# Should zeon zoysia look like this after 2 weeks?



## Zoysia99 (May 7, 2021)

Hi. 
I just had zeon zoysia sod put in my front yard 2 weeks ago. 
Lawn was sprayed with Roundup 2 weeks before new sod install to kill existing bermuda and weeds.

They removed old dead Bermuda, tilled soil, added humichar (or some soil nutrient)graded it and laid new zeon zoysia sod squares. 
Then the rolled it. I even had them re-roll a week later.

They put down some fertilizer at the beginning of week 2. I thought this was strange to fertilize this early

I was told to water 15min/zone once a day. I have dine this. Plus we had lots of rain. 
April 23 was sod install. 
The avg temp has been around 72 deg. Few days in the low 80's.

Its may 7 and this is what my turf looks like now. 
I will say that when i pull up on it, its seems rooted to the ground. 
I just see more brown and not much greenup after two weeks when comparing to other 2 week sods. 
It actually seemed slightly greener when it was put in. 
I check moisture levels daily and the meter reads WET 4" deep. 
Does this look normal for two weeks or jas a lot of this grass died?


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## Spammage (Apr 30, 2017)

@Zoysia99 looks dried out to me. I would rather water three times per day (if needed) to keep it green. Does the sod itself feel moist or dry/hard? You don't have to keep the soil moist at a 4" depth at install, you have to keep the sod and the soil surface moist. Watering 3 times per day at 5 minutes per zone (if spray nozzles) should be enough on sunny days, and less if it's cool or rainy.


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## Zoysia99 (May 7, 2021)

Thanks. I started watering at 6am and 2:30 pm for 20 min per zone per day since yesterday. 
I might try your three times a day method too.

Do you think the grass is pretty much dead or will the additional watering help bring it back?


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## Spammage (Apr 30, 2017)

Zoysia is pretty resilient, so I think you will be okay. It probably is just going dormant because of the stress. Again, no need to overdo the water. Frequency is better for now and you then slowly reduce frequency and increase duration once the roots have grown deeper into the soil.


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## Robertw17 (May 7, 2020)

Yeah I put down zeon last year just keep the soil under the sod moist until it establishes


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## Ken_K (Apr 16, 2020)

I'll be curious to see how your lawn ends up. I replaced bermuda with zeon zoysia in the early spring 2 yrs ago. The contractor sprayed everything with some sort of herbicidal cocktail and the bermuda seemed to die very quickly. By fall I had lots of areas with bermuda growing through the new zoyzia. The contractor came back the following spring and sprayed the bermuda/zoysia mix with an herbicide on 3 separate occasions and the re-sodded. By fall I saw a couple of areas where the bermuda was peeking through. Fingers crossed this spring.


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## drewwitt (Jun 25, 2018)

It's dry!

It will recover if you keep watering consistently. It may be in shock and will need some consistent water to come out of the stress trigger. SAME thing happened to me when my sod was installed. I drastically underestimated the value of watering for the first two months.


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## SCGrassMan (Dec 17, 2017)

The sod should squish under your feet with moisture for the first month. By your phrasing of X minutes per zone that tells me two things:

1.) you're watering an arbitrary number of minutes rather than by how wet the sod is getting
2.) you aren't walking the property and watering the areas the irrigation misses by hand.

Irrigation is absolutely great to * help * establish sod, but you really need to be looking at every single square of grass, every single day, and making sure it's wet all the way to the edges.

And hopefully, you or they applied fungicide, insecticide, and starter fert on day one. It will need it again at day 30.


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## drewwitt (Jun 25, 2018)

+1 on fungicide when watering to establish.


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## Zoysia99 (May 7, 2021)

Well its may 17th almost 4 weeks after install. 
As many of you have advised ive increased the frequency and amount of water per day. 
Plus we are in a monsoon this week in north Texas. 
I think its greened up a little more but still see lots of dormant looking yellow blades. 
See pic. 
However what really concerns me is that there are a few spots that i can still easily pull up the sod square on. 
Lots of it seems to be attached to ground with some gentle pulls. Not sure if its the roots holding it or just the wet soil due to heavy rains.


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## Redtwin (Feb 9, 2019)

@Zoysia99 That looks good for 4-week-old sod. I also see some white roots under the piece you pulled up so just be patient.


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## rntaylo (Aug 8, 2017)

I installed approx 14k Zeon around the same time last year. It really didn't "establish" until it got hot, and by hot I mean when the high + low > 150. Give it about a month and you will be rolling.


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## jayhawk (Apr 18, 2017)

Well on your way....Downhill from here! &#128077;Rntaylo

keep in mind, shaded areas take a little more time root in good


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## Zeon2020 (May 15, 2020)

I installed last May and mine looked like yours. It took 8-12 weeks until that wow factor hit. it was amazing. Extremely green and carpet like. I let it grow out and it pained me to have to cut it.


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## Zoysia99 (May 7, 2021)

Hi folks. Sorry I haven't posted any updates in a while. Been very busy.

Its July 5th. (Installed april 23 2021)The zeon zoysia has definitely taken root and the brick pattern has faded away with good blend in.

Ive been mowing it once a week at slightly over 1" HOC. I use a California Trimmer Reel with roller in middle hole default bolt position. Height is third hole from highest.

