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Necrotic Ring Spot
Necrotic Ring Spot is a soil-borne disease.This means that the pathogen survives in the soil. It is a difficult disease to control and cannot really be cured. It can be managed though. The damage resulting from Necrotic Ring Spot 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. A sure sign of NRS can be seen on the outer edges of the spots; if you look closely, you can see purple leaves on the grass at the outer edges. Necrotic Ring Spot affects the crown and root of the plant, so anything that improves rooting can help keep the disease under control.
How to Manage Necrotic Ring Spot
First, you should treat your lawn with a systemic fungicide. We can help you out with this. After your lawn has been treated, there are some things you can do to reduce the chance of reoccurrence and future damage.
Anything that lessens soil compaction and improves rooting can also help manage the disease. We can help out with that as well. Call us to schedule an aeration and/or a soil conditioning treatment.
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.
We have the products and services to treat Necrotic Ring Spot. Give us a call to schedule services for your lawn today!
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