# Innovation Zoysia Test Plot



## ronjon84790 (Aug 2, 2018)

I'm a cool season guy in a desert climate :bandit: I have a 5'x5' pee pad I built for my dog when we brought him home in 2017. He has never used it so we trained him to go in the rocks. I prepped it with sand/peat mix and just put the plugs down tonight.

I've always wanted to try some sort of warm season grass. Just never liked the brown dormant stage of warm season grass and enjoy the challenge of growing KBG in the desert and keeping it green all year long.

I'm excited to see how this fairly new Innovation Zoysia grass does in the winter. It's suppose to be very cold tolerant. If it stays green enough in the winter, I'll be transitioning my front lawn next year. If not, I'll wait until DALZ 1308 is available or try a monostand of bluegrass out front.

I'll be hand watering and maintaining the HOC with my rotary scissors.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Im doing a similar plot with Innovation. Tomorrow will be the 3 week mark. Pretty impressed by the growth especially the last week.


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## ronjon84790 (Aug 2, 2018)

Nice! @ksturfguy I look forward to the progress of this Zoysia. It had some good runners on the plugs already.


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## ronjon84790 (Aug 2, 2018)

One week since planting. A couple plugs have some good runners.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Hows your Zoysia doing? Ill be at the 2 month mark in about a week.


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## ronjon84790 (Aug 2, 2018)

@ksturfguy Mine have been slow growing! I've only trimmed the top growth twice since I planted. A few more shoots have sprouted this past week. Zoysia is the KBG of warm season grass  Slow and steady


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## KBfromLINY (Jul 26, 2019)

I have been growing zoysia meyer in my backyard for 4 seasons. I have one area where there was very slow growth with constantly wilted grass leaves. One of the major problems for me was hard soil. After manually aerating it for years I started spraying down humic acid, with sea kelp. That problem area has since down a complete 180 and the zoysia is spreading faster than it ever has there. The leaves no longer look wilted either. If you get areas like mine this might help. Good luck!


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## critterdude311 (Apr 21, 2018)

ksturfguy said:


> Hows your Zoysia doing? Ill be at the 2 month mark in about a week.


I was inspired by @ksturfguy to try out some of the innovation zoysia plugs - and I'm glad I did! I'm in the process of converting my backyard over to Meyer Zoysia, but I've also got sections of my side yard where I've been battling a Poa Triv invasion. One of the thoughts I had to combat the Poa Triv problem longterm in that area was to convert it to a warm season lawn and then eventually, selectively, remove the Triv with a cool season herbicide. I went ahead and rounded up some of the heavier infestations of the Triv in my side yard and planted the Innovation Zoysia plugs around mid-May as an experiment.

*May 19, 2019* -- Initial plugging:







*July 19, 2019* -- 2 month update. Runners are starting to shoot out from a majority of the plugs:





*August 3, 2019* -- Plants are starting to get fuller / bushier. Ignore the lighter / smaller yellow-ish plugs, they were planted in late July as a second batch since I liked what I was seeing (they should green up more as they establish):





So far I'm _really impressed_ with both the color and runner production on the Innovation plugs for the first year of establishment. The Meyer section in my backyard looks great this time of year (August), but my one knock on it is that the color tends to be more of an Apple Green / pale green vs something you would typically see in a northern mix of cool season grasses. These Innovation plugs though are blending with the color of the other traditional cool season grasses in the area. It's a noticeably darker color to my eye than the Meyer. Assuming the plugs make it through winter without any major issues, my plan is to go ahead and order more plugs next spring to help speed up establishment. Unfortunately, as with pretty much any Zoysia plugging project, this will be a multi-year effort. Time to hurry up and wait!


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Glad your liking it. I've also been impressed with mine. I have a couple plugs intermingled with some TTTF and it's very hard to tell the two apart. I know exactly where they are so I can pick them out, they are just a hair lighter in color vs the TTTF but very close.


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## ronjon84790 (Aug 2, 2018)

Mine have been slow growing but they have been neglected. I just water them a few times a week and that's it. I will most likely feed them some nitrogen soon and see if that helps them to spread.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Sorry not the best picture but here are a couple of my plugs.


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## ronjon84790 (Aug 2, 2018)

@ksturfguy Have you been fertilizing your plugs? Those have spread quite a bit


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Yes have been applying fert every other week since plugging. Just the Scotts Liquid Starter Fert, also have applied RGS, Humic 12, Air 8 and Microgreene from Greene County Fert.


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## ronjon84790 (Aug 2, 2018)

ksturfguy said:


> Yes have been applying fert every other week since plugging. Just the Scotts Liquid Starter Fert, also have applied RGS, Humic 12, Air 8 and Microgreene from Greene County Fert.


I'll need to start. I forget about it most of the time. The plot is positioned just behind a tree in my backyard. It's been neglected most of the summer. I'm more interested in how green it stays during the winter.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Here is an updated pic of my Zoysia. Been focused on other reno areas so haven't really watered it or applied any fert in about a month. It filled in pretty well in this spot. Now sit back and see how quickly it goes dormant but with the summer like weather we've been having that shouldnt be anytime soon.


