# Lawn Fungus Struggles



## mmicha (Apr 20, 2018)

I did a reno a few years ago on this lawn. Looked beautiful. As time went on, it still looked nice but noticed a lot of dead material between the green. I've tried azoxy and prop to combat it as well regularly in hot months.

*This is a photo of this time last year:*



The grass is lush and thick. Doing well and as expected.

However, you get past the heat of the summer and fall it starts to look rough and never as good as the spring. More dead material between leaves, heat stressed, etc.

*Last October after scalping down to try and get dead material out:*



You can see all the dead material among the green. It basically went to bed after this for the season.

This year, the grass was slow to wake up, and it just looks poor. I gave it some time and in first week of May put down 0.5lbs of N to feed. After a few weeks it just was not looking good and still seeing all this dead material. So I did a aggressive dethatch with a Greenworks and a Groundskeeper II rake. Pulled a ton of material and put down another 0.25lbs of N for recovery. Last week did a preventative rate of azoxy and prop before heat hits.

*Photo from yesterday:*



Now it just looks thinner, still a lot of brown and dead material. Looks nothing like it did 1 year ago from photo above. I also noticed what appears to be mycelium. Is it possible this is Pythium Root rot, or Blight? I'm totally lost on how to correct this situation I've facing...

*Photo from this morning:*



HELP


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## bernstem (Jan 16, 2018)

Looks diseased. I would apply Headway (Propiconazole and Azoxystrobin) at curative rates. Reapply in 2-4 weeks depending on response and dose per the label instructions. The lawn will take time to recover, but the disease should stop spreading.

I would also look at watering and mowing. Bag your clippings to prevent spread of disease and only take off 1/3 of the blade per mow. You could consider maintining at a lower height if you are maintining at 3+ inches. The lower height will let the grass dry out faster. Bluegrass seems to like 2-3 inches. Water only as needed and in the early morning when the grass is already wet from dew. In general, you should only be watering 1-2 days per week. Maybe three times per week if it is 95+.


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## M32075 (May 9, 2019)

Last fall you scalped did you de thatch also? You have KBG get the fungus under control this late summer de thatch again and feed it let that kbg fill in


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## mmicha (Apr 20, 2018)

M32075 said:


> Last fall you scalped did you de thatch also? You have KBG get the fungus under control this late summer de thatch again and feed it let that kbg fill in


Last fall I scalped it down trying to remove more of the dead material, this spring I did the dethatch about 2 weeks ago. As well as applied propiconazole and azoxy at a preventative rate last week.


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

The last image on the right is a spiderweb.

Do you have a real soil test? I checked thru your Reno and i could not find what seeds you use.

Do you have an irrigation audit? How much and how often are you watering?

Lastly, i would take a sample and send it to a turf pathology lab. It seems that you are fighting this for a while and should get a real diagnosis instead of just throwing more fungicides.


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## mmicha (Apr 20, 2018)

g-man said:


> The last image on the right is a spiderweb.
> 
> Do you have a real soil test? I checked thru your Reno and i could not find what seeds you use.
> 
> ...


Hey @g-man

I have not done any actual watering of the lawn this year with my irrigation. Not even turned on yet. Everything has been rainfall only, and it has been fairly dry in Chicago this spring.

This is my front yard reno from a few years ago, and I used: Award, Midnight, Bewitched

I did do a soil test this year, it combined the soil in my front and back and went through Spectrum Analytics. I probably should have separated the two, not sure what identifier you would want to see with regards to fungus...

I thought about the pathology lab, I'll have to google unless there is a popular one folks are using.


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## briansemerick (Apr 11, 2021)

last pic looks like snow mold. very weird for this time of year. https://www.bobvila.com/articles/snow-mold/


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

mmicha said:


> g-man said:
> 
> 
> > The last image on the right is a spiderweb.
> ...


You should be watering by now.

Post the soil test.

I know Purdue or Wisconsin Madison have turf labs


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## mmicha (Apr 20, 2018)

g-man said:


> mmicha said:
> 
> 
> > g-man said:
> ...


@g-man

Below is my soil test from April, 2021. Includes some cores from front and back yard.


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## bernstem (Jan 16, 2018)

Soil test doesn't have anything terrible in it. A bit of Potassium would help if you haven't applied it. Is the lawn improving after the fungicide last week? There looks like yellowing leaves and leaf lesions in the last picture which is why I agree with the fungicide. I would expect that the lawn would not be getting worse after the fungicide as Headway covers almost all diseases. If it is worsening (did you use them regularly last season when it was bad?), then something else is going on. Have you applied anything other than Nitrogen and Headway?

