Field Evaluation of Zoysigrass Cultivars.

New zoysigrass cultivars have entered the turf marketplace within the past 5 years, offering new options to the long-used cultivars 'Meyer' (Zoysia japonica) and 'Emerald' (Z. japonica x Z. tenuifolia).  The objective of this research was to evaluate 12 different commercially available zoysiagrass cultivars, examining differences in fairway and home lawn settings.  The cultivars 'Zorro', 'Zeon', 'Cavalier', 'JaMur', 'Diamond', 'Palisades', 'Royal', 'El Toro', 'Zenith', Meyer and Emerald were sodded in 4 replicate plots in 2005 in Auburn, AL (shaded home lawn site) and Sylacauga, AL (shaded golf course fairway).  Collected data included relative color and quality, shoot density, internode and leaf length, fall color retention and spring greenup.  Cultivars from the Z. matrella species had higher quality at the lower mowing height of the fairway, when compared to the Z. japonica types.  The seeded cultivar 'Zenith' often had lowest color and quality ratings, and density of that cultivar was most negatively affected by shade.  Zoysia matrella cultivars had highest shoot densities, with 'Diamond' consistently having the highest shoot density, compared to any other cultivar.   Differences in turf density shifted over the 3 years of observation, changing as mowing and shade thinned some cultivars (El Toro, Zenith) in comparison to others.