Lawn Fungus & Diseases: Nearly Everything You Need to Know

You’ve seen lawn weeds. They’re leggy and off-color. They stand out. They’re super annoying. And they don’t look good in your lawn. In fact, in a movie about your lawn, weeds are the major villains – the ones you always see making the plans and coordinating the heist of your good grass blades. 

But what you really need to watch out for are the lawn diseases – the ones that you almost miss until it’s too late. They sneak in as the weeds distract you, so you don’t expect them. And then before you know it you have a full fungal lawn infection.

To help you better understand lawn diseases in Northern Virginia grasses, this guide will review what lawn fungi are, what causes them, different types you’ll encounter, and how to prevent and get rid of them so you can have your thick, green, disease-free lawn back. Now that’s a movie with a happy ending you want to see.

Table of Contents

1. What is Lawn Fungus?
   
   
2. What Causes Lawn Fungus?
   
   
3. How to Identify Different Types of Lawn Disease 
   
   
4. How to Prevent Lawn Fungus
   
   
5. How to Get Rid of Lawn Fungus

What is Lawn Fungus? 

You might be looking at your grass right now and wondering how lawn fungus and lawn disease even come about. Your lawn can seem to look good one day and then it’s mass chaos the next day when you’re seeing strange spots and colors all over the place.

Your Northern Virginia lawn is a living thing. And, as such, it naturally contains lawn fungi. In fact – and we hate to break it to you – all lawns have grass fungus present in them. Yep, even if your lawn looks pretty good, there’s fungi lurking under there. 

But don’t panic. Fortunately, even though you have lawn fungus, you may never actually get lawn diseases. Fungi spores can sit dormant and never cause you problems for years as long as the conditions aren't present to bring them out. It’s a trifecta of things that actually work together to bring on lawn disease. 

What Causes Lawn Fungus?

When it comes to lawn fungus, while they are almost always present in the soil, they need the right conditions to become active and bring on actual visible disease symptoms.

In fact, you need three specific things to bring about disease. You need a host, which in this case is your grass. You need a pathogen, which is a lawn disease. And you need an environment that is favorable to the production of lawn fungus.

You might call lawn fungi silent but deadly. They look for the perfect times to attack – an alignment of conditions that encourage their growth. Lawn disease causes include: 

• Extended periods of moisture - usually due to excess rainfall, improper irrigation, uneven or sloped ground, and excess shade that doesn’t dry out wet areas
• High humidity

The combination of wet and humid weather is really what amplifies the growth of lawn diseases. And since their symptoms can mirror drought to the naked eye, you really want to be sure you know what you’re dealing with when you spot symptoms that look like a disease. 

Once you have a lawn disease infection, then they’ll use wind, rain, grass clippings, foot traffic, and lawn equipment to spread.

Back to table

How to Identify Different Types of Lawn Disease

When it comes to lawn disease, you might find different manifestations of them in your Northern Virginia lawn. 

You might see dead-looking brown patches, tan rings, pinkish threads, or white or yellow spots. Lawn disease can appear in various shapes, sizes, and colors. This is why it’s quite difficult to identify.

Signs of Lawn Fungus to Watch Out For

Lawn fungus can come about in different forms. Here are a few common signs that you’ll see in your lawn that might indicate disease. 

• Large, roughly circular, irregular patches of dry grass that looks dead
• Thin red hairs or strands extending up from your grass blades
• Light green or yellow patches
• Circular, tan spots
• Thin patches of frayed or discolored grass blades
• A powdery substance coating areas of your grass blades
  
  

Identifying Common Lawn Diseases

Identifying lawn diseases can certainly be difficult. Luckily, there are a few common Northern Virginia lawn diseases that can crop up in your grass. Knowing these can be helpful.

Let’s take a look at the worst ones to help you become better at spotting them and get ahead of controlling them in your yard.  

Brown Patch

Brown patch gets the award for looking the most like its name. You’ll find brown-ish, irregularly shaped patches that have what look like borders. 

Grass inside this ring will thin, since this foliar disease goes after your grass blades and not your lawn roots. And that can lead to bare spots or holes in your lawn.

