# brown_town's 2020 Zeon Zoysia Sod Establishment (1 year old sod)



## brown_town (Apr 1, 2020)

*Summary:*
Had a new Zoysia front lawn installed last year in late June '19 in North Atlanta,GA suburbs. My first real lawn at our first house and a much needed ground covering for what was essentially a dirt & weed hill. 4 pallets of Zeon Zoysia (~2000sqft), installed by a landscaping company after they did some light grading to help divert water around the house. Had a rough start to getting the sod established in the middle of summer without an irrigation system in place, but was able to recover by the end of the year. Looking forward to really pushing the lawn in 2020 to fill in and establish.

*Last Year's Program:*
I bought LCN's warm season guide and the GCF Bio-Stem Pack just before the lawn was sodded. Jumped into the middle of his plan and followed as best I could using Milo as my main source of N. Also applied grub control, pre-em, fungicide following the guide as well. Given how sloped the lawn is I really wanted to switch to liquid only program to make it easier to apply.

*This Year's Program:*
I'll still be mostly following's LCN's 2020 warm season guide, but switching over to the all liquid plan. I still have a decent amount of the GCF bio-stem pack products, but also purchased a 4-pack with GreenPunch (x2), GreenEffect, and MicroGreen to replace my granular fert.

*Goals for 2020:*


Continue to get the lawn established and well-rooted - Much more established than the first season and happy with where it's at now
Switch to an all-liquid approach/program - Got a FlowZone backpack sprayer and used primarily liquid all season)
Maintain a 1.5 inch HOC - Had to keep it at 2" for maintaince cuts, because 1.5" is the lowest my rotary mower would go; need a reel mower to maintain lower.
Get a soil test and adjust plan for next year accordingly - Soil test completed through WayPoint Analytica

*Main Equipment:*

Mower: Ego 21 Inch Rotary
Backpack Sprayer: FlowZone Tornado 4Gal
Sprayer Nozzles: Foliar and Soil 110 Degree 0.4GPM Teejet Nozzles based on this forum's Teejet nozzle discussion thread.

*End of 2020 (October) Results - See the thread posts for the full season history





Quick History of the Lawn from 2019 season:
Late June '19 Sod is installed (Yeah!  ):


Early July '19 GA drought is in full force and dormancy/death sets in (I'm getting scared  I was actively watering at this time, but it clearly wasn't enough or at least uniform enough):


Late July '19 I'm catching up on watering with a DIY setup. Mix of Hunter i-20's Rotory heads on spikes with garden hoses everywhere. I also started to let the lawn grow longer, around 2.5 inches:


Early Aug '19 still getting better and mostly recovered, but had to play a lot of catch-up all summer. Also let the height get to 3" which hides some of the thinner areas. Also did some light sand leveling to continue to fill in the sod seam lines and any significant low spots.


Early April '20 Current state, this is after:

Pre-em 1st app in March (Prodiamine)
"scalping" it to 1.5 inches (lowest my Ego will go) and bagging the clippings
raking out as much of the dead leaf blades and other winter crap as possible
Applying 6oz/1000 RGS and Humic 12
Filling some damaged and truly scalped spots with leftover topsoil from last year and a little starter fert
Spreading out the remainder of my Milo from last year (~3lbs/1000)
Lawn looks terrible in this picture but I feel prepped now to rock & roll next weekend with my first major fert application (18-0-1 GreenPunch) assuming the grass continues to green up...I hope :
*


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## brown_town (Apr 1, 2020)

Got a late mid-week mow in and sprayed some fungicide and a little insecticide. Watered it all in and also tested my precipitation rate with some orbit catch cups and my above ground Hunter rotor setup. Night temps are still getting pretty cool so the lawn hasn't fully warmed up.

Applications:
Fungicide - PPZ 14.3 @ 2oz/1000
Insecticide - Taurus SC @ .6oz/1000


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## brown_town (Apr 1, 2020)

Lots of fert and soil apps this weekend, along with adjusting my mow up one notch. Learned from folks I this forum that you have to cut ATL east one notch above where you scalp to maintain your HOC without over stressing the grass.

GreenPunch 18-0-1 16oz/M
GreenEffect 7-0-0 6oz/M
Prodiamine WDG .183oz/M - 2nd app of the year
Air-8 3oz/M

Will probably try to replace a few of the bare spots with sod soon. Also realized I have grading issues that I may need to address for better drainage.


