The grass is greener on the other side, right? Well it may not be so green if you have a lawn fungus or disease. Fungus and diseases can devastate your yard and make it look like something out of a post-apocalyptic movie. But all hope is not lost! There are ways to identify and treat these pesky issues before they take over your entire lawn. You'll find everything you need to know in this blog post on how to identify & treat lawn fungus or diseases!
How to Identify Lawn Fungus
You may not be able to control the weather, but you can still recognize fungal threats and take action. Three factors are needed for a lawn disease outbreak: pathogen-rich soil conditions, an appropriate climate where high humidity is key; susceptible grasses that thrive in this type of environment with ample rainfall or heavy droughts between watering sessions (known as "dry periods''); lastly we need hot summer days when temperatures exceed 85 degrees F so our turf experiences above average heat levels followed by cool nights below 75°F which gives off enough moisture again just like rain does naturally every night without any additional effort required from us human Hosts who live on top thereof course!
The most common form of fungal disease is active, meaning it's on the move and can spread quickly. This usually happens in times when there are more stresses to our environment like during periods with excessive rains or droughts for example; these lengthy weather conditions affect grass growing regions differently depending where you live which affects its ability to fight back from infections caused by fungi. Warm season grasses have higher resistance to fungal disease than cold season grasses because warmer temperatures slow their growth and make them more susceptible to infections while cool seasons force them towards survival.
You can identify some common fungal lawn and grass diseases for warm and cool season grass disease with these tips below:
Identify Brown Patch Lawn Disease
Brown patch is known as a foliar disease, so it does not have any effect on the crown or roots of the turf plant. Have you noticed that your lawn is starting to yellow? If so, check out the size and shape of those patches. They should be roughly circular with brown ring around them; however they can also have an irregular edge because this type if fungus doesn't always kill all plants in one area completely but rather spreads slowly over time through smaller doses which cause rings like structure where there was once healthy grass before we got too much fungal juice concentrate on our hands (literally). Other than looking ugly as sin most people won’t even notice these changes unless their yards suffer from heavy infestations involving many different types or colors such as purple or burgundy.
How to Treat Brown Patch Lawn Disease
Since wet conditions help promote brown patch, make sure your lawn has good drainage and air flow, and consider pruning overgrown trees to prevent too much shade and increase air movement for faster drying. It may also be helpful to aerate and dethatch the lawn every 1 to 3 months to allow air, water, and nutrients to move more freely into the soil.
Identify Dollar Spot Lawn Disease
Dollar spot is a disease that can affect warm- and cool-season grass. It occurs from late spring to late fall. When you first notice small, round patches of straw-colored grass about the size and shape as a silver dollar appear on your otherwise beautiful green lawn there is probably one thing to blame. A fungal disease called "dollar spot" has been known for wreaking havoc in golf courses. But these days it can also affect residential turf grasses like sod or revolution cuttings when left unchecked by mowers with proper blade widths who don't spread their seeds around willy nilly before planting season starts up again come springtime!
How to Treat Dollar Spot Lawn Disease
Dollar spot thrives in wet, humid conditions, so heavy dew, over-watering, late-day irrigation, and anything else that keeps grass leaves wet for long periods of time could lead to dollar spot. When watering, you want to water deeply but infrequently, and water in the early morning so the leaves won’t stay too moist for too long.
You also could be mowing too closely! Because they hold moisture on grass leaves, short lawns are more susceptible to dollar spot infection. The easy fix for preventing this is simply by adjusting your cutting height. Raise your mower blade to the recommended 3 to 4 inches. The exception is zoysia grass, which can be cut a little shorter (but not less than 1 inch). Never cut more than one-third of your lawn’s grass length at a time, no matter how tall it gets.
Identify Gray Leaf Spot Lawn Disease
The symptoms of gray leaf spot are initially found as spots on the leaves that can range between round or oval in shape, tan colored and have a dark brown border. When exposed to high humidity levels these distinctive grey-green lesions turn an off white color before eventually expanding outwardly towards healthy tissue causing girdling (killing) of plant stems at their tip; this result is most notable with tall fescue grass where it causes foliar blighting first appearing 4 inches across but progressing further up toward 12 inch diameter rings around entire plants under intense attack by numerous Sporides sanction species.
Gray leaf spot is most severe in newly established turf grass stands. The disease is typically most severe in the first year of establishment, but then gradually becomes less damaging as the turf matures.
