Fert program for empire zoysia - LawnSite.com™

Florida Gardener · #1 03-10-2011, 06:49 AM

Yo I have a customer who just converted from St. Augustine to Empire Zoysia. I have heard many a story on what to use from milorgonite to chicken scatter to a palm/ornamental fert(extra minors). What are the pros in florida recommending??
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Keith · #2 03-10-2011, 12:08 PM

Can't help you. Apparently no one around here has figured it out. I have a customer who just had to have it. He had a nice St. Augustine lawn, but wanted Empire from all he had heard about it. Well, now he has a small front yard with crappy looking Empire. A back yard with about 3500 ft of crappy looking Empire, and the rest of the back in nice St. Augustine. Hopefully the St. Augustine will overun it. It's doing a pretty good job so far.

Florida Gardener · #3 03-10-2011, 01:05 PM

I called my chemical rep and he told me what to use which is what I thought. Low N, slow release, etc. He also said the type will be dependent on how low it is cut.
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bugsNbows · #4 03-10-2011, 03:30 PM

During the warmer months, the organics (i.e. Milorganite type "chit") work well on Empire Zoysia... you'd be wasting time and money to use it during the cooler winter months though. It needs to be broken down / converted into usuable forms by soil microbes (which aren't active when soil temps fall into the 60's and below). Rates will vary, but you can usually go pretty high without fear of burn.

Landscape Poet · #5 03-10-2011, 08:47 PM

Low N - U of F just had the person in charge of their Turf program do a event at the local county extension - one of the key points was that Zoysia would look its best with no more than 3 to 4 lbs of N a year, anymore, disease is a issue.
I would also side with the more natural sources of N.....chicken litter would be a excellent choice because of its ability to create microbes to fight of disease such as fungus.
I am sure that FL landscape will tell you that it is also a excellent choice for topdressing.

Florida Gardener · #6 03-10-2011, 08:53 PM

Mike my rep said the same thing about the N. I am looking forward to maintaining it as it is my first zoysia yard. Gonna be buying a tru-cut reel.
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Landscape Poet · #7 03-10-2011, 09:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by diamondlandscaping

Mike my rep said the same thing about the N. I am looking forward to maintaining it as it is my first zoysia yard. Gonna be buying a tru-cut reel.
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http://www.lawnsite.com/showthread.php?t=339188

Follow that link Diamond,

that is the lady that did the presentation - she is just finishing up a 5 year research program on Zoysia. You can find her email on the university's page - email her, she will send you some interesting reading on her findings and others on Zoysia.

Good luck.

Michael