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## brown_town (Apr 1, 2020)

No major updates over the last few weeks. Keeping up with the mowing and letting the GreenePunch and GreenPop do it's work. Will likely try my first app of PGR soon as we're getting into the thick of the growing season.


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## brown_town (Apr 1, 2020)

Applied first round of PGR this weekend at .125 oz/1000. GreenPunch and GreenEffect apps from 4 weeks ago seem to be holding strong. Will probably reapply next week. Noticing some fungus spots that I need to try to spot treat this week before they spread out.


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## brown_town (Apr 1, 2020)

Applied:

GreenPunch 18-0-1 6oz/k

RGS 3oz/k

Humic12 3oz/k

MicroGreen 0-0-2 9oz/k

PPZ 14.3 1oz/k
Cut up some sod to fill in dead spot near the top of the hill and filled in lower spots with top soil. Also got some pine straw down.


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## brown_town (Apr 1, 2020)

No product application recently, just keeping up with mowing. I expect to do another PGR application in the next few days based on my GreenKeeper app information. I'm also starting to see a bit of fungus in patches on some of the leaf blade - we're definitely in the middle of hot/humid weather that makes fungus thrive. Still surprised to see the fungus though given that I just put down a recent app of PPZ 14.3. Fortunately, I just bag of Scott's DiseaseEX on sale and will try to put some of that down instead.

Bare spots are starting to fill in finally:


First time seeing some type of striping on this warm-season turf now that it's filling in thicker:


A different perspective near the top of the driveway:


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## brown_town (Apr 1, 2020)

Threw down a curative rate of the Scott's DiseaseEx and let the rain water it in and got a weekend mow in. I'm past my PGR reapplication date based on GreenKeeper app recommendations, but still haven't reapplied PGR yet, the vertical growth really hasn't changed - this weekend mow was basically a charity mow.


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## brown_town (Apr 1, 2020)

Did some spot leveling in a section that was extremely bumpy from when the sod was originally laid and also suffered from run off issues. Mix of sand, compost, and top soil / soil conditioner

Also manually core aerated some spots before leveling that area and other areas in the yard that appeared to be suffering from compaction.

After leveling spot applied 3oz each of most of the GCF bio stimulant products to all the leveled and compaction sections. "Paint it black" as they say.

Happy that I've leveled out the area, but pretty sure I've killed off the grass underneath where I had to fill it in more than an inch.


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## raymond (May 4, 2018)

@brown_town - Looks like the lawn in coming in nicely. Glad we have a solid group of Zeon Zoysia lawns in the Atlanta area. :thumbup:


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## brown_town (Apr 1, 2020)

Thanks for stopping by @raymond !

Got a few apps in for 4th of July. Just trying to spoon feed some nitrogen and load in iron for color. There's a bit of discoloration from where I previously threw down some starter fert on the areas I was trying to level. Hopefully these apps will help to even the color out.

I haven't reapplied PGR yet and I'm well past the reapplication date based on The GreenKeeper app, but I still plan to once we have some consistent days without the chance of rain.

Also used my manual aerator to sample about 16 spots on the lawn to send off for a soil sample to Waypoint Analytica. Will share the results here.

GreenePunch 18-0-1 @ 5oz/k
GreeneEffect 7-0-0 @ 3oz/k
MicroGreene 0-0-2 @ 5oz/k



This is my small side strip that I normally don't show on the other side of the driveway. It's arguably the best section of grass I have- very thick, even color, and fairly level. Very surprising since it was basically an afterthought to install it when the landscaper realized there was extra sod - very little prep was done to the underlying soil but it seems to be doing just fine. Hope to get the rest of my lawn looking like that.


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## brown_town (Apr 1, 2020)

Got my soil test back from Waypoint Analytical - Memphis,TN office.

Will look into raising PH slightly with a lime application throughout the year and figuring out how to bump up my K a bit.


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## brown_town (Apr 1, 2020)

Threw down a 40lbs bag of pelleted lime to hit my recommended PH adjustment from the Waypoint Analytical soil test. Tried to use my new Scott's Whizz handheld spreader and it was worthless. Even halfway full with the lime pellets the rotor would get stuck - disappointing. Went back to using my Scott's mini-spreader for now; you can see the tracks in the picture.