Now in week 11, I water 3 times a week. 20 min/zone.

Here is what it looks like now. See pics.

The lawn care company added this last week and maybe also 4 weeks before that:
EarthMax Soil & Foliar Additive, HJE-Mallet Plus Lambda-0-0-7, Azoxy Fungicide

And our tech had these notes: Soil additive+grub+fungus application completed on front yard to eliminate any grub and fungus

So my questions are:

1) the zeon appears more lighter shade of green. Anything i should add to make it a darker solid green? Or is this just the normal growth pattern for 11 week sod and it will green up darker later on?

2) notice the white patches. I think this is just scalps from the mower, since the soil might be unlevel in spots? 
If i increase my mow frequency to twice a week, will it give me a more uniform color and thicken the density more possibly getting rid of white patches?


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## Dlmartin1984 (Jun 7, 2021)

Zoysia99 said:


> Hi folks. Sorry I haven't posted any updates in a while. Been very busy.
> 
> Its July 5th. (Installed april 23 2021)The zeon zoysia has definitely taken root and the brick pattern has faded away with good blend in.
> 
> ...


The more you mow, the more it will grow. 
The scalp marks are just some areas needing leveling. 
I'm not sure when it's ok to level new zoysia sod, but I would think after 11 weeks and it's taken well you could go ahead.


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## SCGrassMan (Dec 17, 2017)

Zeon is VERY slow to establish and fill in. It needs a lot of water, so keep it watered, keep the fungicide down, and keep the fertilizer going.

I have no idea who or why came up with this idea that "Zeon doesn't like fertilizer" or "Zeon doesn't need nitrogen" - I absolutely hammer mine and it loves it. In fact, since I started doing it this year, its looked as good as it has since it was laid down.


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## Philly_Gunner (Apr 23, 2019)

Definitely scalping. I would raise your hoc one notch and then maintain from there. Once you sand level, you should be able to mow lower.


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## jayhawk (Apr 18, 2017)

Re #2 - not really. That's a Bermuda need


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## Greendoc (Mar 24, 2018)

SCGrassMan said:


> Zeon is VERY slow to establish and fill in. It needs a lot of water, so keep it watered, keep the fungicide down, and keep the fertilizer going.
> 
> I have no idea who or why came up with this idea that "Zeon doesn't like fertilizer" or "Zeon doesn't need nitrogen" - I absolutely hammer mine and it loves it. In fact, since I started doing it this year, its looked as good as it has since it was laid down.


I have had to rescue Zeon installs damaged by underwatering at time of install. 1. Irrigation is set to whatever it takes to keep it damp but not flooded from 8 AM to 4 PM. 2. Zeon needs NPK to establish new roots. This is the one time in its life I am very generous with the fertilizer. 0.2 lb NPK per 1000 sq ft until the sod establishes or I cannot keep up with mowing whichever comes first.


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## SCGrassMan (Dec 17, 2017)

Greendoc said:


> SCGrassMan said:
> 
> 
> > Zeon is VERY slow to establish and fill in. It needs a lot of water, so keep it watered, keep the fungicide down, and keep the fertilizer going.
> ...


I used to tell them "it's great you have irrigation. You still need to walk your yard every day, twice a day, and hand water any part that isn't squishy under your feet. Do not rely on your irrigation system to establish this sod for you."


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## Greendoc (Mar 24, 2018)

Agree on that point as well. People rapidly find out what inadequacies are present when they have Zeon installed.


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## Zoysia99 (May 7, 2021)

Greendoc said:


> SCGrassMan said:
> 
> 
> > Zeon is VERY slow to establish and fill in. It needs a lot of water, so keep it watered, keep the fungicide down, and keep the fertilizer going.
> ...


Good point. Thanks
So far they have only applied some soil nutrient erathmax soil foliar additive(Humichar. ??). Does this contain any NPK ?
If not, is it normal for lawncare program to not add any NPK in the first 11 weeks?


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## Greendoc (Mar 24, 2018)

It is normal but very wrong. This is what I apply at time of install. No brown water. No substitutes for actual NPK. No "organic" supplements. Those genres of products do great at depleting bank accounts and wasting time, but not so great at growing grass. Peters 20-20-20 soluble at the rate of 1 lb of product per 1000 sq ft in 2-5 gallons of water. That is repeated in 2 weeks and then once more if needed on day 45.


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## Zoysia99 (May 7, 2021)

Greendoc said:


> It is normal but very wrong. This is what I apply at time of install. No brown water. No substitutes for actual NPK. No "organic" supplements. Those genres of products do great at depleting bank accounts and wasting time, but not so great at growing grass. Peters 20-20-20 soluble at the rate of 1 lb of product per 1000 sq ft in 2-5 gallons of water. That is repeated in 2 weeks and then once more if needed on day 45.


This lawncare company told me that their Earthmax soil additive is loaded with micronutrients which are better for new sod when it comes to rooting and that too much NPK this early in sod's life can burn it. 
They say its better to add NPK later on when roots are more established. 
They say watering 1.5 in a week is more critical.

Im not sure I completely agree with them. From my pics, you can see its pretty established and ready for NPK.

I wonder if I add NPK on my own on top of earthmax, if it will cause issues?


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