re: Zenith vs Emerald Zoysia

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Just had 4 pallets of Empire Zoysia

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We had empire zoysia at our last house in Marietta Georgia. It makes one of the most beautiful tropical looking lawns. It is a fast horizontal growing, medium/wide blade grass that does really well in partial shade.

If you fertilize it too soon or overwater it, the leaf tips will turn a purplish red, possibly making you think it has a fungus when it doesn't. In Marietta, I think the fertilization schedule recommended by the Cobb County Cooperative Extension service instructed us to wait until May before applying any fertilizer. I had been fertilizing it in March or April and the lawn did great for about 5 or so years before early fertilization started causing problems.

I recommend that you Google Empire Zoysia and find the site dedicated to it with the timelines how to take care of it. Also recommend that you take soil samples to your local county co-op for testing and recommendations from them.

One really strange thing about Empire Zoysia is when it gets really hot and sunny, the grass leaves will curl up like the grass is dying. Then as soon as the sun goes down and it gets a little cooler, the leaves will rapidly unfold back to normal. Maybe other grass types do this, but it is a trademark behavior for Empire zoysia that makes it really drought tolerant. This behavior of the grass will tempt you to water it too often. Once we came back from a two week vacation in the middle of a hot drought. Our GFCI outlet for our sprinkler system had tripped. When we came back, I thought the lawn was dead. After watering it, the leaves unfolded and the lawn sprang back to life. After you get your sod established, try not to water it every time the leaves curl up in the late afternoon. It's a normal response of that particular zoysia grass.

Good luck with your new lawn.