# 2021 iriasj2009 zorro front yard



## Iriasj2009 (Feb 15, 2017)

Installed zorro zoysia mid October 2020.
Scalped down to 1/2" 5 weeks ago. I have not applied any chemicals to the lawn other than a balanced fertilizer. I will be hand picking weeds. Planning on maintaining it at 1/2" using a swardsman reel mower.


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## Meximusprime (Jun 21, 2019)

New yard. Welcome back!


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## Thor865 (Mar 26, 2018)

Man you moved? Lost that tifgrand? NOOOOOOO


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## Iriasj2009 (Feb 15, 2017)

Meximusprime said:


> New yard. Welcome back!


Thanks!!! Good to be back!


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## Iriasj2009 (Feb 15, 2017)

Thor865 said:


> Man you moved? Lost that tifgrand? NOOOOOOO


yea I moved, I'm gonna try out zorro on the front and tiftuff in the back yard this time. We'll see how it goes!


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## Mightyquinn (Jan 31, 2017)

Glad to see you are back @Iriasj2009 I am sure you will have that lawn up and running in no time!!!


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## ENC_Lawn (Sep 9, 2018)

@Iriasj2009 Following along...I can't wait to see what you do with the Zorro and TifTuf!


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## Iriasj2009 (Feb 15, 2017)

@Mightyquinn @ENC_Lawn its great to be back. Can't wait for some warmer weather to see how everything turns out!

Quick update. Haven't done anything to the front other than hand pick weeds. Gave the corner hell strip a trim with the landscaping blade. I'm still waiting for swardsman to come in. Should be another two weeks. I did apply fungicide a week ago since we were gonna get a bunch of rain. I'm also gonna start applying humic acid every two weeks to help the roots grow in.


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## jayhawk (Apr 18, 2017)

He's alive! Was it zorro you had on a strip at the prior house ....?

Congrats on the new house.


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## Iriasj2009 (Feb 15, 2017)

jayhawk said:


> He's alive! Was it zorro you had on a strip at the prior house ....?
> 
> Congrats on the new house.


Yes very much alive and glad to be back haha. Yes the strip was a mix of some zoysia I brought in from Belize and some zorro. I really like the way zorro looks!


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## Iriasj2009 (Feb 15, 2017)

Swardsman came in and I used the rake attachment and then mowed it down to 3/8". I will be maintaining it at 1/2 to 5/8 inches. Lawn is still super bumpy but the swardsman caused minimal scalping. Bought a manual aerator and I will be aerating next week and will be dusting sand once a week. This stuff grows slowwwww lol. Applying humic acid biweekly and threw down .5lbs/1k of starter fert. I will be keeping fertilizer applications low.


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## ENC_Lawn (Sep 9, 2018)

@Iriasj2009 Looking forward to following this new lawn.

It will be interesting with the slow growth how often you have to mow to keep it at 1/2 inch HOC.


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## Iriasj2009 (Feb 15, 2017)

Zoysia is loving all of this rain, just hoping for no fungus breakout. I did apply fungicide about a week ago as a preventative. As for fertilizer, I just purchased some Humax 12 and soluble seaweed powder so I'll be using that along with starter fertilizer. Hoping to get the root system growing. Bc of all the heavy clay, the zoysia is slowly establishing itself. I've never had this issue with Bermuda lol. Today I was able to sneak in a mow. Waiting for a sunny day to take some pics.


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## Iriasj2009 (Feb 15, 2017)

Not the best pics but I'm sure y'all like them. It started raining so no after pics. I manually aerated 1/3 of the yard and spot leveled. 
As this rain has definitely helped and I'm hoping the lawn thickens up.


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## Iriasj2009 (Feb 15, 2017)

I was finally able to finish aerating the lawn. It has been raining almost everyday and hopefully we start getting some drier weather. I've only been applying humic acid and seaweed. Lawn looks hungry so I started experimenting with starter fertilizer. The lawn turn a darker green so today I applied starter fertilizer at half rate and also used some miracle liquid lawn fertiler for an instant feed. We'll see how this zoysia responds.


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## Iriasj2009 (Feb 15, 2017)

Update. Lawn still has much more to go but it is slowly getting there. Bought some spike aerating shoes and got quite the workout spiking the whole lawn. I'm doing this in order make sure fertilizer is penetrating the lawn evenly as the turf is getting supper thick. I'm still due for a major leveling job but We've been having so much rain. Maybe in a couple of weeks. These pics were after a mow. It's was a a messy mow for sure. Oh and lots of crabgrass everywhere. Handpicking for now.


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## Txmx583 (Jun 8, 2017)

Glad your back!! Following


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## ag_fishing (Feb 3, 2021)

Man that looks good. I'm questioning now if I should've gone with zorro instead of celebration like I did.


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## Iriasj2009 (Feb 15, 2017)

Txmx583 said:


> Glad your back!! Following


 good to be back!


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## Iriasj2009 (Feb 15, 2017)

ag_fishing said:


> Man that looks good. I'm questioning now if I should've gone with zorro instead of celebration like I did.


Thanks! I still think it has a ways to go haha.

Celebration is great, easy to maintain, and I wasn't scared to damage it. Only reason I chose zorro over anything else was Bc I thinks it's more aesthetically pleasing than anything else I have ever seen, (actually PRG is my favorite).