How to Treat Gray Leaf Spot Lawn Disease
Managing leaf wetness is an effective means for minimizing gray leaf spot in all hosts. It’s best to water early in the morning, before sunrise, and never in the late afternoon or evening. Prune or remove trees, shrubs, or other barriers to increase air movement and sunlight penetration.
Identify Leaf Spot Lawn Disease
Leaf spot or “melting out” disease takes the form of brown or black spots on grass blades. During infestation, these spots widen and develop a tan center. After the root dies off at its base, it undergoes what's known as an "out melt" phase before drying up completely in order to release any surviving pests from inside of it!
Leaf spot is a serious lawn disease that can make your grass look terrible. It initially resembles drought or insect damage and it's difficult to tell the difference because of its random patterning, but this makes identification all-the more important! Leaf spots are most active in summer on bluegrasses (and other types) when they’re growing fastest - which means these areas will have higher populations than fall/spring time... unless something happens like rain storms where everyone gets wet at once again..
The “melting out” phase occurs when roots rot from an infection spreading through soil pores into them; crowns start turning brown too as sunlight promotes deeper shades within those colors.
How to Treat Leaf Spot Disease
Leaf Spot Disease can be prevented by ensuring that you don’t cut your grass too low. Long, thick-bladed grass is more resistant to damage to the grass blades. Adding nitrogen to soil during a leaf spot infection can entirely kill an area affected by leaf spot. Avoid overwatering infected grass and aerate the soil in order to promote water drainage during rainy conditions. Fungicides are an option for treating leaf spot, but they are only effective when applied to infected lawns during the disease’s initial stage. If a fungicide is applied during the “melting out” stage, it will have little to no effect. Optimally, fungicides should be applied once in the early spring and again in late spring.
Identify Pythium Lawn Disease
Pythium Blight is a terrible grass-killing disease that only gets worse in hot and humid weather. It likes to hang out near people, so it’s no surprise this thing has caused such an epidemic of dead patches all over the place! Pythium causes death by browning leaves while they wilt from high relative humidity levels or when daytime temperatures remain above 85° F (29 Celsius) with nighttime lows below 68 °F(20 Celsius). These conditions make turf more susceptible than ever before - if you notice your lawn's color fading rapidly then there might be risk for pythie infestation nearby.
How to Treat and Prevent Pythium Lawn Disease
Pythium Blight is one of the most annoying lawn diseases because it’s so easy to prevent but hard-to-cure. You can do nothing about hot and humid weather, which makes this fungus very common in summer months when you might want your grass healthy again! In order not have pythies everywhere lurking under our feet (or on top), make sure that fertilizers are slow release; avoid using quick fix ones with too much nitrogen for optimal growth rates--those will only encourage more thrips development as well if there already was an infestation present before hand! For watering practices try watering long and sparingly (no more than once a week), early in the day. This way, grass blades have a chance to dry out before nightfall. Aerate the soil to prevent thatch buildup and to loosen compacted, poorly draining soil. Fix your landscape and even out the turf to minimize areas where water might pool.
Controlling pythium is a priority for homeowners. Pythium attacks lawns in the form of an oily film that can be seen on grass blades and soil, making it difficult to identify until later stages when patches become obvious or browning occurs due to direct exposure by sunlight- this usually happens near edges where there are more shadows than light; however you should always take precautions early so your turf remains healthy! To control these infections before they spread too far (and create bigger problems), follow these simple steps: wipe down tools after use with bleach water mixed at 1/2 strength--carefully aim away from face since contact allergies may occur.
Identify Red Thread Lawn Disease
The first time you notice a red-pink patch of grass in your lawn, it may seem as if the light is playing tricks on you. But when taking another look at this unusual phenomenon closer up and more carefully than before - there’s no mistaking what causes these beautiful colors: They are caused by disease! The cause could be named “red thread," which has distinctive looking cotton candy like strands wrapped around its blade tips or protruding from them (just check out those spiky threads). However despite how interesting appearance might be supposed to make identification easy—it isn't always so simple because many different diseases have similar symptoms.
How to Treat Red Thread Disease
One of the causes of red thread, and a contributor to its severity, is poor, under-nourished turf, so your first line of defense is to give your grass regular care. If red thread disease continues to be a problem in your lawn, treat it with a fungicide. Like other lawn diseases, red thread will likely leave behind some damaged areas that may need to be patched. The easiest solution is to use a three-in-one seed repair once you have the disease under control.