If it has been dry and you have not been irrigating, then drought stress is possible, but it doesn't look like the pictures you posted.

For a lab diagnosis of possible disease, you should contact the lab for what they want in the samples. A lab diagnosis can miss things, but if they see a disease that helps.


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## mmicha (Apr 20, 2018)

What are folks thoughts on doing something like cutting as low as the rotary will go and dethatching to get rid of all the junk and dead material in cool season lawn. I'm just thinking this stuff is living in it.

Right out of winter it looks brown and hazy and struggles to wake up in spring. I can't understand when it has been super dry and I've only this week started watering. It's had about 1# of N, all slower forms this season using ProPeat.

I've also only done fungicides as granular, but now got everything in liquid.

Azoxy, Prop 14.3, and Cleary...


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## bernstem (Jan 16, 2018)

A dethatch won't hurt if you have widespread fungus. If there are only small areas, you can spread disease. You will be stressing the turf more and going into summer, recovery may be slow with a combination of dethatch plus fungus. If you also cut low just before summer, that will add even more stress. I personally feel that lower cut turf dried out faster and can decrease disease pressure, but I would not take off more than 1/3 of the grass blade with mowing. You can slowly decrease the height of cut over several weeks, but all at once is too much until fall. Scalping in a single go after dethatching and with disease may lead to a dead lawn. It is a lot of stress.

Have you looked at cultural practices? Disease pressure can be reduced significantly with how you manage the turf. Watering frequently or at times other than early morning before sunrise can lead to disease. Dull mower blades can also lead to increased stress and disease. Over fertilization can be problematic, but you also don't want to starve the grass. Aim for ~1 inch of growth per week.

As for fungicides, I would apply every 2 weeks for 4-6 weeks to try and get the disease under control. Liquid will be better. I would apply Azoxy plus Propiconazole for 2-3 applications. I'll second g-man's suggestion to consider sending samples to a turf pathology lab. That will give you a diagnosis and then you can directly target the problem. If the disease has not stopped spreading with fungicides, you either has something the fungicides don't cover or you don't have a fungus.


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## mmicha (Apr 20, 2018)

bernstem said:


> A dethatch won't hurt if you have widespread fungus. If there are only small areas, you can spread disease. You will be stressing the turf more and going into summer, recovery may be slow with a combination of dethatch plus fungus. If you also cut low just before summer, that will add even more stress. I personally feel that lower cut turf dried out faster and can decrease disease pressure, but I would not take off more than 1/3 of the grass blade with mowing. You can slowly decrease the height of cut over several weeks, but all at once is too much until fall. Scalping in a single go after dethatching and with disease may lead to a dead lawn. It is a lot of stress.
> 
> Have you looked at cultural practices? Disease pressure can be reduced significantly with how you manage the turf. Watering frequently or at times other than early morning before sunrise can lead to disease. Dull mower blades can also lead to increased stress and disease. Over fertilization can be problematic, but you also don't want to starve the grass. Aim for ~1 inch of growth per week.
> 
> As for fungicides, I would apply every 2 weeks for 4-6 weeks to try and get the disease under control. Liquid will be better. I would apply Azoxy plus Propiconazole for 2-3 applications. I'll second g-man's suggestion to consider sending samples to a turf pathology lab. That will give you a diagnosis and then you can directly target the problem. If the disease has not stopped spreading with fungicides, you either has something the fungicides don't cover or you don't have a fungus.


I just reached out to a pathologist at OSU. May send in a sample to their lab and get a definitive diagnosis. I may have in the past abused some cultural things, but feel now my actions are pretty good. I normally grow it tall, but right now it sits at about 2 inches. I wanted to get rid of seed heads and cut out some of the dead material.

This spring I've actually done less than most seasons due to being super busy. It's probably gotten about 1# of N (Pro Peat in two feedings), and cut once a week. I just started watering this week as my irrigation has been off.

I've watered every other day (Sunday / Wednesday / Friday) in the morning deeply applying around 0.5 inches do to 90+ temps.

I've also applied fungus controls as well with all this going on. I feel like it looked bad at the end of last season if you look at the photos and went down hill further from start of this season. Grass doesn't compare one year apart.

My reseach tells me leaf spot with melting out...


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## mmicha (Apr 20, 2018)

Spoke personally to the pathologist and after sending him photos, he confirmed that what I am dealing with is leaf spot / melting out fungus. Which is two fungi, one likes cool weather and other likes the warm.

Monday he is going to send me a treatment plan on how to tackle the issue. Pretty sweet!


