Browse Forums Landscape & Garden Design 1 Jul 25, 2011 11:19 am Hi All, I live in Perth WA and have had our Empire Zoysia lawn since October 2010. I now think from reading various information about the grass that our landscaper did not prepare the soil correctly. Prior to the lawn being laid we had built a new house so the top of the soil was mainly brickie sand and all the landscaper did to prepare the soil was throw around some slow release fertilizer. Up until now, all during Summer and Autumn the lawn has been great growing fast and very green. But ever since winter has hit and the retic water ban has come into effect the lawn has slowly started to go brown. We have sprayed it with seaweed solution, fertilized and put down a wetting agent but nothing seems to be working, we have not watered it except for when the above products were applied. Our lawn mower man seems to think it may have something to do with the poor soil condition to start with but as I said it has been fine for the last six months! Can anyone please offer some advice? Many Thanks Re: Empire Zoysia Lawn Brown in Winter HELP 2Jul 25, 2011 11:39 am There are many knowledgeable people here that will no doubt help you out greatly, but unless you can get some organic material underneath the turf somewhow, it sounds like molasses could be a good point to start with. Read a little about using it here, from the great Fu Manchu: viewtopic.php?f=19&t=15058 Re: Empire Zoysia Lawn Brown in Winter HELP 3Jul 25, 2011 11:59 am In the parts of oz with cooler winters, generally speaking Warm season grasses go a bit brown. The colder the climate the browner it goes. It very normal, and once temps rise and the sun gets closer, eg spring, your empire will green up. As the turf matures it will get less brown and more green. The better the soil prep at the start the greener the lawn will stay over winter. Fu has methods to be able to keep EZ green year round in Perth, so follow his advice and you have your EZ on track very soon. It's certainly nothing to be worried about, its not dying its just won't look great till things warm up a bit. Re: Empire Zoysia Lawn Brown in Winter HELP 5Aug 19, 2011 8:03 pm Got this eMail today: We have had to reschedule your job from Tuesday the 23rd of August, 2011 due to the availability of your lawn request to the Friday 26th August, 2011. Please be aware that when you receive the lawn at this time of the year it will appear brown but it becomes a beautiful lawn in the summer months as it does not tolerate the cold weather well. Hope it isn't too brown! Would it be fair to say that EZ isn't very cold tolerant? Re: Empire Zoysia Lawn Brown in Winter HELP 6Aug 20, 2011 5:13 pm Fu has posted a tonne of info about EZ's performance in WA, eg when the turf is young it suffers. Do a search. Re: Empire Zoysia Lawn Brown in Winter HELP 7Aug 20, 2011 6:29 pm deeps Got this eMail today: We have had to reschedule your job from Tuesday the 23rd of August, 2011 due to the availability of your lawn request to the Friday 26th August, 2011. Please be aware that when you receive the lawn at this time of the year it will appear brown but it becomes a beautiful lawn in the summer months as it does not tolerate the cold weather well. Hope it isn't too brown! Would it be fair to say that EZ isn't very cold tolerant? True - it does go brownish. Our front yard looks that way at the moment. This is our 2nd winter with EZ down. It's greener this year, than last. So don't worry, it does pick up once the weather warms up. Built the Eden Brae Cambridge 34 Family with Boston Corner Facade Re: Empire Zoysia Lawn Brown in Winter HELP 8Aug 20, 2011 10:08 pm We had EZ go down just before the melbourne winter kicked in, over winter it was so brown that the Mrs thought it was done and dusted. But over the past couple of weeks we can see that its starting to bounce back. Espically along the house, I guess its taking some warmth from the bricks Re: Empire Zoysia Lawn Brown in Winter HELP 9Aug 20, 2011 11:29 pm The highly important thing to understand is if you lay this turf as per how the turf farm said with "topsoil" lawn starter fertilisers and the like, you will expect this every year for all eternity. Lay it by using certified organic compost, spongolite and perlite and also zeolite in good volumes cultivated through the soil to around 30cm, it will brown the first winter but go on to be more resilient as the years go on. This also hinges on the care of the turf being fertiliser, pesticide free as well as very selective use of weed sprays and doing it at particular times of year. It is possible to have it not totally dead in cold parts of Australia. Make use of Bactivate and MAI Australia's products as well as follow the ongoing care I have written a fair bit about here at Homeone. Re: Empire Zoysia Lawn Brown in Winter HELP 10Aug 21, 2011 12:35 pm Empire does perform funny down in melb, it browns probably the quickest yet starts growing again in winter when its still cold?? Odd. Here is a pic of a little tray of ez that i keep for repairing damage and planting out in my other lawn. Its in a nice warm spot but even so its stupidly green for winter in vic especially compared to what it looks like in the ground. Re: Empire Zoysia Lawn Brown in Winter HELP 11Aug 21, 2011 1:00 pm We're in Perth (Eastern Hills way) and our Empire Zoysia was laid around August 2010 on prepared soil. It's currently almost identical in colouration to our next door neighbour's Palmetto grass - patchy light-green and yellow with a bit of pink, though it's perking up with the increased sunshine of late. Looks fine from the road, just dormant. Come spring proper we'll give it some TLC with Seasol and molasses to help it get back into growing season It has remained a luxurious green up against our north-facing limestone retaining wall, so I'm assuming that the warmth really plays a large part in this. Re: Empire Zoysia Lawn Brown in Winter HELP 12Aug 21, 2011 8:28 pm Vunderful give the lovely chap at http://www.maiaustralia.com.au/ on 9727 3801. He's down in Bunnas and is happy to help. (Let him know where you found out about it.) This stuff will have your lawn doing things you thought impossible. Results with seeds just beg to be believed. Re: Empire Zoysia Lawn Brown in Winter HELP 13Aug 21, 2011 9:02 pm I left two or three rolls of this stuff in the cold shade on my front footpath for months getting nothing but rain and it survived a WA winter. Little to no sun. Stayed cold being open to cold southern winds the whole time. It remained green and yes did get small areas of brown around the edges. My untrained lawn mowing contractor scratched his head and asked what sort of grass it was. I find the comparison between BK's cells he has done and my turf on the path a bit interesting. Re: Empire Zoysia Lawn Brown in Winter HELP 14Aug 21, 2011 9:45 pm Yeah Fu its a schizo grass, obviously it has great cold hardiness in the right situation. The areas in my yard that get frosted are actually greener than the protected bits, go figure.. Yet in late autumn it browns without any frost. Either way though the main thing that makes it brown off is the wear while its dormant. the leaves that are now underground go yellow, the tips that poke through photosynthesise and have chlorophyll, same reason they grow rhubarb in the dark. 5 4835 Hi there, long-time lurker but first time posting. I've bought a house 2 and a bit years ago and last year we had some major water damage on a converted pergola area… 0 7925 Yes, unless you are in a low intensity rainfall area or the area is protected from rain. Do you have access to NCC Part 2 or can you download it? I can email you a copy… 10 12462 |