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## ronjon84790 (Aug 2, 2018)

Here is an update of mine. I've neglected it all summer until the past month. I've been spoon feeding it nitrogen on a weekly basis and its really taking off! Love the dark green color. Interested on its color in the Winter and Spring green-up.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

That does look a lot better then your previous post


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## Jfettes (Sep 21, 2019)

New member here. Thanks for the add! I recently found out about Innovation zoysia. Does anyone know exactly how cold hardy it is? Anyone know how warm soil and air temp has to be for green up in the spring?I live in zone 6b, southern most tip of Indiana.


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## ronjon84790 (Aug 2, 2018)

Jfettes said:


> New member here. Thanks for the add! I recently found out about Innovation zoysia. Does anyone know exactly how cold hardy it is? Anyone know how warm soil and air temp has to be for green up in the spring?I live in zone 6b, southern most tip of Indiana.


I'm testing mine this year to see how it holds up this winter and when it will green up in the spring. If it goes completely dormant, it's out of contention. My KBG stays green enough in the winter and recovers quickly after the summer. They have a newer variety called DALZ 1308 that's suppose to stay green all winter. It was bred for golf greens. Only down side is it's limited in availability. I haven't been able to get my hands on it to try it out.


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## Jfettes (Sep 21, 2019)

Thanks for the response ronjon84780. I love my TTTF, but also like what zoysia has to offer minus the brown effect during winter. I think we're roughly in the same growing zone. You might have a little warmer winters though. I'm very curious to see how yours does. I've been told people are growing it in St. Louis. I haven't found anything solid that shows how well it's managed a winter.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Yeah same this will be my first winter with it so no clue. Supposed to be cold hardy but it's going to turn a golden brown, no doubt about it. That's what warm season grasses do in our area. Hell my TTTF is brown (dormant) by January or February. The Zoysia just goes quicker.

You live a little farther south so maybe it will last longer for you. I'll post updates throughout Fall.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Here is my Zoysia. Almost filled in in this section. HOC is 1 3/8". Can't wait until next year. I did basically zero weed control prior to plugging and after plugging so the Zoysia is pretty much intermingled with crabgrass. This one section I took a pic of is the best area where it's almost 100% Zoysia.


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## ronjon84790 (Aug 2, 2018)

Jfettes said:


> Thanks for the response ronjon84780. I love my TTTF, but also like what zoysia has to offer minus the brown effect during winter. I think we're roughly in the same growing zone. You might have a little warmer winters though. I'm very curious to see how yours does. I've been told people are growing it in St. Louis. I haven't found anything solid that shows how well it's managed a winter.


I'm in a Zone 8B. I'm pretty much on the boarder of Utah, Arizona, and Nevada. I'll post some pics in the Fall and Winter.


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## ronjon84790 (Aug 2, 2018)

@ksturfguy Looking good and filling in nicely.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Haven't really posted any of these but here is a wide pic of the Zoysia plot. HOC is 1-3/8". I really wish I was more patient and did some prepwork prior to planting the plugs but oh well. The crabgrass is starting to die out due to the colder weather so the Zoysia plugs are starting to be more obvious.

The area closer in the picture was more weed free prior to planting plugs and as you can see the Zoysia did a lot better. Some of the green you are seeing is TTTF but a lot of it is Zoysia. In the back area of the section you can see small plugs of Zoysia that just weren't able to spread dude to the crabgrass being too thick. Next year I will apply a pre-em so I expect next summer it should spread a lot more.


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## Jfettes (Sep 21, 2019)

That still looks good for October! Do you remember what your temp was around that time?


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

You can clearly see the dormant Zoysia in this pic from today.


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## critterdude311 (Apr 21, 2018)

ksturfguy said:


> You can clearly see the dormant Zoysia in this pic from today.


Yes, green up time for Innovation was about on par with Meyer this spring. Meyer may have greened up a touch earlier, but the Meyer section of my yard is southern facing so it gets more sun and I think that helped it wake up just a tad sooner.

As far as my Innovation plot goes, I've continued adding a few plug trays this Spring. I'm really looking forward to getting a uniformed area of ~1000 SQ feet going. Most likely this will take another year or two to complete since I am plugging in to existing turf areas. I haven't fertilized yet, but I'll send a photo update later in the season when I do. The Zoysia is entering it's peak for the next 120 days, so it will be exciting to see it continue expanding in year 2. The mid-summer color was excellent last year when it was fed nitrogen.

Are you going to reel mow your section or are you going with rotary?


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

@critterdude311 just a rotary and honestly I havent done much to my section this year. Last fall I planted 1,000 sqft section of Mazama KBG and that has kind of been my baby.

I did such a poor job of clearing out my Zoysia plot area that its very intermingled with fescue right now. Ill still mow that area low (1.25" or so) this summer and see how much it spreads but outside of that its pretty much just an after thought.


