Dr. Kevin Kenworthy

CitraZoy is Developed for Disease Resistance

Until EMPIRE® Zoysia came along, zoysias had a troubled past in Florida. One of the issues is the Florida weather which frequently creates perfect conditions for turfgrass disease to run rampant. EMPIRE itself often needs preventative fungicides around Florida for this reason.

When Dr. Kevin Kenworthy, a professor of Grass Breeding and Genetics in the Agronomy Department, began breeding his zoysia lines at the University of Florida years ago, disease resistance was something of a “Holy Grail.” The need to have a variety with that attribute and especially resistance to Rhizoctonia (large and brown patch) was at the top of every checklist. He believes he has achieved that with CitraZoy™ Zoysiagrass, the zoysia from Florida, for Florida. This new cultivar from UF shows the best resistance to those two diseases than any zoysia on the market today.

“We are not claiming immunity by any means,” said Dr. Kenworthy. “But hopefully this will translate into a tremendous benefit for the use of zoysiagrass in the state of Florida.”

For additional information, visit citrazoy.com.

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