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

Do azoxy liquid.


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## bernstem (Jan 16, 2018)

mmicha said:


> Spoke personally to the pathologist and after sending him photos, he confirmed that what I am dealing with is leaf spot / melting out fungus. Which is two fungi, one likes cool weather and other likes the warm.
> 
> Monday he is going to send me a treatment plan on how to tackle the issue. Pretty sweet!


I was thinking maybe leaf spot/melting out, but I have been wrong so many times online that I tend to stay quiet. There really are only about three bad fungi in KBG in the summer. Dollar Spot, Summer Patch, and Leaf Spot/Melting Out. Propi plus Azoxy covers all of them. If you are applying Azoxy at curative rates, be aware that it can increase Dollar Spot pressure. At least now you have a pretty good idea what you are dealing with which makes treatment easier.


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## AndyS (Jun 13, 2020)

I have exactly the same issue in a similar kbg mix, though not nearly as bad, so I'll be watching this thread very closely. Same thing: no overwatering and not too much rain... just large fluctuations in temperature and humidity.

I applied propi and azoxy and it seems to have frozen the progress of the disease. My neighbors are absolutely nuked and are not treating so I'm somewhat an island of green right now in a sea or orange.

I can see the worst patches using polarized sunglasses... I'm not looking to overapply chems, but would be interested to see if spot spraying the worst areas is recommended.


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## bernstem (Jan 16, 2018)

AndyS said:


> I have exactly the same issue in a similar kbg mix, though not nearly as bad, so I'll be watching this thread very closely. Same thing: no overwatering and not too much rain... just large fluctuations in temperature and humidity.
> 
> I applied propi and azoxy and it seems to have frozen the progress of the disease. My neighbors are absolutely nuked and are not treating so I'm somewhat an island of green right now in a sea or orange.
> 
> I can see the worst patches using polarized sunglasses... I'm not looking to overapply chems, but would be interested to see if spot spraying the worst areas is recommended.


For leaf spot and other foliar diseases I would treat the entire lawn. They can be spread by mowing. Bagging will reduce spread, but not eliminate it. I would treat the entire lawn at curative rates if there is a known disease. If I have a bit left in the tank after spraying, I will add a bit more to clearly diseased areas.


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## AndyS (Jun 13, 2020)

bernstem said:


> AndyS said:
> 
> 
> > I have exactly the same issue in a similar kbg mix, though not nearly as bad, so I'll be watching this thread very closely. Same thing: no overwatering and not too much rain... just large fluctuations in temperature and humidity.
> ...


Thanks much for the advice!


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## Old Hickory (Aug 19, 2019)

To minimize the spread of a fungus is there a need to spray the mower and blade with fungicide or is a good cleaning enough?


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## bernstem (Jan 16, 2018)

Old Hickory said:


> To minimize the spread of a fungus is there a need to spray the mower and blade with fungicide or is a good cleaning enough?


Wash with a hose. You can lightly spray with a dilute bleach solution if you want, but that seems like overkill to me. I have had more than my share of diseases and have never used bleach on the mower. They all get better with time, changes in cultural practices, and fungicides.


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## mmicha (Apr 20, 2018)

I thought I'd put this in for others that are fighting leaf spot / melting out... Read in another post but wanted to add it to this one as well thanks to @g-man research:

*Using DMI fungicides can actually increase disease pressure of leaf spot / melting out.*

Seems like Azoxy is the only real option and good cultural practices for home owners.

http://www2.ca.uky.edu/agcomm/pubs/ppa/ppa1/ppa1.pdf


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## mmicha (Apr 20, 2018)

My question for the group is with regards to using fungicides on something like this. If Azoxy is the best option, and the label says don't use more than 3 times in a row to avoid resistance. With nothing else to fight it, what do you do.

Sadly, I've not even found the time yet to put down Azoxy 2SC yet at 0.77/M. This is what @g-man stated, as well as the pathologist. I did previously apply Disease-X at a preventative rate roughly 25 days ago.

Before I knew this knowledge about DMI's, I had put down two granular apps of propiconazole, 14 days apart at preventative practice.

If I hit 2 more applications of Azoxy, am I basically done for the season with it if it isn't cleared up? I'm hoping moving to a liquid over granular I'll see much different results. How much time has to pass before you reset the clock for example?


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

1) try to avoid granulars for fungicide, more so if during curative. @osuturfman has an expression for them that I wont share online to keep the website PG-13 but it involves sheepskin.

2) There are other products that are home safe. Velista is one and I think Fame is the other one. Maybe Medallion, but please check.


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