I dethatched (manually with a rake) my zoysia last fall and I seem to have many more weeds in it this fall than I've ever had before. Could this be because I disturbed the surface of the soil with the rake or possibly removed enough thatch that weed seeds settled and made contact with the soil.

I definitely don't think I'll be doing that again unless it's followed up by a serious shot of preemergent herbicide.

flo

My guess is you disturbed the soil and weed seeds got good soil contact. How was your fertilizer program this year? Did you apply a pre M at all?

[ Post made via Android ]

simpson wrote:My guess is you disturbed the soil and weed seeds got good soil contact. How was your fertilizer program this year? Did you apply a pre M at all?

[ Post made via Android ]

I'm just starting out, so I didn't do much at all this year. I didn't apply any preM at all on either the fescue in the back or the zoysia in the front. I'd been applying Halts, but last year I still ended up with a lot of chickweed and other things (never knew Halts was for crabgrass and limited other things). I never really knew there was much else available out there in the way of preMs until I started reading BL. I've only ever used the Halts but this year after dethatching with the rake and getting sooo many more weeds than I've ever had, I thought there had to be some sort of connection. Reading BL I've read over and over (mostly when someone is considering core aeration) not to disturb the soil because of weed seeds, so I thought brisk raking might do something similar. Next year, I'll know better!

How often do you water and for how long? What has your weather been like?

Dchall_San_Antonio wrote:How often do you water and for how long? What has your weather been like?

The zoysia only gets watered when we're really dry. This year we've not had really dry in quite a while. Early summer though when it was dry I was watering when it started to look stressed, but certainly not as often as I was watering the fescue in the back. As for the amount, I'd say between 1/2" and inch whenever I did water.

Are the weeds grassy or like dandelions, spurge, etc.?

Dchall_San_Antonio wrote:Are the weeds grassy or like dandelions, spurge, etc.?

sorry, I went outside for a bit. most are non grassy weeds - winter annuals I think - like chickweed. Had spurge, henbit, purslane and some other thing I can't remember the name of. also have what looks like either dicondra or ground ivy this year that I have NEVER seen in my yard before. Some clover as well. Think the clover came in some topsoil I got two years ago as it seems to show up wherever I used the topsoil. I put up another thread on preMs for zoysia and got lots of suggestions on preMs and weed killers - including RU on dormant zoysia. I used Bonide Weed Killer Ultra last Saturday and what I sprayed seems to be unhappy, though not totally dead yet. I just don't ever want to briskly rake the zoysia again if it's going to lead to more weeds. What gave me the idea in the first place is my husband and 7 year old have RC cars that they like to run up and down our street. Last year, they had a ramp at the curb from the street up into the lawn and when they race around the lawn (after it's gone dormant) you can see little golden pieces of grass flying everywhere - especially when they are making tight turns or the wheels are really spinning. Seeing that, I thought there must be "dead" stuff that should be raked out - so, I did.