Lawn Disease Control
A properly watered, fertilized and mowed yard is the best lawn disease control there is. A combination of too much water, too little water, watering at the wrong time of day, too much fertilizer, too little fertilizer, improper mowing techniques and high temperatures can cause so much stress to your lawn that what started out as a green lawn turns into a brown, patchy, weed filled lawn. That’s where the professional lawn care technicians at ProGrass come in. As they say, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. We’ll provide the proper lawn care services and maintenance advice to provide you with a lush, green lawn that will prevent lawn disease from taking hold. If you already have one of these lawn diseases, our trained technicians can make the proper diagnosis, and determine the best course of treatment for lawn disease control.
Lawn disease control can be achieved through professional fungicide application, use of disease-resistant turf varieties, proper irrigation, fertilization, mowing, soil cultivation and thatch removal. Below, we’ve listed some lawn diseases common to the Baltimore, Maryland area.
Brown Patch
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Brown Patch forms large brown
to gray spots with wet-looking edges. |
Season:
Mid to Late Summer
Favorable Conditions: High temperatures (75 to 95 degrees F), heavy or dense thatch, high humidity, lush or weak growth fr0m over fertilizing, and excessive moisture create perfect conditions for this disease to thrive in.
Appearance: Large, irregular circular areas, up to several feet in diameter, occur throughout the otherwise green lawn. The patches usually have a brownish to gray discoloration with a water-soaked appearance around the edges. Normally, only the leaves and stems are attacked.
Susceptible Grasses: Serious disease in the South on centipede grass and St. Augustine grass. It also attacks bent grass, Bermuda grass, rye grass, fescue, and zoysia grass
Resistant Varieties: "Manhattan II", and "Pennant" perennial ryegrasses; "Rebel II" and "Wrangler" tall fescues.
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Dollar Spot |
Dollar Spot develops numerous small brown patches across a lawn.
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Season: Spring to Fall
Favorable Conditions: Moderate temperatures, excess moisture, and heavy thatch all contribute to this disease; it is common near foggy coasts. Nitrogen-deficient lawns develop more dollar spot than those that are fertilized adequately.
Appearance: Grass dies off in small spots from 1 to 5 inches in diameter, but the spots may coalesce into large areas. Spots are usually bleached from tan to straw-colored. White, cobwebby fungus threads may be seen in early morning.
Susceptible Grasses: Most severe in bent grass and Bermuda grass, but also attacks Kentucky bluegrass, fescue, and ryegrass.
Resistant Varieties: "Biljart", and "Scaldis" fine fescues; "Manhattan II" perennial ryegrass; "Adelphi", "Eclipse", and "Midnight" Kentucky bluegrass.
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Leaf Spot |
Leaf Spot shows up as small brown circles on grass blades. |
Season: Spring to Fall
Favorable Conditions: Cool (50 to 70 degrees F), moist conditions are most favorable for the growth of leaf spot. The spots first appear on grass in shady areas of the lawn. They occur most commonly during wet, humid weather or in lawns that are often lightly sprinkled or mowed too closely.
Appearance: The most obvious symptom of this disease is elongated circular spots on grass blades. These spots have a brown or straw-colored center with black to purplish borders.
Susceptible Grasses: Kentucky bluegrass, fescue, and Bermuda grass.
Resistant Varieties: "Julia" and "Midnight" Kentucky bluegrasses, "Banner II" fine fescue, "Cimarron" and "Rebel II" tall fescues.
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Red Thread |
Red Thread shows up as red or pink strands of fungus on grass blades. |
Season: Spring and Fall
Appearance: Small spots that appear water-soaked enlarge rapidly to cover a large part of the leaf. As the spots dry, the leaves fade to a light brown or tan. Pink webs bind the grass blades together. Later, the fungus forms red-to-pink, finger-like structures at the tips of grass leaves, which gives the lawn a reddish cast.
Favorable Conditions: Most damaging in spring and fall in temperatures of 68 to 75 degrees F and high humidity. Low levels of nitrogen favor its development. When grass growth slows down due to lack of nitrogen the disease then becomes more prevalent.
Susceptible Grasses: Red Fescue, ryegrass, Kentucky bluegrass, and bent grass.
Resistant Varieties: "Biljart" and "Claudia" fine fescues; "Chateau" Kentucky bluegrass; "Pennant" perennial ryegrass. |
Rust |
Rust occurs as reddish pustules or dust on the surface of grass blades.
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Season: Midsummer to Fall
Favorable Conditions: Moderately warm, moist weather. Dew that lasts for 10 to 12 hours promotes germinations. Stress that restricts growth favors rust.
Appearance: The once green lawn takes on a rust colored cast, especially noticeable from a distance. Dust-like spores, the main symptom of this disease, form circular or elongated groups on grass blades. Anything moving through a severely infested area will be covered by the spores and may spread the disease.
Susceptible Grasses: Can affect most types of turf grass, but Kentucky bluegrass is damaged most frequently.
Resistant Varieties: "America" and "Eclipse" Kentucky bluegrass, and "Manhattan II" perennial ryegrass. |
Summer Patch
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Summer Patch develops light green patches up to 8 inches wide.
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Season: Midsummer
Favorable Conditions: Hot, dry, and windy weather creates an excellent climate for summer patch. It's most prevalent when hot (89 to 95 degrees F) summer days follow warm periods that have alternated between wet and dry weather.
Appearance: Begins as scattered light green patches up to 8 inches in diameter that turn dull tan to reddish brown. In larger diseased patches, the easiest symptom to recognize is the "frog-eye" pattern- an apparently healthy green patch of grass that is partially or completely surrounded by a ring of dead grass.
Susceptible Grasses: Bent grass, turf-type tall fescue, perennial ryegrass, and some Kentucky bluegrass cultivars.
Resistant Varieties: "America" and "Blue Star" Kentucky bluegrass. |
Contact ProGrass, Inc. at 410-561-1717
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ProGrass Lawn Care, Inc. provides excellent lawn care services including fertilization, weed control, insect control, aeration, and seeding. ProGrass
serves Maryland residents in Baltimore City, Baltimore County including Timonium, Towson,
Hunt Valley, Cockeysville, Harford County including Bel Air, Forest Hill,
Fallston, and Carroll County as well as Southern Pennsylvania.
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