Roller Coaster Ride

Every spring the zoysia fairways begin to show signs of green in early April after being dormant for months over the winter. Everyone gets excited and then we get hit with a late frost that sets them back a few days. Then the green up resumes and everyone gets excited again. Then we apply Echelon, a pre-emergent herbicide, and the color fades for a few days. Then the green up resumes and we all get excited again. Then the seed heads pop out and the fairways look pretty rough for a couple of weeks. Finally after three or four close calls the zoysia turns green and stays that way for the remainder of the season.

Where are we now?

We are going to be applying Echelon, a great product for preventing summer weeds, tomorrow. This will turn the fairways an ugly color for a few days. It is very temporary and is well worth the effort as we've found it works well against some of our worst enemies like sedge and kyllinga. Soon after the color returns from this treatment you will see the seeds emerge. They are a dark purple color and will hang around for a few weeks. We mow them off, but they return quickly. It will be late May at best before all of these ups and downs are over.