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## critterdude311 (Apr 21, 2018)

ksturfguy said:


> @critterdude311 just a rotary and honestly I havent done much to my section this year. Last fall I planted 1,000 sqft section of Mazama KBG and that has kind of been my baby.
> 
> I did such a poor job of clearing out my Zoysia plot area that its very intermingled with fescue right now. Ill still mow that area low (1.25" or so) this summer and see how much it spreads but outside of that its pretty much just an after thought.


Nice, I've seen some pics of the Mazama cultivar, that should be awesome when it fills in. For HOC, I'm mowing around 1.75" with rotary at the moment, any lower and I risk scalping some areas. I'm thinking about getting a manual reel mower for this test plot as long as the wife doesn't scalp me in retaliation :lol:


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Really hard to pick out the zoysia areas vs TTTF grass mixed in. Overall the Zoysia is doing good and is spreading. I'll be honest when Spring started i was at a point i could care less about the Zoysia and sort of regretted I even planted it but now that its thriving in Summer its got me interested again. I gave it some fert a couple weeks ago and have been mowing it every couple days.


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## critterdude311 (Apr 21, 2018)

Looking good! It's going to be even better in a few years when it forms a solid sheet in that area. The part which appeals to me the most about Zoysia is the turf stand uniformity it creates once it is fully established. For someone with OCD, the uniformity it creates is hard to beat ;-)

I've been running comparisons between my backyard section of Meyer and side yard section of Innovation. I've done a "barefoot test" between the two, and the Innovation blades are significantly softer on the feet than Meyer... in fact I would so far as to say it feels as soft as a traditional KBG cultivar.

I think the hardest part with Zoysia grass is the waiting game. Unless you have the ability to sod it or can afford tons of plugs you are looking at several years until it gets fully established. It's a blessing and a curse. On the plus side, its "slowness" will allow you time to control it if it starts invading unwanted parts of your yard. Tenacity, 2-4d in early spring, cutting heights, etc, - there are a bunch of ways to control it if you change your mind and want to get rid of it. As an example, I was able to smoke off a section of Meyer encroaching on my front yard (I'm not quite ready to commit my front yard to it yet) with roundup concentrate - the 49% concentration purple cap stuff you can get at home depot. I did one application in Spring 2019, and haven't seen a single blade emerge again in that section(I keep an active eye on it). If you decide you don't want it anymore, it's doable to rid yourself of it. Bermuda on the other hand... I would never run any "test" plots with bermuda unless you are prepared for a total conversion. There is a park near my house where I have seen some common bermuda pop up over the last few years, and I'm starting to get paranoid the birds are going to bring the bermuda common seeds over to my lawn after breakfast one day :?


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

HOC just under 1 1/2". Hard to see from the pic but I've give this plot zero supplemental irrigation and only about a pound of N this summer and its actually very thick in spots. The bottom portion still has a lot of crabgrass, I'll try to do a better job of controlling it next year.

Over the next couple weeks I will give it a small dose of N and add some sand to help level it out some. It would be silly of me to invest in a reel mower for a 10x10 spot but will just keep mowing it low with my rotary and I can still hit some golf balls off of it.


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## ronjon84790 (Aug 2, 2018)

It's filling in nicely this season. Definitely low maintenance.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

@ronjon84790 Looking good. That has filled in a lot this year.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Haven't posted an update in awhile. My zoysia plot has really thickened up. I really dont do much to it besides mow. It gets some fert when I fert the cool season turf plots by it. It's mowed at 1 3/8"


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## critterdude311 (Apr 21, 2018)

ksturfguy said:


> Haven't posted an update in awhile. My zoysia plot has really thickened up. I really dont do much to it besides mow. It gets some fert when I fert the cool season turf plots by it. It's mowed at 1 3/8"


Looking great! Every year now gonna get a little thicker, a little more density. Really great auto-pilot stuff!


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Plot is looking good. I feel like every year I want to smoke it off just cause I'm worried about it eventually spreading into my neighbors property but then late May/June roll around and damn it looks good.

If you look at the bottom of the plot you can see all the runners its sent out into the bare area.


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## critterdude311 (Apr 21, 2018)

ksturfguy said:


> Plot is looking good. I feel like every year I want to smoke it off just cause I'm worried about it eventually spreading into my neighbors property but then late May/June roll around and damn it looks good.
> 
> If you look at the bottom of the plot you can see all the runners its sent out into the bare area.


Yeah, hard to argue with it once we hit the summer months. Looks great this time of year. Please post an updated photo at the end of the growing season .


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## txlawnguy (1 mo ago)

Very interesting thread. How did the innovation zoysia end up? How do you like the color? How is it in the shade? From some of the photos posted, the innovation looks like it may blend "reasonably well" with my Celebration bermuda in shady areas. The first photo of the innovation plugs looks very similar to the box of Celebration plugs I had.


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