[kristi]

I am new to TV and have Empire Zoysia. The home care manual says to use low nitrogen fertilizer like 15-1-15 or 16-4-8. I thought the corresponding ingredients meant Nitrogen/Phosphorous/Potassium, which would mean the recommended fertilizers are high in Nitrogen and not low in nitrogen. I have read in other strings that Scotts works well. Turf Builder + 2% iron has 29-2-4. Has anyone used this particular fertilizer or is there a better Scotts for Empire Zoysia?

[graciegirl]

Oh boy. Here is what I did recently. We have a small yard with our Camellia and the yard maintenance folks charge quite a bit for fertilizing so I just got a big container of MiracleGro and walked around the yard sprinkling it. The container was about $20 and it took about a container and a half to do the whole yard. They are little time release granules as you know and they work great on the flowers and bushes for three months. I didn't want to clutter the garage with one of those fertilizer spreaders so that is what I did.The yard looks fine, not quite as green as Mr. Greenjeans, my neighbor next door, but fine.

Now, John N or someone else who speaks "growing things" please tell me how I messed up. Or if I did. I love to garden but I have never figured out all that nitrogen stuff. I think my azaleas and my magnolia need another food but so far they haven't received it.

[Bogie Shooter]

I use Scotts Souther Turf Builder on my zoysia, 32-0-10. Been using for 5 years.

[petenj]

Ace Hardware, Scott's products and a hand held spreader works well for me. My property is small, and is easily covered by a bag for 5,000 sq. ft. I think the lawn is smaller than that, but I am fertilizing more than I did up north. Soil is nonexistent here. MHO
So far so good.

Here's a link to what the University of Florida IFAS extension recommends:

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/lh014

Living in TV, we should follow the fertilization guide for Central Florida. Under the "Maintenance Level" section Basic, Moderate and High are interpreted as what you as a homeowner desire, ie. if you want a super spiffy looking lawn follow the High maintenance level. Your lawn will still look good if you follow one of the other levels, just not as top notch.

Good luck and remember to read the labels of the fertilizers. They are NOT all created equal, even if the numbers are the same.

[NJblue]

I regularly attend the garden seminars put on by the agents from University of Florida. One thing they caution about is, if you have palms in your yard, to avoid fertilizer with fast release nitrogen (which is a common ingerdient in many lawn fertilizers). The reason for this is that the root system for the palms will be under your grass and hence they will be fed what you are giving your grass. Palms need all ingregients to be slow release. The effect of using a fast release nitrogen on palms is that it throws the palms into a state of imbalance: when they get a sudden shot of nitrogen, they will look for a corresponding mix of other ingredients that they need. If they don't get it, they will get yellow spots in their leaves from the imbalance.

Their bottom line recommendation is to use a slow release palm fertilizer on everything: palms, shrubs and lawns.

[MyKisa]

fertilize once or twice yearly......and ever soooo lightly....fertilizer is the closest thing to poison for zoysia...iron is for greening