Lawn Disease Treatment
Lawn Disease Treatment Services: a Problem-Solving Enhancement
Dead or dying spots on your lawn could indicate the presence of disease, and all turfgrass diseases are caused by fungus. High humidity, moisture, stress, soil conditions, and certain types of grass can combine to create favorable conditions for fungal disease to become active.
Fungal lawn diseases
Fungal lawn diseases fall into two main categories:
Leaf Diseases. Some fungal pathogens are localized in the blades of grass, with the more common leaf diseases being leaf spot, red thread, dollar spot, snow mold, and powdery mildew. These diseases may resolve themselves without significant damage to the turf. However, when conditions are favorable for disease development, serious damage can occur.
Patch Diseases. The term “patch disease” refers to any of a number of fungal diseases that infect the roots of turfgrass. Two of the most common patch diseases are summer patch and brown patch. Patch diseases can be difficult to diagnose and manage because the symptoms are often not visible until the roots have already been damaged – with symptoms normally appearing in June or July as a result of summer heat and reduced rain. Turf infested with a patch disease has the characteristic symptoms of crescent-shaped or circular patches of dead grass surrounding clumps of green grass (the resulting appearance called “frogeye”). Patch diseases are among the most destructive of all lawn diseases. Your lawn can appear perfectly healthy one day and then virtually overnight (with ideal weather conditions) large “patches” of your lawn are completely, and many times, destroyed. For that reason, if you live in an area prone to extreme weather conditions – or if you have had patch disease in the prior season – Lawns Care Guide recommends preventive treatments in order to combat the disease before it emerges.
Control and Prevention: Fighting Lawn Disease on All Fronts
There are three conditions that combine to create the “perfect storm” for the emergence of lawn disease:
1. The presence of the fungal pathogen in your turf, and;
2. The type of grass that is inherently susceptible to the pathogen, and;
3. Stress conditions in your turf that give the pathogen a welcoming environment to take hold – e.g., excess moisture, hot temperatures, unhealthy soil, weeds, improper mowing practices, and damaging insects.
Fungal pathogens can never be totally eradicated from the lawn; they will lay dormant in the thatch, in the soil, or in the grass plants just waiting for the right conditions to become active. Therefore, establishing and maintaining a healthy lawn is the best defense against disease.