@Rudyr89 if there was green grass in the areas where you now see nothing, don't fret. Zoysia will grow back from the roots, rhizomes and stolons. It will take a little while, because the grass has to establish new crowns for the shoots (blades) to grow from, but will be healthier once that happens.

As far as height, I would take it down now as far as you can without hitting dirt. Your grass will grow back in closer to the soil surface and leave you with a nicer turf. You will likely want/need to do this every Spring.

 

Working Zoysia down slowly prolongs the time it will be unattractive. Scalp it as low as you can go. Rotary mowers are not the best tool for maintaining Empire. Can be done but you need to limit fertilizer and water. With your location. limiting water is not going to happen.

 

@Spammage I'll definitely get on lowering the height this week. I'll need to lower my sprinkler heads as well since they are sitting a little high. Should I still dethatch if I bringing the deck down as much as I can?

@Greendoc That was my concern as well. The HOA here can be quick a pain at times.. It hasn't rained here in quite a while so I think I might be able to beat the rain if I get on this ASAP.

As far as dethatching I'm about to order the Greenworks Dethatcher to help expedite getting this done. Unfortunately, Home Depot and Lowes doesn't rent out dethatchers near me. As for the reel mower I have a neighbor that has a pretty brand new Fiskars 18-inch reel mower. Is that something you would recommend?

Here are some pictures of the lawn. The dark area is some top soil/sand I laid down. If that doesn't work I'll order a pallet of zoysia. That spot had so much thatch the grass is gone lol.

 

What you really need is a retiree from the golf course. I do not like to see rotary mowers on Zoysia ever. Even if you get the height of cut down, you will look at a lot of shredding of the leaves unless you raise the height of cut. Problem with keeping Zoysia above 3/4" is all of the thatch. I say mow it low keep it low and not go through the hassles every year.

 

@Spammage I'll definitely get on lowering the height this week. I'll need to lower my sprinkler heads as well since they are sitting a little high. Should I still dethatch if I bringing the deck down as much as I can?

Depends on what you can get rid of. If you can expose dirt throughout, the dethatching may not be needed. Most of the lawn looks really thick though, so I'm guessing it's going to be needed.

 

@Greendoc You're not kidding.. I know every grass has its pros and cons but what a pain! Since I'm on a corner lot the landscapers see $$$. I plan on turning the lawn around and promised the Wife I'll get it green. I'll lower the HOC and I'll invest in a used reel mower. If it's better for the grass and I don't have to deal with this hassle constantly I'm definitely for it.

@Spammage It definitely doesn't hurt to dethatch since I'm sure the landscaper never did it for me. Should I cut low then dethatch or vise versa?

I appreciate both of your help. I've been stressing over the lawn for a while now.

 

Scalping to dirt with a heavy duty reel is how I address incorrectly mowed Zoysia. In some cases, there are a lot of stolons and excessive rhizomes below the dirt. I did a bad one last year. El Toro Zoysia mowed with a Rotary for at least a decade. Took it down to dirt and let it grow. Your "landscapers" should have known better and run a greens mower on it. Mowing it at St Augustine height was just wrong.

 

@Greendoc Wow, those reel mowers really get up there in price! I did find a mclane 10 blade for sale on eBay not too far from me. If I can't get my hands on that do you think the Fiskars staysharp reel would be good for the time being? My only concern is that my lawn isn't even at all.

The picture below is from a few months after I closed on my home. You can tell here how uneven it was from the start.

I should've definitely did my homework on the grass but figured the landscaper would be more than capable of handling it. For whatever reason the home builder decided on Zoysia vs St Augustine. Seems like it resulted in more work for me.

 

Go for a 7 blade McLane. The 10s are for grass kept at 3/8 or lower

 

Know that replacing consumables on a McLane is the same price or similar to buying a GM 1000 or 1600 retiring from golf course duty.

 

Know that replacing consumables on a McLane is the same price or similar to buying a GM 1000 or 1600 retiring from golf course duty.

I would also point out that a McLane really isn't heavy enough to do it's job on zoysia. A TruCut is the least I would recommend, but a greens mower would be preferable if you can get an affordable one.

 

So true. Although thick Zoysia is a challenge for the Tru Cuts as well. I saw a homeowner blow his clutch shaft assembly up trying to take down Zoysia.

 

I found a 2016 TruCut C27 for $600. What do you guys think? I could probably sell my Honda HRR216VKA for about $300 to offset the cost.

 

Sounds like a good deal. That's what I use, but only because I have two kids in college and a third about to start. Once that is done, a GM1600 will be mine. :twisted:

 

Keep the Rotary You need that for debris pick up and scalping.

 

Can you upload the pictures? I'm very interested being I have this particular strand of zyosia. This will be my first season with it. I want to make sure I don't run into this problem. Mines was installed in November. It should fully take root by the end of spring. My plan is to keep it around 1" to 3/4 depending on how level my yards turn out. My greens mower is currently set A 1" to start. For the first couple of mows I probably will use the rotary mower being the grass has not grown much from being installed. I tell you what its still green!!

 

@Spammage LOL I hear that! No kids here yet so I need to get a hold of all the toys while I can. Unfortunately, the mower sold a week ago and the seller never took down the listing. I'll keep looking on Craigslist to see if anything pops up. In the meantime I might just use the neighbors Fiskars StaySharp reel until I find something. I'll also test out a section with the rotary at 2.5" when it greens up to compare the difference.

I did scalp my side yard yesterday down to 1.75" yesterday. Any shorter I would've taken out a bunch of sprinkler heads. I'm thinking next spring I'll lower the height to 1 1/8" which is the lowest my mower can cut. I'll work on lowering those sprinkler heads as well. The looks I received from neighbors was priceless. Everyone of course has to stop and ask why I'm "killing" the yard. I filled up 12 42 gallon bags. I'm not even halfway done. On the side yard I ran the mower front to back as well as left to right. I ended up trimming everything as even as possible this way.

What a dusty dirty job lol. I'll post some pictures once I'm done scalping the entire yard. I will be dethatching the yard with the Greenworks dethatcher this weekend as well.

@bigmks are you not able to see the pictures in the earlier post above? I see them fine on my end here.

 

No I cant see them at all?

 

+1 on images not showing. Just has an image Icon (mobile chrome)

 

I just changed the host. They should be good now. Sorry about that!

 

@Rudyr89 So are your sprinkler heads above the soil surface? If so, I'm surprised you don't have constant issues kicking/tripping over them and breaking them. If that is your only obstacle to going lower, mark them and work around them safely, then clean up around them with a string trimmer.

 

@Spammage they are indeed.. The landscaping company our builder used to install everything was horrible. They eventually got rid of them but I'm stuck with the aftermath.

 

Quick question for you guys. Should I be watering the newly scalped lawn more frequently while it greens up?

 

Quick question for you guys. Should I be watering the newly scalped lawn more frequently while it greens up?

It will dry out quicker than it otherwise would, but I would be surprised if you have to water it, unless you also hammered it with fast release fertilizer. Don't you guys typically get rain every couple of days?

 

@Spammage Oh yeah we normally get rain every day for about 30 minutes but that doesn't start until April-May. It's been pretty dry here so far.