In general, the lawn seems to be managing the heat stress well; we did get some rain yesterday that helped. Looking a little shaggy at the moment since I'm let it get a bit long given the current heatwave, but will plan on a cut next weekend.

Trying to pickup some Sulfate of Potash by next weekend to get that down for my K deficiencies then we should be up for another bio-stem and fert application.

I've decided to hold off on more PGR applications for now. I want to continue vertical growth in certain areas of the lawn while it continues to even out before going back on regulation. Also, Zoysia growth so slowly that I'm not burdened by the current weekly cutting schedule.


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## brown_town (Apr 1, 2020)

No sulfate of potash applied yet, but I sprayed quite a bit of liquid GCF products (GreenePunch, MicroGreen, Humic12, RGS, Air8) and some Hydratain and Talstar P.

Got a mow in after a two week hiatus since we had a lot of heat. All the timing worked out since we got a nice rain storm after mow and sprays.


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## brown_town (Apr 1, 2020)

Finally got some sulfate of potash 0-0-48 and put down 2lbs/K. Also testing out Kelp4Less' new Green Lawn formula and put down 2oz/K of their mix. We'll see how it well it performs.

I've also got a bit of a sedge problem too and mixed in .9 grams of Sedgehammer to see if it can fight back - other wise I'll probably follow up with another full strength app next weekend.

Also started to work on edging and cleaning out the beds.

Different angle than normal from the top of the hill. 


From the bottom of the hill.


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## lawn789 (Jun 16, 2019)

What is your cutting height? Looks good!


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## brown_town (Apr 1, 2020)

lawn789 said:


> What is your cutting height? Looks good!


Thanks! Right now I'm using the 2" setting on my Ego and that seems pretty accurate when checking with a ruler in most areas of the lawn. The Ego technically goes down to 1.5", but there are 3-4 mounds in the yard that I end up cutting down to stolons and dirt if I try that setting. I will need to plan for some leveling next season.

I wouldn't want to keep Zeon Zoysia any higher than 2", but it actually looks okay when it grows a bit higher - essentially looks like a fine fescue.

I would love to have it at 3/4" - 1" for most of the year, but don't have the budget for a quality used commercial real mower or greensmower at the moment.


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## puzzles (Jun 23, 2020)

Enjoyed reading your journal. I just replaced bermuda with Zeon this May, so I'm about a year behind your lawn. Your posts are giving me an idea of what to expect over the next year.

Probably 90% of my sod rooted in, while the remaining area filled back in with bermuda that didn't get killed off. Hoping once the Zeon gets established that it will slowly creep and crowd out the bermuda.

I'm also using a rotary set to just above 1.5", and had to mow every 3-4 days in this summer heat just after putting down starter fert. Ground is not very even, so the lumpier areas leave some blades cut at 3-4". Like you, I'd love to get a reel mower to maintain at 1", though have the same budget issue along with time constraints for the associated increased mowing frequency.

How tall are you letting your grass get before mowing it at 2" and what mowing frequency are you on? Mulch or bag the clippings?

Where did you get your PGR? Figure I might use some next year after letting the sod grow unconstrained this year to fill in the gaps and other squares that didn't adapt well.


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## lawn789 (Jun 16, 2019)

brown_town said:


> lawn789 said:
> 
> 
> > What is your cutting height? Looks good!
> ...


Thanks for the info. My sod is about 7 weeks old. I had a lot of pieces that came half way dead and never recovered. If I had a trailer I'd go get another pallet. Sod farm wasn't too concerned with it :/ I have a greensmower and it does help to get it down to 1". I bought it used and it's got some issues at the moment so back to rotary mowing..lol. Zeon is a beautiful turf. I've been super happy with it.


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## brown_town (Apr 1, 2020)

puzzles said:


> Enjoyed reading your journal. I just replaced bermuda with Zeon this May, so I'm about a year behind your lawn. Your posts are giving me an idea of what to expect over the next year.
> 
> Probably 90% of my sod rooted in, while the remaining area filled back in with bermuda that didn't get killed off. Hoping once the Zeon gets established that it will slowly creep and crowd out the bermuda.
> 
> ...


