Effect of Sprigging Rate and Nitrogen Fertility on Zoysiagrass Establishment.

Zoysiagrass is grown in the southern United States because of its excellent shade and wear tolerances.  Although many areas are established with sod, establishment of zoysiagrass vegetatively from sprigs provides an economical method for large acreage sites. During sprig establishment, irrigation and N are often applied to accelerate plant growth for faster, denser canopy coverage.  It is often believed high rates of N applied applied frequently accelerates zoysiagrass growth to shorten the establishment duration. Therefore, an experiment was conducted in 2015 to examine the factors sprig plant rates at 80, 160, 320, and 480 bu ha^-1 for five cultivars of zoysiagrass, El Toro, Empire; Emerald; Palisades, and Geo, and N fertility at 0, 12.5, 25, and 50 kg N ha^-1 for 16 weeks. Sprigs that were not fertilized were the slowest to increase canopy coverage and density.  In general, higher N application rates did not accelerate lower sprig planting rates of 80 and 160 bu ha^-1 to reach similar coverages and densities as high sprig rates of >320 bu ha^-1 fertilized at lower N rates.  When establishing zoysiagrass from sprigs, increasing the sprigging rate has a greater effect on reducing the establishment duration compared to N application rates.