Almighty OB, I'm looking to y'all for guidance, as I don't know what the hell I'm doing.

I'm located in DFW, and this zoysia sod was laid about a year ago. From the below picture, does it look dead? Or just coming out of dormancy? Parts of my yard are already green and growing, but the majority looks like this. Looks to be no difference in shaded vs no shade areas.

Any watering/fertilizing tips/pointers? Thank you!

Patience. Zoysia is very slow to come out of winter dormancy. I have had a Zoysia lawn for about 5 years. I have the Palisades variety. Yours looks like one of the finer blade strains. Zeon perhaps?

I just recently sclaped mine down to a half inch as I do every year at this time. You could go even lower as long as you don't get into the dirt. It gets rid of all the brown stuff and promotes new growth by letting the sun in. Put down a 10-10-10 or 10-0-10 fertilizer. The key is balance. Once it takes off, you can start putting down heavier nitrogen.

I have Emerald Zoysia, looks very similar to yours in the winter months. I live in Houston, and it has really greened up in the past couple of weeks. Maybe because you are further North it hasn't yet?

I do use a professional that does my fertilization. This is the first year that I have not aerated it, and I think it actually looks better this year than ever.

Neighbor and friend have it in here in AR. His is always brown another 2-4 weeks after my Bermuda turns green.

For reference, I'm in DFW. It looks pretty normal. Just get the dead tops off of it. That will help.

I'm in DFW as well and my zeon zoysia is actively growing. Scalped about 2 weeks ago. About needing to mow again. 75% of the lawn has greened up.

I love zoysia

Datman said:

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Patience. Zoysia is very slow to come out of winter dormancy. I have had a Zoysia lawn for about 5 years. I have the Palisades variety. Yours looks like one of the finer blade strains. Zeon perhaps?

I just recently sclaped mine down to a half inch as I do every year at this time. You could go even lower as long as you don't get into the dirt. It gets rid of all the brown stuff and promotes new growth by letting the sun in. Put down a 10-10-10 or 10-0-10 fertilizer. The key is balance. Once it takes off, you can start putting down heavier nitrogen.

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Do you 'level' when you do this?