Lawn Diseases
Lawn diseases are a good indication a landscape might be out of balance
Sometimes bad things happen even to the healthiest lawns. Lawn Diseases are one of those things. Many lawn diseases are not easy to identify and to distinguish from other problems such as pests or poor maintenance. Much like human diseases, lawn diseases can be difficult to properly diagnose and even harder to treat correctly. Chances are that some of you reading this will already have a lawn disease problem. Â Stress makes turf grasses vulnerable to lawn diseases. While it may be caused by cutting grass too short, or failing to fertilize, often it comes from environmental conditions such as unusually wet or dry weather which trigger fungal growth. There is no way to control the weather; however, many disease problems can be curbed with simple preventive cultural practices. In many cases the best tactic is to do nothing; when the weather changes the disease will just go away.
Common lawn diseases
Snowmold
Snowmold is most common to Kentucky Bluegrass and Fescues in regions where snow falls and sits on the lawn for extended periods of time.
The best prevention for Snowmold is to aerate often. Improving water drainage, raking leaves off lawn's surface, and follow a fertilization schedule to help prevent over-fertilization in the late-fall can also help.
Aerifying your lawn is probably the best preventative measure you can incorporate.
Use Aerify bio-enhanced liquid dethatcher! Â
Brown Patch
Brown Patch is most common to Bermuda, Kentucky Bluegrass, Centipede Grass, Bent Grass, St. Augustine, and ryegrasses in regions with high humidity and/or shade. Brown patch commonly starts as a small spot and can quickly spread outwards in a circular or horseshoe pattern up to a couple of feet wide. Often times, while expanding outwards, the inside of the circle will recover, leaving the brown areas resembling a smoke-ring.
The best prevention for brown patch is to aerate often, reduce shade to effected areas, and follow a fertilization schedule to help prevent fertilization with excess amounts of nitrogen.
Use Aerify liquid bio-enhanced aerator. Trim overhang limbs to allow more sunlight on the affected area.
Dollar Spot
Dollar spots are most common to Kentucky Bluegrass, Bent Grass, and Bermuda in humid climates. They get their name from their small silver dollar-like shape, but can begin as the size of a small grapefruit. Usually looks brown or straw-colored in appearance. The spots may merge to form large patches several feet wide
Dollar spot is most common during warm, wet weather with heavy dews and in those lawns with low levels of nitrogen.
The best prevention for brown patch is aerate often, water only in the morning hours if additional water is necessary, remove excess thatch, and follow a fertilization schedule to help increase the amount of nitrogen levels in your lawn.
Use Aerify liquid bio-enhanced aerator. Apply a good micronutrient product such as Nature's Magic along with a good 16-4-8 organic fertilizer.
Fairy Rings
Fairy Rings can grow in most grasses, and are distinguishable by circular rings filled with fast-growing, dark-green grass. Around the perimeter of the ring, the grass will typically turn brown and often times grow mushrooms. Fairy rings typically grow in soils that contain wood debris and/or old decaying tree stumps.
The best prevention for fairy ring is to aerate the diseased area, water well in the morning hours, remove excess thatch, and follow a fertilization schedule to help increase the amount of nitrogen levels in your lawn.
Use Aerify liquid bio-enhanced aerator and a bio-enhanced dethatcher.
Rust
Rust gets its name from the orange, "rusty" appearance it gives leaf blades. Most commonly effecting ryegrasses and Kentucky Bluegrass, rust tends to flourish in conditions of: morning dew, shade, high soil compaction, and low-fertility. The best way to check for rust problems is by taking a white tissue or paper towel and rubbing a few grass blades through it. If an orange color remains, then it's usually rust.
The best prevention for rust is to aerate your lawn, water well in the morning hours, reduce shade to grass, mow more frequently; follow a fertilization schedule to help increase the amount of nitrogen levels in your lawn.
If Rust has been a problem in the past, mow frequently.
Use Aerify liquid bio-enhanced aerator and a bio-enhanced dethatcher. Trim overhanging branches to allow more sunlight.
Grease Spot
Grease Spot can affect all grasses in humid climates and can be recognized by the slimy-brown patches that often have a white, cotton-like fungus around it. Grease Spot gets its name for the "greasy" appearance it makes while matting together and can appear in streaks across the lawn.
The best prevention for Grease Spot is to aerate often, water in the morning hours only, remove excess thatch, reduce shade on lawn, and cutback on the nitrogen levels during fertilization.
Use Aerify liquid bio-enhanced aerator and a bio-enhanced dethatcher. Trim overhanging branches to allow more sunlight.
