You work hard to make your lawn beautiful and enjoyable; so the last thing you want to wake up to are brown patches covering sections of your yard. We have been seeing scattered patches of fungal disease in lawns over the past few weeks. The bad news is; it will keep spreading until you treat it properly.
Rain, high humidity and overnight temps at 60 degrees or above are the biggest factors in the beginning of our Brown Patch season on fescue turf. The soil born fungus will emerge as conditions favor it and will start to feed on your lush turf leaving circular tan to brown damaged patches in the lawn. With a close inspection of the individual grass blades, you will notice pale tan fungal lesions with a rust colored edge where the fungus is actively feeding. These areas can spread across the lawn, and under certain conditions, can kill areas of the turf resulting in a need for seeding in the fall.
Fungicides labeled for Brown Patch can control and prevent new damage, but this issue can require extra care. Other good maintenance practices or rules of thumb this time of year that may help reduce the damages caused by this fungal are:
- Water deep and less often
- Mow high and as often as possible
- Water in the early morning to avoid leaving moisture on the leaves for extended periods of time (definitely do not water late afternoon-early evening)
- Reduce Nitrogen based fertilizing until the early fall
- Call on a professional for advice any time.
