Brown Patch Lawn Disease
Brown patch is a very common lawn disease that is caused by the fungus Rhizoctonia solani. It is very prevalent in warm and humid areas attacking all different types of grasses like St. Augustine grass and Kentucky bluegrass. The disease appears in circular patches of dead grass sometimes in diameters of many feet. Using a quick-release nitrogen fertilizer can cause the grass to be susceptible to brown patch. When the disease becomes severe, it will attack the plant crowns and kill the grass.
How to Treat Brown Patch on Lawns
You can cure brown patch by using a contact fungicide. It is important that you treat the disease as soon as possible and continue to apply fungicide for several weeks after or as long as humid, warm weather persists. There are plenty of fungicides at Lowes or Home Depot that are marked as being able to treat brown patch disease.
How to Prevent Brown Patch Lawn Disease
Watering infrequently can help keep the grass as dry as possible. Also, try to water only early in the morning to prevent wet grass in the evenings. Control thatch by dethatching or aerating your lawn and make sure to follow a good annual fertilizer program. Stick with slow-release nitrogen fertilizer and try not to fertilize during heavy rains when the lawn is most saturated.
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Hello, We have a fungus really bad in our lawn and our lawn service is not handling it very well. What do you recommend us using to effectively treat this? I really believe that the lawn service company brought it to my lawn. I have been treating my own lawn for over 25 years and never had a fungus. The first time I signed up with a service company and the first time they came out I got this fungus. The owner of this service company told me he had several yards he had been treating for fungus. So I believe he used the same spreader in my yard after treating one of those mentioned yards.
He misdiagnosed my problem to be “mole crickets” and would not listen to me when I kept telling him that it was a fungus and spreading rapidly. He finally came and treated but the circles grew to 30 ft in diameter by the time he treated it. So I would really like to have something on hand myself to treat in case it comes back. I now have two very large spots that have treated by this company and I have plugged in these large areas to speed up the repair.
What can I purchase to keep on hand in case it comes again? My grass is Floritan St. Augustine. I live in Palm Coast, Florida,
Also, I have to water regularly now to keep the plugs I planted alive. This home is our second home and we are not there but on weekends. So I had to set my sprinkler to run every other day so that the plugs won’t die. Now I am concerned this may be too much water, but what do I do?
Thank you sincerely for you help.
Jennie Bingol ( a Navy distressed spouse)
Hey Jennie,
It’s certainly possible that the lawn service spread the fungus to your lawn if they didn’t wash their equipment before coming to your lawn. You can keep some fungicide on hand to spot treat. You definitely need to cut back on watering and fertilizing which can exacerbate the problem. If the soil looks compacted, then aeration will help too. An effective organic treatment is to apply corn meal and compost to the surface of the affected areas. Good luck!