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## ENC_Lawn (Sep 9, 2018)

@Iriasj2009 Looks great!

Is the Zoysia as hard to mow as every ones says it is?


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## Iriasj2009 (Feb 15, 2017)

ENC_Lawn said:


> @Iriasj2009 Looks great!
> 
> Is the Zoysia as hard to mow as every ones says it is?


Thank you!

It definitely has a much tougher blade than Bermuda grass. I'm not sure if that's what you mean by "hard to mow". I can see it causing me to back lap more than I would if I were mowing Bermuda


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## ENC_Lawn (Sep 9, 2018)

Iriasj2009 said:


> ENC_Lawn said:
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> 
> > @Iriasj2009 Looks great!
> ...


I didn't know at the low HOC if the Zoysia was so thick and tough bladed that you had to double cut at times?

Or if you had any wash boarding....etc?

Seems like back lapping more often with Zoysia is a must...but if Zoysia can be mowed with the reel mower just as easy as Bermuda (besides the back lapping) that seems like a plus! :thumbup:

Thanks for the feedback!


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## Iriasj2009 (Feb 15, 2017)

ENC_Lawn said:


> Iriasj2009 said:
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> > ENC_Lawn said:
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Don't need to double cut so far, and no wash boarding either. I'm using a 5 blade reel with a grooved roller that I'm assuming helps dig in the turf for a true cut. A friend of mine hated using a smooth roller on his zorro as it eventually started "floating" his turf. I'm at roughly .5" and don't expect any washboarding. Don't plan on cutting lower either. Hope this helps!


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## ENC_Lawn (Sep 9, 2018)

Iriasj2009 said:


> ENC_Lawn said:
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> > Iriasj2009 said:
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 :thumbup:


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## ag_fishing (Feb 3, 2021)

Iriasj2009 said:


> ag_fishing said:
> 
> 
> > Man that looks good. I'm questioning now if I should've gone with zorro instead of celebration like I did.
> ...


It's definitely a good look on your yard. I think you had zorro in the shade at your last house that did well if I remember right.


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## Iriasj2009 (Feb 15, 2017)

ag_fishing said:


> Iriasj2009 said:
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> > ag_fishing said:
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Thanks!

Oh yes I did. I planted it next to my driveway and it did great with 4.5 hours of sun. It never got too thick for me to deal with any issues.


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## Iriasj2009 (Feb 15, 2017)

Ok since I wasn't able to sod the back yard, I decided to aerate and level the front. Mowing at .5 inches. I used both a annual aerator and my proplugger to aerate. Bought a yard of masonry sand to spread. Also added more iron fertilizer.


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## Nimblecow (Jul 11, 2021)

Do you think October was ideal to install the Zorro? I'm planning to install sod in the backyard and I'm debating between September and October (Austin).


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## Iriasj2009 (Feb 15, 2017)

I wouldn't say ideal, but it worked out for me. I would say the earlier the better.


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## Iriasj2009 (Feb 15, 2017)

Scalped the hell strip and top dressed again today. The rest of the lawn I'm maintaining T around 5/8" to 3/4" (haven't really measured). Started spot treating the crabgrass with Celsius and seems to slow it down without hurting the zoysia.

I need to scalp the rest of the yard and top dress again but not sure if I'll get to it this year. It's looking good but it's definitely still quite bumpy. Zoysia is very forgiving about scalping.


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## Iriasj2009 (Feb 15, 2017)

Scalped/verticut / sanded a week ago. Used a drag to level the lawn and I was pretty happy with the results. Sorry no pics since it was super hot and I was just so tired. 
I haven't been too happy with overall color. I have been using light applications of starter fertilizer and miracle liquid fertilizer here and there. I did notice where my roommates dog peed (2 weeks ago)was a nice deep green color. I caught her peeing so I was able to get the water hose and drenched that area. I have a heavy dense loan/sandy base out front. I'm going to start pushing some urea on it and see what happens. I will be taking pics tomorrow morning. Today I mowed it somewhere around 3/8 inches.


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## Iriasj2009 (Feb 15, 2017)

The hell strip is looking really good btw. I will be posting pics tomorrow


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## Iriasj2009 (Feb 15, 2017)

Raining all day so Not the best pics.
You can tell even on my neighbors lawn where and how dog urine gives the grass a deep green color.


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## Txmx583 (Jun 8, 2017)

Looks awesome man!! Going to really look killer once you get the nutrients down and it darkens up.


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## jayhawk (Apr 18, 2017)

:thumbup: That's some domination.


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## Iriasj2009 (Feb 15, 2017)

Thanks guys!! I'm sure I'll figure this grass out one day. Here are some pics taken 3 days ago, this time with some sun.


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## Txmx583 (Jun 8, 2017)

Nice!! Looks killer already!! I can't wait to scalp and reel mow my zoysia as well.


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## Iriasj2009 (Feb 15, 2017)

More sand, it rained on me so spreading it was no fun. I will let it dry out and use my drag mat to work the sand in. Used about 1 yard and the rest went to the back yard. I'm using miracle liquid fertilizer amd it's working well. The hell strip was fertilizer 2 weeks prior than the rest of the lawn amd the consistent color is finally coming in.


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## Iriasj2009 (Feb 15, 2017)




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## Iriasj2009 (Feb 15, 2017)

:evil: I've just been mowing and edging. Need to throw some fungicide. Not the best pics, I'll take some more.


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