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Dear Valued Customer,
As always, we thank you for your business. If you ever have any questions regarding your lawn and/or landscape feel free to contact us either by calling (734) 699-0010 or through e-mail at turfproinc@sbcglobal.net Sincerely, Michael J. Weakland Turf Pro Inc. President/Owner |
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DISEASE ALERT
 We've been seeing a lot of turf diseases in lawns lately. These diseases requires three conditions to thrive; a host (your lawn), a pathogen, and ideal environmental conditions. Diseases thrive in hot, humid weather and lots of moisture, which we've had lately.
We do have the products to treat these diseases; however some may require multiple applications. The initial application of fungicide will temporarily effect/cure the disease, but if the environmental conditions remain ideal, the disease may return. If this is the case, applications may need to be done every 14-21 days while the weather remains hot, humid, and rainy. Sometimes, the initial application may be enough to get the disease under control and then maintaining the lawn properly may prevent the disease from returning.
You can find information on the specific turf diseases we've been seeing below.
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| Common Summer Lawn Diseases
Dollar Spot and Necrotic Ring Spot are two diseases common to lawns in our area. Dollar spot shows up as lots of small brown spots in your yard, usually not more than a few inches across(size of a silver dollar coin to start out). One way to identify this disease is to look across your lawn first thing in the morning. You will often see what looks like small spider webs on the tip of the grass. This is the bacteria mycelium of Dollar Spot and quickly disappears as the day goes on.
Necrotic Ring Spot the damage tends to be more severe. The damage moves outward from a point, making ring-like patterns in the lawn. As it progresses it causes irregular dead spots to form and the grass looks spotty and thinned out.
Again, we have been seeing varying degrees of damage on many of our customer's lawns and hope this email will help with yours.
Typical dollar spot coming into lawn.
Telltale example of necrotic ring spot, with a picture of heavier damage below.
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Anthracnose
Anthracnose can occur as both a foliar infecting and crown infecting disease. Foliar anthracnose is more common. It is characterized by irregularly shaped patches of yellow-bronze turf, ranging in size from a few inches to several feet. It is most often seen in turf growing under low soil fertility and high temperature stress. It is most severe in compacted areas, high traffic areas, areas with and poor soil drainage. It can occur in a wide range of temperatures.
Pythium Blight
Pythium first appears as circular reddish brown spots in the lawn. When spots are wet with dew, purplish gray or white cottony fungal mycelia can be seen on the outside of spots. This disease can cause damage to large areas in a short period of time (overnight). In hot temperatures, like we've been seeing lately, outbreaks will occur in poorly drained areas. The disease thrives in humidity, another condition we've experience lately.
Red Thread
Red thread is characterized by the easily recognizable red to coral-pink strands (stromata) produced on leaf blades and sheaths. When grass is wet, it appears gelatinous and fleshy. As it dries, the stroma also dries and becomes thin and thread-like. Often times symptoms resemble dollar spot but under close examination, the red stromata can be seen. Red Thread Disease thrives in hot, humid conditions.
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How to Manage Diseases
To manage and prevent disease damage from showing you can follow a few simple guidelines. Don't water in the evening or at night. By doing so you keep the grass wet all night and create optimal conditions for disease to flourish. Instead water during the heat of the day, around 1:00 PM is ideal. This waters the grass and reduces the soil temperature. While it is as hot and dry as it has been lately you will need to water every day, every other day at a minimum. The more stressed your turf is in the more damage you will notice.
It is also important to keep up the fertility in the lawn by fertilizing on a regular basis which our slow release applications will do. That way when damage starts to appear the grass will quickly grow out of it. A healthy and actively growing lawn will be less prone to problems.
Also, don't mow your lawn too short. A mowing height of 2.75 to 3.5 inches is ideal for bluegrass. Cutting height also depends on how you water. Taller grass is healthier grass with a much deeper root system.
To recap; water during the day, fertilize regularly, and possibly raising the mowing height will all help keep your lawn looking good during the hot summer months. If you suspect your lawn has a disease, give us a call. We'll be happy to take care of it for you!
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Last Months Newsletter
The June newsletter went over watering your lawn and Yellow Nutsedge. If you missed it you can find it in our Newsletter Archive on our homepage at www.no-weeds.com.
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Michael Weakland Turf Pro Inc. |
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