HELP! Problems with newly renovated lawn

[shines]

First, let me apologize for invading your forum; I'm not a landscape business owner but a fairly desperate home owner.

About a month ago I had my entire lawn renovated, primarily because I HATE St. Augustine grass but also because we had some sort of disease that killed large sections of the grass. After doing considerable research I decided to go with Empire Zoysia grass as it seemed to be the best option for my area (NE Florida) next to bermuda.

My lawn is large at about 3/4 acre, so this was an expensive venture to say the least. The landscaping company I hired to do the renovation killed the existing lawn prior to removing it with a sod cutter and Bobcat. They prepped the soil by raking after rough grading. They did not add any top soil, insecticides, fungicides, or fertilizer to the soil prior to laying the sod.

At first everything seemed to be OK, but now I'm seeing two problems. 1) Large areas are infested with purple nutsedge and what appears to be goosegrass (see pictures). These weeds never existed in my lawn before, so I'm thinking they were present while at the sod farm. 2) Patches are appearing stressed, and when looking at the grass blades it appears there are dollar spot or brown patch lesions on them. I know the stress is not due to lack of water as part of the renovation included redoing the sprinkler system.

So, I contacted the landscape company and they told me it was the sod companies fault (bad business on their part I know) and told me to contact them. I spoke to the sod company once and they have been avoiding me since. I'm considering legal action, but my immediate concern is saving the lawn.

I've used several lawn spraying services (when the lawn was St. Augustine) and not a single one was able to adequately control insects, much less the weeds. Most of those companies hire dregs off the street that have no clue what they are doing and worse yet DON'T care and have little pride in their work. In fact, they were never at the property for more than 15 minutes for each service! There is no way they could treat 3/4 acre in 15 minutes...IMPOSSIBLE. So I'd like to resolve the weed and disease problems myself. Any suggestions on doing so would be MUCH appreciated!

[lawns Etc]

Id be scared to help as you might sue me.

[alf500series]

the brown that you are getting could be brown patch. not sure of your location but i know that around here(branson, mo.), this year has been notorious for brown patch. i had several lawns that got it. the worst one was a newly sodded lawn. make sure it not getting too much water, if it is back off on your irrigating. another cause of the brown patch is your watering times-am or pm. there are also store bought applications you can put on your lawn to control the brown patch and weeds that come in liquid form which you can apply to your lawn with a garden hose.

[MarkintheGarden]

First, let me apologize for invading your forum; I'm not a landscape business owner but a fairly desperate home owner.

About a month ago I had my entire lawn renovated, primarily because I HATE St. Augustine grass but also because we had some sort of disease that killed large sections of the grass. After doing considerable research I decided to go with Empire Zoysia grass as it seemed to be the best option for my area (NE Florida) next to bermuda.

My lawn is large at about 3/4 acre, so this was an expensive venture to say the least. The landscaping company I hired to do the renovation killed the existing lawn prior to removing it with a sod cutter and Bobcat. They prepped the soil by raking after rough grading. They did not add any top soil, insecticides, fungicides, or fertilizer to the soil prior to laying the sod.

At first everything seemed to be OK, but now I'm seeing two problems. 1) Large areas are infested with purple nutsedge and what appears to be goosegrass (see pictures). These weeds never existed in my lawn before, so I'm thinking they were present while at the sod farm. 2) Patches are appearing stressed, and when looking at the grass blades it appears there are dollar spot or brown patch lesions on them. I know the stress is not due to lack of water as part of the renovation included redoing the sprinkler system.

So, I contacted the landscape company and they told me it was the sod companies fault (bad business on their part I know) and told me to contact them. I spoke to the sod company once and they have been avoiding me since. I'm considering legal action, but my immediate concern is saving the lawn.

I've used several lawn spraying services (when the lawn was St. Augustine) and not a single one was able to adequately control insects, much less the weeds. Most of those companies hire dregs off the street that have no clue what they are doing and worse yet DON'T care and have little pride in their work. In fact, they were never at the property for more than 15 minutes for each service! There is no way they could treat 3/4 acre in 15 minutes...IMPOSSIBLE. So I'd like to resolve the weed and disease problems myself. Any suggestions on doing so would be MUCH appreciated!


When it comes to growing and maintaining the sod there is probably not many people on earth who are more qualified than the company that grows and sells it. They delivered weed free sod as you said. Somewhere at that company there are people who know exactly what you need to be doing to keep it that way.

Lawn treatment companies offer what they offer and do what they charge for.
Yes they can treat your 3/4 acre in five minutes. Everything they do is calibrated and measured. They accurately identify the product that they sell and deliver. Now, who knows if what they sell is what you need. Sure enough the guy who delivers it, a decent human by most accounts, even if not yours, is not an expert.

In any case only a weapon of mass destruction will eliminate all the insects and weeds, and then only for about a month if that. If you can get your hands on an atomic bomb that will eradicate all the weeds, insects, fungus, bacteria, and moles for a good fifty years.

So, I am suggesting that you talk to the people who grew your sod and request information regarding maintenance.

Homeowners so often get off track by seeing it as if anything goes wrong it must be someones fault. Then when they contact the service or product provider it is hard to offer them any help because they take it as an admission of liability.

Just keep thinking lawn care not litigation.

In the end, you cannot resolve weeds and disease, you can only manage them to a minimum. You could study turf grass management and in a couple years, if you still have weeds you can sue the school where you studied.

[cpa4t9r]

Too much water and heat are recipes for brown patch - HUGE issue in my area. Proper management strategies should first address cultural control i.e. early morning watering, proper mowing height and appropriate cultivar selection. If you continue to have issues, then look at chemical controls. BP is readily controlled with numerous fungicides, especially the Qol e.g. Heritage, in my experience.

Looks like you could sharpen your blades.

The weed looks more like bahia vs. goosegrass to me. Could be dallis or some other papsalum. Goose would be preferable as its much easier to control. I would definitely focus on getting that knocked out so you don't have too large of an establishment issue.