Our lawns are the framing matte to our homes and we all love a beautiful lush green matte to display our castle, but there could be an enemy lying dormant ready to destroy your grass and take all that hard work and beauty away. It’s call FUNGUS. This time of year, we usually receive a more than adequate supply of rain and which that is great to replenishes our water supply, it also can cause serious problems to our lawn.

Lawns need 1” of water a week to be healthy and reproduce to its fullest capabilities, but too much, along with the right temperatures can cause a little pest called Rhizoctonia or BROWN PATCH. The turf grass leaf must be wet for a continuous 10-12 hours for the fungus to be active, and certainly with rain day after day, that condition is certainly present. One more condition needs to be present for the fungus to thrive is it needs a day time temp of 80 degrees and a night time temp of 60 degrees with lots of humidity. With our fluctuating Georgia temps it is very liking that the stars could all line up to start a growing frenzy of our little pest BROWN PATCH.

The scary thing is that we will not know if we have the fungus until spring green up is here, but once the grass begins to turn green you will be able to visibly see areas that have been taken over by the brown patch fungus. Please see the picture for identification.

If you begin to notice areas in your lawn that are not greening up, areas that have the appearance as roughly circular patches that are brown, tan, or yellow in color and range from 6 inches to several feet in diameter, being proactive immediately is very important. ASTRO TURF & ORNAMENTAL can identify the issue and start a preventative and a curative control to combat and get rid of this ugly monster. The key is not to wait. The longer you wait, the more the fungus grows and kills your lawn. Dead grass can not be resuscitated and dead grass is dead.

My plea to you is to not wait until half of your yard is gone before you decide to make a call to stop the fungus. We can’t stop the rain but we can stop the Rhizoctonia BROWN PATCH. So once grass begins to green up in the next couple months, be aware of any signs that you may have a fungus. If you do give us a call.

I’m Monty and it’s been a pleasure.