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Red Thread Lawn Disease
Red Thread Lawn Disease - A Serious Disease, But Not Too Serious One of my favorite diseases is Red Thread as it is one of the easiest disease to identify. What makes it so is the pinkish-red color that is an indicator of its activity. Upon careful examination, you may see a thin antler-like structure protruding through the tip of the leaf blade, which may resemble a tiny thread. This is how the disease gets its one of its names – Red Thread. There is a similar disease, Pink Patch, that develops masses of pink fungal hyphae in the thatch or on the leaf blades. Both of these diseases can occur at the same time. Red Thread can develop in both spring and fall, but it is generally considered a late spring disease. Temperatures that favor i
Ascochyta Leaf Blight Lawn Disease
For the last several years, a minor disease has been affecting many lawns during the late spring into the early summer: • It usually occurs during the period of time when the weather switches from cool and wet to hot and humid. • Lawns have been growing well and then heat and humidity blankets the area. • Mowing during the heat of the day seems to be one of the factors that cause this disease to become active. • It mainly affects bluegrass and it is usually on lawns that were mowed too short. The lawn disease is called Ascochyta Leaf Blight. The one good thing about this disease is that it is not a crown killer and the plant will recover on its own. If you see sections of your lawn that look like the picture above, you will notice that the grass blades have turned tan fro
Preventing Lawn Rust and Rust Disease
August is here, and so is Rust. If you live in the Midwest , you've been enjoying a year with an abundance of rain—except for the last three weeks. If you've noticed that your lawn mower appears to be covered with an orange-colored powder or that your white tennis shoes have turned orange after mowing your lawn, then your lawn has developed rust. Rust disease is common on cool-seaso
Lawn Diseases: Caring for Warm Season Grasses Like Centipede Grass
I recently attended the South Carolina Landscape and Turfgrass Association annual conference and tradeshow in Columbia, SC for the second year now. Since I’ve lived most of my life in northern Illinois, I always welcome the chance to learn more about warm-season grasses, and this show provides some appreciated insight. Warm Season Lawn Disease: Centipede Decline One of the presentations I attended was ab
Snow Mold: What It Is and How to Treat It
It is early spring and the snow is beginning to melt, often bringing outbreaks of Snow Mold on many lawns. Although it is not a serious disease, snow mold can leave large destroyed areas on a lawn that will take a lot longer to turn green as the weather continues to warm up. What Is Snow Mold? There are two basic types of Snow Mold – Grey and Pink – named after the color that the mycelium, or fungal growths, turn as they are exposed to sunlight. Despite its name, Snow Mo
What Causes A Lawn Disease To Develop?
In order for a lawn disease to develop, three conditions – known as the Disease Triangle – must exist. 1. You need to have the pathogen or disease-causing agent present. Disease spores from the diseases that are common to the area can be found in most home lawns. They usually float in on wind currents, wash in during rain events or are transmitted by animals or people. 2. You need the host plant, which is your turf grass (or tree or shrub). Usual
How to Avoid Green Slimy Ooze From Growing On Your Lawn.
What is this Green Slimy Ooze? During the last couple of years, I’ve received several questions about a strange green slimy ooze growing in lawns. So after doing some research, I learned that it is a type of cyanobacterium, formerly called blue-green algae. This green slimy ooze has been called many colorful names over the years, including witches, butter and star jelly, which is based on the belief that the ooze was indeed the remnants of shooting stars. Why do I have it? Nostoc Algae wil
Watch Out For Large Underwing Moth Larva
Last fall, we described a new turfgrass pest that was causing some damage in the Seattle area. At the time the article was written, the insect was thought to be an army cutworm. Since that time, we have learned that it is the larva of the Large Underwing Moth . </
Be On the Lookout: Large Patch Symptoms Now Showing!
This disease was formerly called Brown Patch , which is a disease that affects cool-season grasses in the middle of the summer. It is basically the same disease, but Large Patch begins the infection process in the fall and the symptoms show in the late spring early summer. Brown Patch begins to infect cool-season grasses during periods of high heat and humidity and the symptoms immediately show on the lawn. </
Gray Leaf Spot: Should You Be Concerned?
Gray Leaf Spot is beginning to show activity on St. Augustine lawns in the south and southeastern parts of the country. This is an important infectious disease and can also occur on cool-season grasses, Tall Fescue and Perennial Ryegrass , although it generally shows up on those grasses later in the summer. This disease shows up on St. Augustine when the weather becomes hot and humid. It
Slime Molds: Should You Be Concerned?
