Many customers come into The Dees’ Garden Center swearing their brown lawns were caused by grubs. Brown lawns can be caused by several things. It could be lack of water, insects, or fungus. Any lawn, no matter how lush and green, can sometimes come under attack by that “always lurking in the background” common lawn fungus.

Some fungus will do damage in cool wet weather while others will do damage in scorching humid heat. There is always weather that makes perfect conditions for your lawn to get attacked by fungus, and even the cooler weather poses a threat.

The most important and best line of defense in preventing your lawn from developing some sort of disease is proper care. Proper mowing, fertilizing, and watering are absolutely necessary in keeping these potential problems at bay and if even one is not done properly, your lawn can become susceptible to disease.

Types of Lawn Fungus

There are many diseases that can take hold of the grass, but the most common in these parts are dollar spot, brown patch, and red thread.

    • Dollar Spot can occur on almost any type of grass, it looks like small brown dead patches of grass that can range in size of a golf ball up to a basketball. It will multiply over the course of weeks and can overtake and kill your lawn.
    • Brown Patch is another common disease that can turn your green lawn brown and dead almost overnight. It differs from dollar spot in that the brown patches are always much larger and usually the damage done is much quicker.
    • Red Thread usually attacks your lawn in cool damp weather. It is identified by pinkish red grass blades that have fine threads at the tips.

The Dees’ Nursery Can Help!

Proper identification of lawn problems is the key to making sure you use the correct remedy. We would prefer you take a 12 inch by 12 inch sample of grass out of your lawn and bring it in to us so we can identify your problem. If you have one of these diseases, The Dees’ Nursery recommends Bonide Infuse Turf Fungicide*. It is a broad spectrum systemic fungicide that gets into the grass plant killing and preventing many turf diseases.

*All products mentioned in this article are available at The Dees’ Nursery & Florist in Oceanside, NY.