Fall Lawn Fungus in Fescue: a Fierce, Fast Foe for ILL-Fated Few
For most homeowners on the East coast, especially those whom PPLM serves in the Greater Richmond area of Virginia, 2018 has been a year of weather extremes across the board especially with Fall Lawn Fungus. With late frosts in April, record breaking rains almost every month of the summer, one of the hottest starts to fall on record, and two hurricanes since then, we’ve had some of the worst weather possible for growing a healthy fescue lawn and controlling Fall Lawn Fungus.
While fescue does well with one to two inches of water a week, it still needs the opportunity to get dry in between being watered or receiving rainfall. This is a big part of why it’s important to water your lawn in the early morning so that the blades of grass have the day to dry off. However, when the weather puts your yard through constant rain events and humidity as it has this year, moisture lingers on the lawn, breeding disease, Fall Lawn Fungus, and rot.
Normally, if your fescue lawn is going to develop a Fall Lawn Fungus problem during the season, issues will begin to develop around May or June when the temperature has gotten warm and there have been extended spring rains. The most common and problematic disease that is seen in late spring and early summer is brown patch, a fungus that infects and can kill substantial sections of a lawn and will often escalate dramatically within a short span of time. Other diseases that might be seen include dollar spot, which is normally more diagnostic than problematic, and red thread, which is generally cosmetic and self resolving.
Fall Lawn Fungus Treatment
To treat Fall Lawn Fungus fescue based disease, most experienced lawn care providers will apply a fungicide. There are several effective active ingredients available on the market where fungicides are concerned, and we at Picture Perfect Lawn Maintenance prefer to combine two of them to ensure better coverage and success with the treatment. However, fungal disease in your lawn is definitely a “better something than nothing” issue. If you have visible signs of disease in your lawn, it is very worthwhile to put down even a basic or low dose of fungicide to at least halt it from spreading and doing more damage. We at PPLM always discuss do-it-yourself fungicide approaches with our clients to make sure they understand the pros and cons of their treatment options.
A typical fungicide program in our area consists of three applications each done one month apart. Fungicide is effective in treating and preventing most fescue turf diseases for a month, so providers will apply it during the window of May to August depending on how early or late the season is. Typically, this covers the greatest part of the “fungus window” in which the climate conditions create the greatest risk: rain, heat, and humidity.
2018 has not been the typical year though, as we discussed earlier. This year’s “fungus window” in the Greater Richmond area affected ten times more properties this season than has been typical with greater rates of Fall Lawn Fungus than we’ve ever seen in our client base. What’s worse, an abnormally hot and humid September extended that window past when a typical fungicide program stays effective.
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