Red Thread
(Laestisaria Fuciformis)
Red Thread is most common to Fescues, Ryegrasses, and Kentucky Bluegrasses during times of moist and cool weather. Red Thread gets its name from the pinkish-red threads that form around the leaf blades and bind them together. Eventually, the affected grass will turn brown.
It attacks only leaves and leaf sheaths and is seldom serious enough to kill a lawn.
The red treads will be most visible when wet.
The best prevention for Red Thread is to aerate often. Mowing to proper levels, reduce shade on lawn, follow a regular fertilization schedule. Make sure to include nitrogen and potassium.
Use Aerify liquid bio-enhanced aerator and a bio-enhanced dethatcher. Trim overhanging branches to allow more sunlight.
Powdery Mildew
Grass looks as though it is sprinkled with flour. Kentucky bluegrass and shade areas are the most susceptible. Grass will wither and die.
Water only in the morning; reduce shade by pruning, aerate and check drainage in the area.
Use Aerify liquid bio-enhanced aerator.Â
Pythium Blight
Irregularly shaded spots of wilted brown grass. Cobweb-like mass of fungus on moist nights or mornings. Patches cluster to form streaks a foot or more wide
Do not over fertilize or over water and don't mow when grass is wet.
Use Aerify liquid bio-enhanced aerator.Â
Fusarium Blight (Summer Patch)
Light green patches that spread, turn reddish brown and then die.
Do not over fertilize and maintain a good watering schedule.
Use Aerify liquid bio-enhanced aerator.Â
   Â
Leafspot-Melting Out
Brown to purple lesions (spots on blades. Irregular dying areas of grass lesions on grass in margins of dead area. Caused by excess nitrogen fertility and possibly excess thatch buildup
Do not introduce additional nitrogen when fertilizing, aerate and detach lawn.
Use Aerify liquid bio-enhanced aerator and a bio-enhanced dethatcher. Apply a good micronutrient product such as Nature's Magic
Slime Mold
Like powdery mildew, slime molds covers grass with a powdery covering that looks almost like crystallized frost. Feeds on decaying organic matter found in the soil. As the powdery covering becomes thicker, it reduces the light reaching the plant cells, and they begin to turn yellow.
No prevention. Usually not harmful.
In some cases, the grass blades can be hosed off with a forceful stream of water.
Visit our Website for organic products, tips, and problem solvers.
Lawn diseases are a good indication a landscape might be out of balance
Sometimes bad things happen even to the healthiest lawns. Lawn Diseases are one of those things. Many lawn diseases are not easy to identify and to distinguish from other problems such as pests or poor maintenance. Much like human diseases, lawn diseases can be difficult to properly diagnose and even harder to treat correctly. Chances are that some of you reading this will already have a lawn disease problem. Â Stress makes turf grasses vulnerable to lawn diseases. While it may be caused by cutting grass too short, or failing to fertilize, often it comes from environmental conditions such as unusually wet or dry weather which trigger fungal growth. There is no way to control the weather; however, many disease problems can be curbed with simple preventive cultural practices. In many cases the best tactic is to do nothing; when the weather changes the disease will just go away.
Common lawn diseases
Snowmold
Snowmold is most common to Kentucky Bluegrass and Fescues in regions where snow falls and sits on the lawn for extended periods of time.
The best prevention for Snowmold is to aerate often. Improving water drainage, raking leaves off lawn's surface, and follow a fertilization schedule to help prevent over-fertilization in the late-fall can also help.
Aerifying your lawn is probably the best preventative measure you can incorporate.
Use Aerify bio-enhanced liquid dethatcher! Â
Brown Patch
Brown Patch is most common to Bermuda, Kentucky Bluegrass, Centipede Grass, Bent Grass, St. Augustine, and ryegrasses in regions with high humidity and/or shade. Brown patch commonly starts as a small spot and can quickly spread outwards in a circular or horseshoe pattern up to a couple of feet wide. Often times, while expanding outwards, the inside of the circle will recover, leaving the brown areas resembling a smoke-ring.
The best prevention for brown patch is to aerate often, reduce shade to effected areas, and follow a fertilization schedule to help prevent fertilization with excess amounts of nitrogen.
Use Aerify liquid bio-enhanced aerator. Trim overhang limbs to allow more sunlight on the affected area.
Dollar Spot
Dollar spots are most common to Kentucky Bluegrass, Bent Grass, and Bermuda in humid climates. They get their name from their small silver dollar-like shape, but can begin as the size of a small grapefruit. Usually looks brown or straw-colored in appearance. The spots may merge to form large patches several feet wide
Dollar spot is most common during warm, wet weather with heavy dews and in those lawns with low levels of nitrogen.
