Have you been maintaining your lawn’s health? Chances are that no matter how carefully you guard your lawn, certain lawn diseases can still occur. Since most lawn diseases are caused by types of fungus, it is important to learn the necessary steps to take to treat these types of diseases.

Common lawn diseases

Here is a list of common lawn diseases:

• Leaf spot- purplish circular spots with dark brown borders on leaf blades
• Dollar spot- Leaf has straw color spots and forms circular bleached spots in the lawn.
• Fairy ring- an area of dying grass with a circular brown border
• Spring dead spot- caused by a fungus that damages the grass root and produces circular patches often with a green spot in the middle.
• Summer patch- circular yellow and green dead patches with some discoloration this disease also damages grass roots.
• Snow mold- caused by a fungus and develops in cool, wet weather

If your lawn does develop one of the common diseases listed above, be sure to start treatment right away! The infection becomes noticeable after the fungus has been active for a period of time. Preventing lawn disease is as easy as following proper mowing and watering guidelines. In some cases, especially leaf diseases will show recovery when weather conditions change, but generally it is important to take action immediately.

Fungicide

Most lawn diseases can be treated with fungicide. If you decide to purchase fungicide products for your lawn, follow these instructions:

• Follow label directions regarding when lawn activity can be resumed after application.
• When treating leaf diseases allow 24 hours before watering your lawn after application.
• Soil diseases – apply water to wet the application into the soil of 3-4 inches

Your Lawn Doctor lawn professional is available to develop a program to get your lawn back to health.