One of the milestone events in any new turf development is
the mow………..yes, the first mow.
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| zenith zoysia coverage at about 6 weeks from sowing |
For this site it was 45 days after sowing, and although a
bit large we opted for a domestic rotary mower, which allows a bit of a closer
check on what is going on with the turf, ease of manoeuvre of equipment, but
with a greatly extended time requirement.
The cut went well…………., cutting the area back quite short.
No serious problems and a very smart appearance.
The next mow was this past week, at 59 days from sowing, say
at 8 weeks, and two weeks after the first cut.
This time however we used a zero turn front deck mower, adjusted to cut
short, but not absolutely the shortest, and a fraction higher than the first
cut. We will probably continue with
mowing at 10 – 14 day intervals for the next month.
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| After mowing at 8 weeks note small areas now covering in |
The turf has continued to grow well, and will receive a
small fertiliser boost in the next 7 days, weather dependent.
In the meantime we continue to remove grassy weeds,
especially focussing on Bothriochloa spp.
Some are new plants, some are plants around the outer areas of the oval
where they have had almost zero competition since the original sowing, and some
very large clumps of runners that seem to have recovered from the glyphosate
spray. A big job, but it is almost
inevitable with ovals that a major hand weed is needed. We expect to have to do more over the next
few weeks, but at this stage a very substantial number of plants – small to
medium sized have been removed. There is
no easy herbicide solution to selectively kill Bothriochloa spp in turf.
A further spray to remove a few remnant legume weeds long
with some other broad leaved weeds and some sedges will be needed as weather allows
[currently wet and raining most days], and it may be possible to spot or strip
spray for these weeds, rather than the entire oval.
The big change is the rapid growth of runners extending
laterally in the zoysia. These runners
are very noticeable around the edge of the oval where the sown Zenith was
either a bit thin or had not been sown out past the oval boundary. These areas are rapidly being colonised by
the Zenith as new runners spread quickly.
The odd small bare area on the oval is also being covered
with these runners, and very quickly too, once they started, which was after
the first mow. Zenith and especially
Compadre are well known for excellent lateral growth as is being seen with these
new runners now covering the bare spots.
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| Runners rapidly covering a bare spot on oval |
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| Runners now colonising an area off the edg eof the sown oval |
It augurs well for over 95% coverage soon.
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| Getting close to 95 %cover on many parts of the oval now |
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