You will spot brown patch in late spring and early summer. A fungus called Rhizoctonia is what spreads it when night time temperatures are steadily above 65 to 68 degrees Fahrenheit and daytime temperatures exceed 80 degrees Fahrenheit. 

Overfertilizing, particularly with nitrogen, encourages the spread of brown patch. Other things that help this one spread are poor air circulation, lack of soil drainage, overly compact soils or those full of thatch, and lawns that lack regular and proper maintenance. 

If you stress your lawn out by incorrectly watering it or mowing it too short, brown patch will take the opportunity to strike. 

Dollar Spot

Seeing small, tan-colored circles in your tall fescue lawn? Silver dollar-sized spots are caused by a type of lawn fungus called dollar spot, and it’s pretty common in Northern Virginia. 

These spots range from 2 to 4 inches in diameter and can multiply, becoming unsightly to look at in late spring and into summer and fall. In fact, dollar spot is known to cause the most damage in June and July. 

Dollar spot will strike if you have a lawn that is lacking proper watering, is receiving inadequate fertilization, and is compacted from years of wear and tear. 

Red Thread

The second you see pinks and reds in your lawn, the types of lawn fungus to blame narrow. 

Red thread, aptly named, will send spiky pinkish-red threads out from the tips of your grass blades. While it sounds easy to identify, it’s a tricky one unless you look pretty close or have a trained eye. From afar, it might look like it causes torn grass blades, but this is actually the growth of a fungus called Laetisaria fuciformis.

Red thread prefers wet conditions in temperatures ranging from 59 to 77 degrees Fahrenheit – this typically happens in spring and fall. It likes to attack lawns that are lacking nitrogen. Red thread easily spreads via wind and contaminated foot or machine traffic. 

Rust

Rust begins in your lawn as orange-yellow spores that damage your grass blades. As you walk through your lawn, you might notice these spores come off on your shoes and look like a rusty substance, which is where this type of lawn fungus gets its name. It can also help you identify this lawn disease. 

Lawn Rust prefers temperatures ranging from 50 to 60 degrees Fahrenheit and extended periods – more than 10 hours – of dew or moisture. Many times it’ll crop up in shady areas with poor ventilation.

Back to table

How to Prevent Lawn Fungus

Preventing lawn fungus is actually quite a smooth process, as long as you take proper care of your lawn. After all, a living thing like a lawn needs some maintenance in order to thrive. 

All you need are the correct steps to follow to ensure success. Each of these areas plays a key role in lawn disease prevention. Follow them and you will reap the rewards of a great, aesthetically pleasing expanse of grass that you want to dig your toes into.

Soil Health

Your soil health can be a big factor in the emergence of lawn disease.

This is why most lawn care professionals will recommend a soil test. This can tell them quite a bit about your lawn and the conditions it’s growing in.

One factor a soil test looks at is pH. If your lawn isn’t in the ideal pH range, it might not even be able to benefit from the fertilization or other things you’re giving it because it can’t take it in or grow properly in poor soil conditions. The ideal pH range for Northern Virginia lawns is 6.2 to 6.8 – not too acidic and not too alkaline. 

Once you get a soil test, your lawn care service provider can correct your soil pH. Typically, Northern Virginia lawns are on the low end so a lime application can help bring them into the optimum range. Your lawn technician can also tailor your fertilization program to your lawn’s needs with insight from the soil test, targeting your specific nutrient deficiencies. 

It’s a super rad tool that provides enormous insight into what could be causing any of your lawn problems. 

Fertilization

Many lawn diseases can actually result from poorly fertilized lawns – whether it’s insufficient fertilization or an excess of specific nutritional elements. 

You can prevent lawn disease with proper and regular fertilization that is targeted toward your lawn’s specific issues. A soil test done beforehand can help you figure out what your lawn is missing.

Proper Mowing

Mowing correctly and regularly is essential for preventing lawn fungus. 

If you mow your lawn too short trying to get golf course size grass blades on a home lawn, you’re setting yourself up for trouble. This stresses your lawn out and not only lets in disease but also gives weeds a chance to sneak in. 

