After I put my zeon down and waited a couple weeks I came back and mowed it down low with my reel mower and then did a sand leveling and after a week or so there were some places that looked thin like that. After a couple months it grew out fine and you can't even see any of the sand. I've been cutting it at 2" now with the rotary.

 

How much are you watering? is it fully rooted?.... Wouldn't advise removing that much in one mowing. Use the 1/3 rule. Anything more than that and you're going to stress the turf.

 

It's not fully rooted. That's one thing that was mind boggling to me. I'm not sure if the roots aren't taking because of the small amount of sun it gets or what. The grass was completely green and growing just fine prior to me cutting it, the roots just have not developed as fast as I thought they would.

 

It's not fully rooted. That's one thing that was mind boggling to me. I'm not sure if the roots aren't taking because of the small amount of sun it gets or what. The grass was completely green and growing just fine prior to me cutting it, the roots just have not developed as fast as I thought they would.

My Palisades that was in shade like that took a very long time to root. Is noticeably thinner than my full sun areas.

 

Here are pics from today

 

I have no experience with Zoysia but a lot with Bermuda. Have you put any fert on it? If not I bet that would help push growth and root growth as well.

 

Heavy shade....I'd leave it alone and let it stabilize this season...Not sure if it gets enough sun. Is it just pine trees or more?

Are the dark brown areas - high spots (topography) ?

Nitrogen won't be helpful in shade from what I have learned from turf pros (name escapes me)... counterproductive.

 

What type of fertilizer would you recommend for the zeon?

 

Maybe iron? I've read where iron helps scalped lawns recover. I'm not sure what is going on there. How much are you watering.

 

It's been very wet here with all the rain so I have no watered too much lately If at all. I'm going to try some fertilizer, have a guy come out and see if he thinks it's a fungus/mold, and then stop watering later in the day to see if that helps. I'm also going to take some more limbs off of the trees in the back to let more sunlight in.

 

I'm not expert so take this with a grain of salt. I've put Zeon in twice this year in different areas of my lawn. Zeon is a super dense grass. If it's long, and you're watering it frequently the long dense grass prevents the moisture from being evaporated throughout the day, and it sits in the thatch layer and starts to rot.

That's what it looks like to me. Some of my sod came 5-6" tall, and I had similar spots when I first cut it. I went around inspect them closer and all were noticeably damp, everywhere else was dry.

I don't know how to fix it, but from what I understand, the growth density of Zeon requires it to be cut fairly short to avoid issues; fungus mostly. Even short, fungus is still an issue.

 

If it is fungus, I don't think you are supposed to put nitrogen down. Maybe potassium and iron.