The best prevention for brown patch is aerate often, water only in the morning hours if additional water is necessary, remove excess thatch, and follow a fertilization schedule to help increase the amount of nitrogen levels in your lawn.
Use Aerify liquid bio-enhanced aerator. Apply a good micronutrient product such as Nature's Magic along with a good 16-4-8 organic fertilizer.
Fairy Rings
Fairy Rings can grow in most grasses, and are distinguishable by circular rings filled with fast-growing, dark-green grass. Around the perimeter of the ring, the grass will typically turn brown and often times grow mushrooms. Fairy rings typically grow in soils that contain wood debris and/or old decaying tree stumps.
The best prevention for fairy ring is to aerate the diseased area, water well in the morning hours, remove excess thatch, and follow a fertilization schedule to help increase the amount of nitrogen levels in your lawn.
Use Aerify liquid bio-enhanced aerator and a bio-enhanced dethatcher.
Rust
Rust gets its name from the orange, "rusty" appearance it gives leaf blades. Most commonly effecting ryegrasses and Kentucky Bluegrass, rust tends to flourish in conditions of: morning dew, shade, high soil compaction, and low-fertility. The best way to check for rust problems is by taking a white tissue or paper towel and rubbing a few grass blades through it. If an orange color remains, then it's usually rust.
The best prevention for rust is to aerate your lawn, water well in the morning hours, reduce shade to grass, mow more frequently; follow a fertilization schedule to help increase the amount of nitrogen levels in your lawn.
If Rust has been a problem in the past, mow frequently.
Use Aerify liquid bio-enhanced aerator and a bio-enhanced dethatcher. Trim overhanging branches to allow more sunlight.
Grease Spot
Grease Spot can affect all grasses in humid climates and can be recognized by the slimy-brown patches that often have a white, cotton-like fungus around it. Grease Spot gets its name for the "greasy" appearance it makes while matting together and can appear in streaks across the lawn.
The best prevention for Grease Spot is to aerate often, water in the morning hours only, remove excess thatch, reduce shade on lawn, and cutback on the nitrogen levels during fertilization.
Use Aerify liquid bio-enhanced aerator and a bio-enhanced dethatcher. Trim overhanging branches to allow more sunlight.
Red Thread
(Laestisaria Fuciformis)
Red Thread is most common to Fescues, Ryegrasses, and Kentucky Bluegrasses during times of moist and cool weather. Red Thread gets its name from the pinkish-red threads that form around the leaf blades and bind them together. Eventually, the affected grass will turn brown.
It attacks only leaves and leaf sheaths and is seldom serious enough to kill a lawn.
The red treads will be most visible when wet.
The best prevention for Red Thread is to aerate often. Mowing to proper levels, reduce shade on lawn, follow a regular fertilization schedule. Make sure to include nitrogen and potassium.
Use Aerify liquid bio-enhanced aerator and a bio-enhanced dethatcher. Trim overhanging branches to allow more sunlight.
Powdery Mildew
Grass looks as though it is sprinkled with flour. Kentucky bluegrass and shade areas are the most susceptible. Grass will wither and die.
Water only in the morning; reduce shade by pruning, aerate and check drainage in the area.
Use Aerify liquid bio-enhanced aerator.Â
Pythium Blight
Irregularly shaded spots of wilted brown grass. Cobweb-like mass of fungus on moist nights or mornings. Patches cluster to form streaks a foot or more wide
Do not over fertilize or over water and don't mow when grass is wet.
Use Aerify liquid bio-enhanced aerator.Â
Fusarium Blight (Summer Patch)
Light green patches that spread, turn reddish brown and then die.
Do not over fertilize and maintain a good watering schedule.
Use Aerify liquid bio-enhanced aerator.Â
   Â
Leafspot-Melting Out
Brown to purple lesions (spots on blades. Irregular dying areas of grass lesions on grass in margins of dead area. Caused by excess nitrogen fertility and possibly excess thatch buildup
Do not introduce additional nitrogen when fertilizing, aerate and detach lawn.
Use Aerify liquid bio-enhanced aerator and a bio-enhanced dethatcher. Apply a good micronutrient product such as Nature's Magic
Slime Mold
Like powdery mildew, slime molds covers grass with a powdery covering that looks almost like crystallized frost. Feeds on decaying organic matter found in the soil. As the powdery covering becomes thicker, it reduces the light reaching the plant cells, and they begin to turn yellow.
No prevention. Usually not harmful.
In some cases, the grass blades can be hosed off with a forceful stream of water.
Visit our Website for organic products, tips, and problem solvers.
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