down and slightly out of focus. That's not good. What you are calling thatch is just the dead blades of grass. Chinch bugs are trivial to find. Go out to the hottest part of a sidewalk and wipe your hand over the grass near the sidewalk. The chinch bugs will flick up in the air. If you put a piece of paper down, they will flick onto the paper and you can see them. They attack the hottest part of the soil first, so start looking there. If you don't see any, then you don't have them. Atrazine is the only weed killer for St Augustine. It comes in many different colored bottles, but anything else can damage the grass. It takes out all the other plants. If you prefer not to use lawn chemicals, then definitely stay away from atrazine. It is THE one you want to stay away from. They even advise you to work backwards spraying it so you don't walk through the sprayed grass. Corn meal will cost you less than $10 to try. It has worked for me every time I used it since 2002. If you write back, please tell us where you live....See MoreLooking for advice on a Zoysia sod installation gone bad, please
Comments (2)Since you were the installer, you're lucky to get new sod. Most sod companies here will make you sign away your guarantee if they do not do the installation. Sod needs to be installed the day it is cut or a day later. You took two days to install, but how long did it sit there waiting for the weekend? Grass sitting buried under other grass develops fungal diseases that can kill the grass before it goes down. You absolutely do not need more topsoil. Now would be a good time to remove the 5 yards you already put down, but I know that ain't happenin'. Adding topsoil always changes your drainage, and it almost never improves the drainage. Did you level and settle the new soil before putting the sod down? Now might be a good time to do that, too. If the surface is not perfectly level, and as settled as you can get it, then you are in for years of bumpy lawn mowing. If you are getting zoysia you might be thinking of mowing it low to the ground. Mowing low only exacerbates the bumpy lawn surface problem by leaving circular scalp marks. If the sod has connected roots then you will have to remove it with a sod cutter. If the roots never grew then you can pick up the pieces and move them aside. Level and settle as needed. Use a drag, not a rototiller, to do the leveling. You want it perfect (P E R F E C T). Run the drag and spray it with water to settle. Look for low spots and repeat dragging and watering until you have it perfect. Do all that before calling for delivery of the new sod. Get the sod on a Friday or, preferably, Saturday morning. It will go down very fast with all the experience you have....See MoreNeed advice on 1.5 year old sod that's brown with green spots
Comments (35)Wilting is actually not necessarily a demand or request for watering, it's a statement that water is leaving the system faster than it's being absorbed--or that the root systems are not up to supplying water as quickly as the leaf systems are transpiring it. It actually doesn't say anything about the state of moisture in the soil, which can be entirely adequate. Cool-season organisms will typically wilt when out of their temperature comfort ranges rather easily, so grasses would certainly be susceptible. It's not an issue for grass to wilt mid-day in 90-degree weather, any more than it's an issue for most plants to do so. One of my best photos of the garden is in hundred degree weather and the greenery is a bit wilted. The issue would be if the grass remains wilted after sunset when the roots have time to catch up and resupply the blades with water when the blade cools and the biological processing rates slow to something the roots can supply. Furthermore, day-wilting produces hormonal responses that spark root growth as temperatures fall in the soil to where root growth can resume. Constantly supplying water as temperatures cross that point mean that root growth never starts when temperatures are appropriate for said growth. Consistent coddling never produces the deep mat of roots that will support grass (or any plant) against wilting, which means it will continue to wilt in less-harsh weather than more harshly-treated lawns. There's a minor argument for syringing the lawn here, but that's not what we're discussing. That involves a drop of surface leaf temperature due to water contact and evaporative cooling, not a root watering....See More
bobstrauss
6 years agoPersonally, I don't think you made a terrible decision with Zoysia. I know St. Augustine is practical (best southern shade grass by far) and extremely popular throughout Texas, but it comes with its downsides as well (certainly not the most aesthetically pleasing grass, nor very comfortable to walk or sit in - but that's just my opinion).
The problem you're experiencing now (slow growth/spread) is also one of the advantages of Zoysia - as it requires far less upkeep than say Bermudagrass to continue looking good. I have to mow my Bermuda twice as often.
That said, in my experience, Zoysia can recover significantly during the same growing season. I've treated mine like garbage the last few years, but it keeps coming back, (painfully) slowly but surely. In 2016 it happened when trenches were dug for a sprinkler system. This year it happened when I foolishly tried an over-the-top lawn leveling experiment. My backyard is almost fully recovered, whereas my front yard (with much heavier shade) looks like it'll need another season to fully fill-in.
See the photos below - the first shots were taken a full week after the leveling mix had been put down, in early April 2017. The second shots were taken in October (though the same result had been achieved by about mid-August).
(FRONT - SHADIER)
(BACK - SUNNIER)
My thoughts: dchall's advice is always good to follow. Please keep in mind - you're really late in the growing season, so I doubt you'll see much if any regrowth in 2017. Hopefully we'll see some updated photos in 2018 of a much better situation!
Michael Marzano thanked bobstrauss
dchall_san_antonio
6 years agobobstrauss
6 years agolou_spicewood_tx
6 years agolast modified: 6 years ago
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