Identify Rust Lawn Disease
There are a few different types of rust that can attack your lawn. One type, called “rust diseases” affect the plant's nutrients and water supply which causes it to become undernourished or stressed causing an orange-yellow color on its blades as well as making them brittle enough for breaking easily with little force applied against them--this usually happens during periods where temperatures stay above 70 degrees Fahrenheit (21 Celsius). Other forms lie dormant until autumn when conditions become wetter than normal.
When you notice the first signs of rust disease, it is important to act immediately. Lawns are most susceptible when they experience inconsistent watering or become over-watered—this can lead them into more serious problems like stunting roots and lowering nutrient reserves which may cause a lack in nutrients such as iron (a crucial factor for green leafy plants). If Rust Is Currently Unchecked--or if symptoms have started appearing on your lawn but don't yet look severe enough to indicate an emergency situation has begun), begin watching out near shady areas with compacted soil; newly seeded patches that haven’t been established properly due to heavy traffic before planting time.
How to Treat Rust Lawn Disease
If you’ve identified rust as the problem in your lawn, you should take action right away. First, make sure your lawn is well fed and sufficiently watered. If you don’t see any improvement within a couple of weeks, apply a systemic lawn fungus control. Because stressed, hungry, and improperly irrigated lawns are more susceptible to rust diseases, one of the best ways to help prevent them is to keep your lawn healthy and strong.
Identify Snow Mold Disease
Snow mold is a lawn disease caused by two principle fungal culprits: gray snow mold (Typhula spp; also known as Typhula blight), and pink snow mold (Microdochium nivalis, also known as Fusarium patch).As the names suggest, gray snow mold shows a white-to-grayish webbing to the infected areas, while pink snow mold is grayish to pink.
The spores or fungal structures launch into active growth beneath the snow cover in the late winter when the temperatures beneath the snow cover range from slightly below freezing to about 45°F. When snow cover melts, the active fungal infections will continue to thrive and spread until surfaces dry out or temperatures are steadily above 45°F. Pink snow mold is slightly more tenacious, growing actively as long as the lawn is moist and temperatures are between 32°F and 60°F.
How to Treat Snow Mold Disease
Rake the damaged spots gently to aerate the grass blades and help dry them out. Remove any thatch layer that is more than 1/2 inch thick. This should not be done until the lawn has dried out somewhat and has been mowed two or three times, as mechanical dethatching machines can badly damage new grass shoots in the spring. Mow the lawn at a shorter than normal length until the mold is no longer actively growing. Taller grass will hold more moisture, which fosters fungal growth. Especially in the fall, mow to a short height to minimize the moisture that might be trapped under the first snowfall of the season. Bagging up all grass clippings for the last few mowing's in the fall will also help.
Identify Summer Patch Lawn Disease
Summer patch is a highly destructive fungus that can kill grass by infecting and destroying its roots. Summer patches usually stay in the soil, but when hot weather comes they'll invade your lawn's vascular system disrupting plants' ability to take up water or nutrients because of how quickly it attacks them - not just attacking one area at time like other fungi do! It has been reported as being able survive through winter if left untreated thanks however once infected with this nasty disease you will see damaged leaves as well many times where brown spots may appear then spread all over until finally everything dies off leaving behind sickly looking dead stalks which are brittle enough for easily breaking under foot pressure.
Summer Patch changes in appearance as the disease progresses. Look for any or all of these early warning signs and late-stage symptoms:
- Dark-green, wilted, irregular circles of grass up to 2” in diameter.
- Straw-colored patches, rings, and crescents that increase in size during summer.
- Enlarged patches, each with an outer edge that looks yellow or bronze.
- Grass blades that are dying back from the tip.
How to Treat Summer Patch Lawn Disease
Prevent summer patch by not cutting more than 2/3 the length of grass when you mow. Taking that much length from grass that has been left to grow long is the cause most associated with the cause of this disease. Known as “scalping,” the practice of mowing too closely weakens the grass and makes it vulnerable to infection. Avoid adding nitrogen-based fertilizer to your soil in summer. Watering lightly and frequently in hot weather is another practice to avoid as it dampens the shallow areas where magnaporthe poae resides, helping promote its development. Soil aeration is important to prevent thatch buildup and improve drainage. Because summer patch can cause massive damage in a short time, fungicides are often necessary to combat its spread.
So Much to Remember…
As you can see, there are many different lawn diseases that may be affecting your yard. We hope this blog has helped to educate you about the types of disease and how they affect your grass so you can take the right steps to correct any problems. If there is anything else we can help with or if you have questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us at 405-676-1575!
