Where Can You Find Help To Diagnose Your Lawn Disease?

If your lawn is getting plenty of water, sunlight and nutrients but is still not looking healthy, it may be time to consult with a lawn care specialist to diagnose whether not your lawn has a lawn disease. A well trained lawn care specialist should be able to assess the visible symptoms on your lawn to reveal what may be plaguing it.

Some of the common lawn diseases include Sclerotinia Dollar Spot, Summer Patch, Rhizoctonia Yellow Patch, Necrotic Ring Spot, Fusarium Blight and Typhula Blight (Aka: Grey Snow Mold). Some of the visible symptoms of these diseases range from small yellow patches on your lawn, to rings of brown or yellow grass, to areas that may look like they are depressed or sunken.

If you have visible symptoms of disease developing on your lawn you might want to consider jumping on the internet and doing a search for lawn care services in your local area. Most established lawn care companies will have personnel on their staff adept at identifying lawn diseases. Once you’ve consulted with an expert and your disease is identified, you can then ask your lawn care provider if they have any treatment options for your lawn disease.

Not all treatment options will require the use of a spray or chemical treatment. Some lawn diseases thrive in compacted soil so a lawn care provider may also be able to provide services to de-compact your soil, including mechanical aeration. Though aeration may not cure an existing lawn disease, having your lawn mechanically aerated once or twice per year (in the spring and/or fall) is a good preventative measure that may make your lawn less susceptible to disease in the future.

After diagnosis, you can also jump back on the internet to see what you can find to treat the specific disease your lawn is suffering from. Enviroselects.com offers multiple treatment options to treat a wide spectrum of lawn diseases, including the ones described above. One such treatment option is ZeroTol RTS which is an NOP (National Organic Program) compliant fungicide that comes in an applicator that simply attaches to your garden hose and dilutes the water with the correct dose of fungicide as you spray the infected area of your lawn.

Are Weeds Making Your Lawn Fungus Problem Look Minor?

Lawn fungus may not be the only obstacle in your way to that beautiful lawn you desire. Many of us also constantly battle weed problems in our yards. Weeds, like fungus, moss or brown patch can be very unsightly in your lawn and if left unchecked, will only increase in number and become even harder to control.

FIESTA Selective Weed KillerEnviroselects.com now has a couple of good safe and environmentally friendly weed control options available to home owners for both selective and non selective weed control. For weeds growing right in your lawn, we now offer Fiesta turf weed killer which is an iron based selective herbicide that effectively kills a broad spectrum of weed species while not harming your lawn. Since this herbicide uses iron instead of toxic synthetic ingredients, it is safe for your children and pets to walk on as soon as it dries. For tougher weed problems, two applications of Fiesta may be required for maximum effectiveness.

We also now offer Axxe, our non-selective herbicide. Axxe non-selective herbicide is a great option for those weedy areas on patios or walkways where you want a non discriminate weed killer. Axxe carries NOP (National Organic Program) status so you can rest assured that it will not leave toxic residues behind after it is applied.

A good strategy for maintaining a weed-free lawn after you have applied Fiesta is to fertilize and water your lawn to get it growing vigorously. A vigorous growing lawn is much less likely to be susceptible to new weed growth and should also start to yield that thick luscious look you want!

Identify and Control Snow Mold Lawn Fungus

Lawn fungus is a common problem and a headache for many home owners. It grows in a variety of colours, under varied environmental environmental conditions, and attacks different types of grasses. Knowing how to identify lawn fungus early, before it becomes a major problem, will save both time and money.

Causes and Signs

Lawn fungus materializes as a variety of rings, spots and patches. In the summer it will appear as brown patches, called rhizoctonia blight, which are one to three feet wide and show up during hot weather. If the weather is both hot and humid, the patches may have gray or purple tinged rings around the edge.

Patches can also appear in the winter after the snow melts or during long periods of cold, wet weather. These patches are referred to as grass snow mold and are most often pink or gray.

Pink snow mold, a variety of lawn fungus, produces roughly circular bleached patches up to 60 centimetres in diametre. It may initially look white and mature to a faint pink or salmon color. Pink snow mold can invade the crowns and roots of grass, causing serious injury.

Gray snow mold seen in similar-sized patches as pink snow mold, but in a light gray or white colour. It is unsightly but less serious than pink mold. It rarely damages more than the grass blades and if it has not spread extensively may disappear once the affected lawn has had time to dry thoroughly.

Disease Management

The best way to manage grass snow mold is to prevent it from attacking your lawn in the first place. Be aware of what your grass looks like and don’t ignore the possible signs of disease. It is generally more cost-effective to prevent fungus growth than cure areas where it has become established.

ZeroTol Lawn FungicideCertain actions may help ward off outbreaks of lawn snow mold. Avoiding excessive nitrogen fertilizers, cleaning up leaves, managing thatch and mowing the lawn until it stops growing are all simple ways to prevent outbreaks of lawn fungus.

Choosing a good fungicide is an effective way to both treat outbreaks of grass snow mold and prevent them from reoccurring at a later date; however, many people nowadays are hesitant to treat their lawn with chemicals due to health and environmental concerns. Thankfully, products are available which both safe and environmentally friendly.

A fungicide like ZeroTol (commercial) or ZeroTol Ready-to-Spray (home & garden) is recommended for curing existing outbreaks of lawn snow mold in addition to other diseases like moss and algae infestations. ZeroTol will leave grass unharmed, killing only what ZeroTol RTS Lawn Fungicideit should. It is highly effective, often producing results in less than 48 hours, yet is non-toxic and produces no run off or residue.

For those who are concerned about the health of their grass or having a picture-perfect lawn, it is imperative to monitor it for signs of disease, prevent outbreaks where possible and treat any emerging diseases quickly and effectively.