Good luck with the new sod! Zeon (and probably most Zoysias)has proven to be frustratingly painful to wait for to establish - especially when you're surfing around these forums and looking at other lawns. But I really do like the look of it now that it's getting settled in.

The three things that I had wished I had done better last season when it was first installed were:

 get a soil test and create an action plan around deficiencies 
apply more fertilizer (but still be around or under 2lbs/K of N) 
 more consistency and frequency of watering through hottest days of summer. 

However, given that you're trying have the Zeon beat out the Bermuda I think the recommendation on these forums is to actually cut back on the N Fert otherwise you're just going to give the Bermuda fuel to potentially outpace the Zeon.

re: Mowing height & frequency. We've been in the hottest part of our summer for the last month or so and I only cut once a week right now. Earlier in the season I was twice a week, normally on Wednesday/Sunday. On a weekly schedule it's probably a solid 2.5-3" by the time I cut it back down to 2".

re: Mulching vs Bagging. Originally, I would only try to mulch to let nutrients/organics back into the ground, but it's gotten so thick that my Ego can't keep up with the mulching - there are just piles of grass clippings everywhere that then have to be raked/swept back into the canopy. I just bag now and know that I will control the nutrients/organics that I put back into the soil based on what I spray or throw down. I tried to make grass clipping compost tea as a way to make use of the bagged clippings, but it produces such a god-awful smell after a few days that I quickly gave up on pursuing that idea.

reGR. I did a split sale with someone here on the forums. Just bought 8oz's of their TNEX gallon to test it out. I have only done one application this season and it was just a half rate. I certainly saw the slowing of vertical growth, but not sure how much improvement it had on lateral growth. In retrospect, I probably should have waited until next season now that the lawn is fairly well established in it's own un-regulated state - I think I'll see more benefit from regulation then.


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## puzzles (Jun 23, 2020)

Good info on your experience with PGR. I'll probably wait until year 3 to mess with that stuff and brush off the crazy growth last month to the heat and the starter fertilizer.

How long did it take you to adapt to using the backpack sprayer? So far I've just use mine once to put down some MicroGreene 0-0-2 to get some iron in without any N, though it looks like Zeon won't get as dark as my old bermuda with the same amount of iron. Still loving how Zeon blades are green throughout so the lawn still looks green after a mow, unlike bermuda that shows their brown stalks mostly after a mow.

I think I'll transition to bagging at least for the front lawn to keep it looking neat. Currently there are a few streaks of dried up clippings along a few of the mow paths. Have you had any issue with some of your grass laying too flat and not really standing up during a mow? I have some areas that if I "comb" the blades vertical, they are easily in the 3-4" range. Haven't seen a rotary attachment that would make the blades stand up before the mower goes over them like I've seen for some higher-end reel mowers. Maybe those areas need to thicken up still, which may require some other approach to cutting them lower so that sun can hit the soil and more shoots can fill in.


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## brown_town (Apr 1, 2020)

Switching to sprayer was more of a necessity for me because of how sloped the yard is. I could never get a granular spreader to spread evening going up and down or side to side on the hill. It was an easy transition after watching a few calibration videos and testing on the driveway. The best tip I read on calibration was to use a metronome app and figure out the walking with the beeps while doing the calibration. Now I don't even need the app I just know what the pace feels like.

I've been doing double doses of iron this season either in the pairing of greenepunch and greeneffect or microgreene and greeneffect and getting much deeper green than I saw last year - but I'm certainly never going match the green of a KBG or PRG. Probably also going to try Feature and Microgreene in the next couple of weeks since I have a bag being shipped soon.

To your point where my grass is really thick it stands up pretty well, even at 2". I'm also starting to notice that I need to sharpen my blades more often now that my turf is thicker it definitely dulls the Ego blades much quicker. As much as I like the ease of a battery powered Mower, even with the high lift blade I don't get much lift on the turf.


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## sabanist (Mar 28, 2019)

I just laid my front yard in empire zoysia. Like you, its bumpy and i'm going to have to level in the spring. some places are going to require over an inch. I noticed you had some of those. did those spots fill in again after green up or did they remain bare


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## brown_town (Apr 1, 2020)

If you just sodded and it hasn't fully rooted yet, I would suggest pulling up those spots and throwing a sand/topsoil mix to level it out underneath the sod now. Maybe even spritz in some humic/fulvic acid if you have any of that. I ended up doing that the first season in a couple of spots that were 1+ inches different and even pulled up some rooted sod. It cause the sod to discolor for a little while, but otherwise it would have taken multiple seasons to level it up with top soil.