The ideal Northern Virginia lawn height is 3.5 to 4 inches tall. And during the growing season when your lawn is shooting up, you want to mow weekly so you’re never removing more than one-third of the grass blade at any one time. 

Proper Watering

Since lawn disease likes excess moisture in most cases, correctly watering it is crucial to prevent lawn disease. 

Overwatering could amplify moist, humid conditions. Underwatering can stress your lawn out as the weather warms up. 

To water accurately you want to water in the mornings with slow, deep irrigation. This gives your grass blades a chance to dry out during the day in the sun before the humid evening hours. 

Annual Aeration

A thick, healthy lawn is essential for preventing lawn fungus. 

One that is overly compact, full of thatch, and thin with bare areas will naturally get more weeds and disease. 

Annual aeration, overseeding, and topdressing service can improve your lawn’s breathability and airflow, fill in empty spots, eliminate compaction, and improve your soil’s organic matter composition.

Back to table

How to Get Rid of Lawn Fungus

Proper lawn care practices are important when it comes to how to prevent lawn fungus – and this includes everything from mowing to watering to soil testing to fertilization to aeration, overseeding, and topdressing. 

But there are times when lawn disease may strike, and you’ll want to do something more to clear up the problem and return your grass to a better place. 

In some cases, this will involve the application of supplemental nitrogen, which can help eliminate some diseases like Red Thread. 

Curative fungicide applications can help amplify lawn disease control when nutrition alone won’t help. And if you have a more serious, recurring fungicide problem, a preventive fungicide treatment can help you stay ahead of the disease. 

But for perfectly timed and properly applied fungicide applications, you want to work with a lawn care professional who is an expert on Northern Virginia lawns and can properly identify and treat lawn diseases commonly seen here. That way the lawn disease treatment option you choose will work for your specific problem and get you back to a healthy, happy lawn as quickly as possible. 

DIY Lawn Disease Control Vs. Hiring a Pro

When you are researching how to get rid of lawn fungus, you might see some DIY options come up through your local hardware or home improvement stores. 

And this is certainly an option. Learning a new skill is always fun and rewarding. 

But you have to factor in the level of knowledge you must build to do lawn fungus treatments correctly. 

First, you must properly identify your lawn disease. Since many of them have similar symptoms, this can be tricky. 

Then, you need to use proper lawn cultural practices to ensure your lawn is in a good place to fight disease. 

To treat lawn fungus, you must buy the right products and equipment and then read the label instructions and apply them correctly to ensure proper control and to prevent any further lawn damage. 

Learning all of these things isn’t easy. It takes lawn care service providers years to master the skills and obtain the necessary licensing and certifications to recognize lawn diseases and treat them effectively. They also must learn Virginia’s state laws regarding proper lawn care applications to ensure they don’t break laws, and they constantly are training lawn care best practices to boost their skills. 

As a science, lawn care can be tricky. So as you weigh your options between DIY and professional lawn care, let’s look at the professional perks. 

Lawn care pros conduct lawn fungus treatments all the time. They know when it needs to be done, how it needs to be done, and which diseases need it at what infestation levels and which don’t. It’s second nature to them. Treatment timing is never missed and you’re getting top-quality, high-end products that are commercial-grade. Applications are targeted, using as little product as necessary to ensure your lawn is the greenest and thickest on the block. 

You don’t have to think, and your lawn looks better without much effort from you.

If you’re seeing spots, blemishes, patches, and blotchy areas, you don’t have to have all the answers, Turf’s Up can help. We can identify your lawn disease issue, assess your property conditions (like poor airflow or drainage issues) that could be amplifying lawn fungus on your property, and provide control and care options that work best for you. Our job is to ensure you feel confident in your decision and in the look and feel of your lawn. We don’t want you to stress about spots. We want you to look at your property and love the lawn you have.

If you’re seeing spots and suspect disease and you want to learn more about what Turf’s Up’s totally awesome lawn care services in Northern Virginia can do for you, give us a call. We’re stoked to check out your grass and ease your worries about lawn fungus issues. Receive a free quote today and then just hang ten, enjoying the sunshine and your spot-free lawn. 

Image Source: Dollar Spot, Brown Patch, Rust