Browse Forums Landscape & Garden Design 1 Jan 15, 2012 2:35 pm We are at a loss as to what we need to do with our EZ. The front was planted a few months ago and besides getting a bit dried and shrivelled in the hot weather, it is fine. But the back which has been down for a year now is driving us up the wall. We did all the prep when laying it in Fu's guide and it did really well, even through it's first winter, but then the warmer weather came and it's struggling. It will be fine in the morning but by the end of the day it is all shrivelled up and dead looking, like it goes brown straight away and really dry and takes forever to get it back again. We bought this lawn as my husband isn't a fan of Buffalo and we were hoping it would do well with water restrictions and such, but we are having to deal with daily maintenance just to keep it looking half decent. Is this normal for the first few years and will it adjust or what can we do to help it. Here are a couple of pics. At first we thought it was just dog wee, but these are from areas the dog doesn't have access to, and like I said, it will look all lush and green in the morning, but after a hot day, it turns to this and we struggle to get it back. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ The second photo is after I hand watered it this morning. Any help would be appreciated as at this stage we are wishing we saved our money and just put down Kike! ETA: We have a massive trampoline that the kids got at christmas, and where that is, the lawn is in the best condition from the filtered light. Re: Help with our EZ please! 3Jan 15, 2012 9:02 pm Rizzo Any help would be appreciated as at this stage we are wishing we saved our money and just put down Kike! Sorry not going to be any help but can I score one more for kikuyu, for anyone who is looking to make a choice of grass in the future do yourself a favour and check out emerald kikuyu. I might sound like a broken record but it is the best grass I have ever used. I threw some on the nature stip, no prep no water no nothing. Guess what grass is taking over the nature strip now! Re: Help with our EZ please! 4Jan 15, 2012 9:40 pm jzell67 oh, thank you, I did do a search and didn't come across that one:) Re: Help with our EZ please! 5Jan 15, 2012 11:16 pm ours got a bit dry over all but is coming back nicely now. After hubby did some further watering tests last weekend he discovered ours wasn't getting watered properly. Sadly our water pressure is shocking here. Ours is now looking good. after 2 watering days. I can really see it responding. so you used a substantial amount of zeolite, spongolite and organic soil improver and rotary hoed it through before laying your turf? Re: Help with our EZ please! 6Jan 16, 2012 10:04 am Hi Rizzo, Like kexkez pointed out I think there is something going on with the "wettability" of your soil. EZ folds its leaves at the first sign of moisture stress and looks withered. Dig a small sample holes (15cm deep) and check how moist the soil is AFTER a good water. If its dry aerate the lawn and apply a wetting agent, then apply seasol and give it another drink. That will get it back on track. If its not that then it could be fungal, best do the above checks though so you don't waste your time and money treating something its not. Re: Help with our EZ please! 7Jan 16, 2012 10:22 am I was going to say that it looks more than just a lack of water...I know when ours gets stressed after a few dry days, the blades go thin and curl in and the whole area will go a lighter green maybe look a touch dry. But it won't be noticeable dead patches with a boundary. That looks more like what we're dealing with here and the fungal issues. Re: Help with our EZ please! 8Jan 16, 2012 10:41 am Thanks people. I went out after reading through that other thread and raked out all the dead patches and the soil seemed pretty damp underneath, but will have to check further down. I had been watering at night as our retic isn't hooked up yet, so we have been doing it by hand and the sprinkler and I'm never up early enough to water early, so I'm thinking it's the fungal thing now. It was actually really green and lush through winter, and only started once the really hot weather came, so it makes sense that I'm producing the perfect breeding ground for fungus. At least I now know how to tackle all of the above issues thanks to this forum Re: Help with our EZ please! 9Jan 16, 2012 11:16 am Thanks BK. well put. I was tired when I posted last night and brain wasn't thinking. Also if you do aerate the lawn with holes , drop some more zeolite down there as well Re: Help with our EZ please! 10Jan 16, 2012 3:42 pm Guys, Dry patch in turf has a similar look to fungus; http://www.agric.wa.gov.au/objtwr/impor ... 04_017.pdf Read the bit about soil wetting. The difference in this case to a fungal disease is the EZ is stressing (leaf roll) then yellowing. With fungus the grass just dies. Don't spray anything unless you have too. Re: Help with our EZ please! 11Jan 16, 2012 3:50 pm BeatrixKiddo Guys, Dry patch in turf has a similar look to fungus; http://www.agric.wa.gov.au/objtwr/impor ... 04_017.pdf Read the bit about soil wetting. The difference in this case to a fungal disease is the EZ is stressing (leaf roll) then yellowing. With fungus the grass just dies. Don't spray anything unless you have too. Thanks for that, I won't spray anything unless nothing else has worked. So if it is just dry, do you get patches like that with healthy lawn all around it? We thought it was just too dry, but it is so patchy which is why we are at a bit of a loss. The front which is newly laid gets those leaf roll patches, but it doesn't go yellow, just shrivels a bit and looks dry, but as soon as you get a bit of water to it, it comes good almost straight away. These patches just take ages to come back. I just went outside and dug a little hole out of the driest bit that I raked up yesterday. The soil is still damp underneath and it was last watered yesterday morning. Hubby is home tomorrow, so I'll get him onto aerating it and getting some nutrients back into the soil and will see how we go. Thanks heaps Re: Help with our EZ please! 12Jan 16, 2012 7:47 pm Hi rizzo, there is every chance you might have several problems on the go. Do the aerate and get a wetting agent into the soil then monitor it. No nitrogen whatever you do and no retic at night, mornings >5am is fine. Like in the other thread if all else fails and it keeps getting worse then a fungicide could be used. Fungal issues are weather related so by the time you get a fungicide down the disease has buggered off and done its damage usually. There is a link in the other ez yellow patches thread where smarter blokes than me give similar info. Re: Help with our EZ please! 