Many parts of the country are dealing with hot, humid weather and an abundance of rain. This type of weather is conducive to the development of a disease called slime molds that causes a great deal of concern, but is really nothing to worry about. They can occur anytime from spring through fall, but seem to be more active following heavy rains in the summer. They can develop on any grass plants, including grassy weeds. Slime molds are saprophytes, or primitive organisms that obtain their nutrients from dead or decaying organic matter. Th
Early Spring Start-Up Tips
Spring is just beginning for those in the northern states. Many gardeners are getting anxious to shake off the winter doldrums and start working on their lawns, landscape beds and gardens again. After being teased by Mother Nature in mid to late February with warm temperatures, the last month or so has been cold, snowy, wet and just down right miserable. During those few couple of warm days the grass began turning green, Tulips and Daffodils pushed through the soil and buds on the trees and shrubs were getting ready to open. One thing to keep in mind; it is
How To Control And Treat Red Thread Lawn Disease
One of the more common late spring to early summer diseases on cool-season grasses is Red Thread lawn disease . It is most severe on Kentucky Bluegrass, Perennial Ryegrass and Tall Fescue . There is another lawn disease that occurs at the same time and under the same environmental conditions known as Pink Patch . The main difference between the two lawn diseases are the fruiting structures. Red Thread takes its name from the red thread-like structures called sclerotia that are produced by the fungus. Pink Patch produces tiny puffs of pink-co
How Do Lawn Diseases Develop and Ways to Prevent Them
If there is a disease that can develop where you live, the spores of that disease are probably in your lawn already as they will move from lawn to lawn mainly through wind movement. Some diseases are soil borne, meaning that they already exist in the soil. All diseases are waiting for the right environmental conditions to develop to infect the turf. Development of Lawn Disease It is important to understand how a disease develops. The term used to explain how a disease develops is called the Disease Triangle . It is basically the same concept as the Fire Triangle. There are three basic component
If You Had a Dollar for Every Dollar Spot On Your Lawn...
You probably wouldn’t be rich, but you might have enough for a decent night out. We’re speaking, of course, about Dollar Spot, the lawn disease that cheapens the look of your lawn. This lawn disease can infect almost all cool-season and warm-season turfgrasses, including Bentgrass, Fescues, Kentucky bluegrass, Perennial Ryegrass, Bermudagrass, Zoysiagrass, Centipedegrass and St. Augustinegrass. Development of Dollar Spot Lawn Disease If conditions are right, the disease can develop on most any lawn, but a well-maintained lawn will recover from the damage faster than a lawn that does not
How Rust Lawn Disease Develops and Ways to Prevent It
If you have ever walked across your lawn in the late summer and notice that your shoes have taken on an orange hue, there is a good chance that your lawn is suffering from a common turf disease called Rust. The lawn disease appears as orange or yellowish-orange powder on grass blades, usually in the late summer to early fall, although I have seen in develop in the spring. How Does Rust Develops On Lawns? The disease can develop on turf that is not growing normally due to several stress factors including drought stress or low fertility. It can also develop during periods of heavy rain fall.
Identify and Repair Lawn Disease
Having to repair your grass that has succumbed due to lawn disease can be time consuming and expensive. How the repair is accomplished is different for cool-season grasses than it is for warm-season grasses. This article will provide some basic information for repairing lawn disease. Regardless of where you live or what type of turfgrass is in your lawn, the most important thing to determine is the name of the lawn disease. Some lawn diseases like Red Thread or Rust will ex
Found A Smelly Dark Tip Fungus? It's Dog Stinkhorn!
Their name doesn’t sound very appetizing, their shape certainly doesn’t help matters much, and their odor can be downright offensive. The genus Mutinus Caninus , also known as Dog Stinkhorn , are a rather unusual garden fungus. This unsavory member of the mushroom family can be recognized by it’s distinctive shape and terrible smell. What is this dark tip smelly fungus? They will be hard to miss if you have them. For those not well-versed in Latin, the scientific name describes the similarity of their shape to that of a male dog’s identifying anatomical characteristic. Stinkhorns
White or Gray Matted Web-Like Grass? It's Snow Mold!
There are two types of Snow Mold that can develop on residential lawns, Pink and Grey. Although all grasses are susceptible to the diseases, they are most common on bluegrass, ryegrass, bentgrass and fescues. Pink Snow Mold, also called Microdochium Patch and Gray Snow Mold, also called Typhula Blight. Although they are both associated with snow cover, Gray Snow Mold requires at least 60 days of snow cover for it to develop. Both types of Snow Mold are most severe when snow falls on unfrozen turf, but Pink Snow Mold can occur without snow cover during cool (less than 60 degrees) weather that is wet and
Leaf Spot Lawn Disease On Cool and Warm Season Grasses
There are many different diseases that turfgrasses can contract, but not all turfgrasses get the same diseases, except for one. That disease is called Leaf Spot. There are several different pathogens that cause leaf spot diseases that includes Helminthosporium , Drechslera and Bipolaris . They all belong to a large family of fungi that share the same descriptive name of leaf spots. The Symptoms and Stages of Leaf Spot For the most part, the infectious stage of leaf spot fungi occurs during the cool, wet and cloudy weather of spring or fall. Leaf spot can infect all parts of the grass
How To Tell If My Lawn Is Unhealthy
Spring and summer are just around the corner. Homeowners everywhere will soon be looking to their lawns to make their house stand out in the neighborhood. The key to all this warm weather fun is a healthy lawn. So, how do you know if your lawn is healthy or not? And, more importantly, if there is an issue, how do you recognize it and act quickly to correct it?