If you are thinking about sand leveling, I would try not to compensate more than 1/4" per leveling effort - with time allotted for the grass to grow in. In the places I tried to spot level this season more than 1/4" of sand it looks like the Zoysia almost tried to avoid those spots when growing in. However, it may just be that the contrast between the tan sand and green zoysia further pointed out the slow spreading of Zoysia.

My lower spots that I did not level ultimately filled in on their own just fine. However, when I cut over those areas I can tell the blades are longer or shorter than the surrounding areas.


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## brown_town (Apr 1, 2020)

Haven't posted a photo in a while. Lawn's looking good - only been mowing regularly for the last few weeks and we finally got a good rain in. I've been keeping my mowing frequency to weekly but should really try to get in on a bi-weekly schedule again (Wednesday/Sunday). Had my kids start to help clean up the bed edges, but they have some room for improvement so I'll probably have to do that next weekend.

I'm also probably due for another fret application next weekend either with GreenePunch or maybe keep on with the Kelp4Less Lawn solution.

Picked up a GroundsKeeper 2 rake and tested on my small side strip. Surprised with how much dead matter it actually pulled out. It required a lot more effort than I expected to pull through the thicker areas of Zoysia and pulled up some stolons in the process. Going to wait and see how that side area recovers before trying to do most of the main area.


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## brown_town (Apr 1, 2020)

One "heavy" fert app for the season, applied GreenePunch, MicroGreene, Air8, RGS, and a sprinkling of K4L Green Lawn and Turf.

Changed up the mowing pattern and the sun helped to show a few stripes on the slope.

Kids are working on the edges again so hopefully we'll have that all cleaned up by the next photos I post.


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## brown_town (Apr 1, 2020)

9/9 Was finally able to get a mow in after quite a bit of rain and less than ideal weather. Leaves are starting to fall and soil temps are starting to drop; looks like my season is getting ready to wind down.

I noticed a lot of what appeared to be "scalp" marks - like if I had bermuda - but under further inspection it appears to be just brown dead material that I'll have to work on cleaning out next year with a thatch rake or similar. A good spring scalp will likely clean it up too if I end up getting a mower that can cut that low.


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## brown_town (Apr 1, 2020)

Applied what I think will be my final big application for the year: MicroGreene, Prodiamine, Air8, Humic 12, RGS, GreeneEffect

Also left the Ego mower a notch higher for the fall/winter time. Zoysia is about ~2-2.5 inches.

Here's a few angles of the lawn a week after the application and after cleaning up edges a bit. This is probably where I close out my 2020 journal for the year. I expect the grass to stay green well into early November, but for now I think all I'll end up doing is keeping cut regularly.


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## modo brew (May 5, 2020)

brown_town said:


> Applied what I think will be my final big application for the year: MicroGreene, Prodiamine, Air8, Humic 12, RGS, GreeneEffect
> 
> Also left the Ego mower a notch higher for the fall/winter time. Zoysia is about ~2-2.5 inches.
> 
> Here's a few angles of the lawn a week after the application and after cleaning up edges a bit. This is probably where I close out my 2020 journal for the year. I expect the grass to stay green well into early November, but for now I think all I'll end up doing is keeping cut regularly.


Did you mix all of those together in your tank at one time? I'm looking to apply Prodiamine, Humic12, and possibly RGS this weekend. I just want to make sure it all can be mixed together so I can I apply all at once.


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## brown_town (Apr 1, 2020)

I did mix them all in one tank since I have a small enough square footage to get everything into 4 gallons.

However, I prefill the 4G tank with just 2G water initially and then pre dilute/mix the products with a little bit of water before pouring in. I also use a paint mixer when pouring in one at a time. I didn't have any issues with the full mixture gelling up or causing reactions - as best I could tell.

Also, given how much I was trying to mix together, after finishing the full tank of spray I went and filled it up again with just water and resprayed the whole area to water it in a bit more - recognizing that it doesn't substitute a good rain shower or irrigation system to .25".

I do know from prior experience though that if you try to mix non-dilute fert and humic style products from GCF you will end up with gelled monstrosity.


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