13Jan 25, 2012 7:12 pm o.k, so over this. I know it's only been a week and half since posting, but we have aerated, put a wetting agent in and seasol'd it and only watered early in the morning and this section which was actually going great guns and we had no dramas with, but did all the above anyway, has done this in two days from the heat we are getting right now. It's just not tolerating the sun at all! I know it's not going to get better right away, but shouldn't it be not getting any worse? My husband isn't happy as he wanted to put kikuyu down and I convinced him this was better after reading this forum due to him working away and it being easier to maintain when he's not here, but this is a daily struggle and I'm afraid we've waisted over $2000 on lawn that we will need to rip up. Please tell me there is hope and this isn't going to be ongoing. We've followed all instructions from the prep to the care and then this. I don't understand how it can be green, thick and lush one day and then in the matter of a day or two, dead as a doornail. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Re: Help with our EZ please! 14Jan 25, 2012 7:50 pm Even more frustrated now. I just spoke to a friend who lives just behind us and I asked how there EZ was going as I know they did no prep, just laid it straight down. She told me they had put urea on it not long ago and it's green as! I'm trying really hard to stick these methods guys, but we are the ones that have put all the hard work into ours and this is the result we are getting, yet someone who laid it practically straight on sand and uses fertilisers on it, has beautiful free lawn that they hardly have to touch! Re: Help with our EZ please! 15Jan 26, 2012 7:26 am This does appear to be a fungal issue, you said this area was ok before? It was probably spread by walking on the other infected areas and then onto your healthy grass. How many hours of sun does it get? How often do you water it? I understand your frustration, you spend a lot and you would think that with a bit of care it should look good. It will recover with some luck. Re: Help with our EZ please! 16Jan 26, 2012 10:40 am I agree with everything jetson said, treat it as fungal disease. Heaps and heaps of threads on homeone about it, do a search, its certainly not uncommon. Re: Help with our EZ please! 17Jan 26, 2012 1:52 pm Okay, Rizzo...hang in there. I'm in the other thread with fungal issues and our lawns and my EZ looks a LOT better now. If I can brave the 40C heat, I'll run out and snap a pic for you and do a before and after. Hang in there, have patience. If it is fungal (did you use mancozeb as well) then you have to just wait for regrowth in the dead patches. And the mancozeb will stop further spread (it won't do anything for areas starting to yellow unfortunately). Your last sentence really makes it sound fungal to me. Ours went from lush and gorgeous green to yellow and dead in the blink of an eye. Re: Help with our EZ please! 18Jan 26, 2012 1:56 pm Rizzo Even more frustrated now. I just spoke to a friend who lives just behind us and I asked how there EZ was going as I know they did no prep, just laid it straight down. She told me they had put urea on it not long ago and it's green as! I'm trying really hard to stick these methods guys, but we are the ones that have put all the hard work into ours and this is the result we are getting, yet someone who laid it practically straight on sand and uses fertilisers on it, has beautiful free lawn that they hardly have to touch! I hear you on this too. I have neighbors who did no prep, use chemical commercial fertilizers, and they have no fungal issues. It doesn't seem fair does it? All I'm taking away from this is that it can happen even to the lawns with the best care and I still think that our prep and care will show itself as the years go on. I've seen what happens to those lawns with no prep and weed n feed years later...those are the ones in the neighborhood full of weeds and huge sandy patches. Re: Help with our EZ please! 19Jan 26, 2012 2:41 pm Ugh. It's crazy hot out there. Okay... Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ December 31 Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ December 31. It actually got WORSE than this...it spread to the centre of the lawn and so about 2/3 of the lawn went yellow and dead in staggered stages. The first sections to die would have new growth and then another apparently healthy section would start to yellow and be dead in days. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Today, January 26. There's some dry patches where you can see the regrowth blades have thinned because it's 41C here (and looks to be around 40C all week). But anyway, the EZ looks a lot better compared to a month ago. I didn't do anything but two applications of mancozeb and seasol. And no evening watering or other fertilizers. My Sapphire Buffalo in the front yard, on the other hand, still looks absolutely terrible and is tied for worst lawn on the block with the neighbor's half dead, weed-filled wintergreen couch. Re: Help with our EZ please! 20Feb 03, 2012 1:41 pm The leaves of Empire Zoysia curl as a defense mechanism when it is lacking water. I know you have said that its moist, but how many mm's is your lawn actually getting when its watered? Reticulation is a crucial element when establishing and looking after existing lawns. Hand watering does not provide adequate coverage, so some areas may be getting more water then others. Empire Zoysia tends to struggle through its first summer, more then other types of lawn. This is because it takes 12months for the roots to fully set into the ground. During the first summer your zoysia will need watering at least 3 times a week and should be getting 20mms per session. Also trying a wetting agent is a good idea. Using a product such as Bi-Agra will help hold the water to the roots like a sponge. Shannon O'Neill Turf Sales Consultant LOVEGROVE TURF SERVICES 41 Brentwood Rd, Wattle Grove, WA 6107 Ph: 9453 6222 Fax: 9453 1178 Thankyou so much 😀 I've decided on White on white for doors and trims, White on white 50% on ceiling and Mt buller for walls. Fingers crossed it will look OK 😀 2 7171 i had the my concreters concrete right up to the fence. I have pits all along my path, so the water tends to drain away from the house and into the pits. There's only one… 7 12796 All 3 items listed are defects and are of concern. Please seek qualified independent inspector and/or legal advice for your state. 1 8233 |