The occasional brown patch on your lawn is to be expected. It’s something that can happen if you trim the lawn a little too short or leave a part of the lawn covered with toys or furniture for a little too long. If your lawn is covered in wilted, straw-colored patches, however, this could be a sign of an underlying issue, such as summer patch disease.

What Is Summer Patch Lawn Disease? 

Summer patch lawn disease happens during the summer months. It’s caused by a fungus that colonizes the roots, rhizomes and stolons of your grass throughout the year. The fungus can spread if the soil temperatures are over 65 degrees F and the moisture content of the soil is high. Signs of infection won’t appear until the summer months.

High temperatures cause patches of infected grass to wilt, causing the distinctive brown patches associated with the disease.

How to Identify Summer Patch

Summer patch isn’t the only lawn disease that causes patches of wilted grass on your turf. Learning the telltale signs of different lawn diseases can help you catch (and treat) them early, preventing further damage to your grass.

Summer patch manifests itself in the form of large patches or streaks of wilted, brown grass that appear during the hottest months of the year. The infection is most commonly seen in short grass, and patches can expand and join together to form irregular spots.

One easy way to check for summer patch is to pull up some grass and examine the roots. If they’re long and lightly colored, the grass probably isn’t infected with summer patch disease. If they’re short and black or brown, this is a strong indicator that the infection is summer patch.

To identify the disease early, look out for small circles of wilted grass or signs of your grass yellowing or dying back from the tip. As the disease progresses, you’ll notice that the infected areas get larger and the grass wilts. Taking action before the disease gets to this stage can help you keep your lawn looking at its best.

Two common infections that are often confused for summer patch are:

• Dollar spot. This fungal disease causes small brown patches to appear on your lawn. These patches can grow and merge together, making the disease look like summer patch from a distance. However, when you examine the grass more closely, dollar spot is easy to identify. Grass infected by dollar spot turns brown but doesn’t wilt. In addition, dollar spot doesn’t damage the roots of the turf.
• Brown patch. Grass infected with brown patch will turn brown, but that’s the only similarity between brown patch and summer spot. Only the blades and sheaths of the grass are damaged by a brown patch infection, and if you inspect the lawn early in the morning, you’ll see white mycelium growing on the infected leaves.

What Causes Summer Patch in Grass?

Summer patch is caused by a fungus known as Magnaporthiopsis poae. This fungus can spread in warm weather and is most likely to take hold after heavy rain when waterlogged soil deprives the roots of oxygen. When soil temperatures soar during the summer months, the fungus thrives and starts to cause significant damage to infected turf.

The Most Common Plants or Grass Types Impacted by Summer Patch Lawn Disease

Summer patch can affect all kinds of grass, but it’s most commonly seen in annual bluegrass, Kentucky bluegrass and fine fescues. The fungus is common in Wisconsin and Minnesota and other parts of the United States that see very high temperatures during the summer months. If this lawn disease is common in your area, be on the lookout for telltale signs of infection, especially at the start of the summer, so you can treat the problem before it spreads across your lawn.

How to Get Rid of Summer Patch Fungus 

Summer patch lawn fungus is treatable if you catch the infection early. Regular application of fungicides, combined with thorough irrigation, can stop the disease in its tracks. However, if the disease is left untreated, the infected grass will eventually die. In this case, the diseased grass should be removed from the turf before the turf is reseeded with an appropriate variety of grass. Reseeding or overseeding should be performed promptly to reduce the risk of further infection.

How to Prevent Summer Patch Disease 

Preventative use of fungicides can be helpful if you live in an area where summer patch disease is commonplace. Applying fungicides to your lawn once every 4 weeks and thoroughly irrigating the lawn can stop the disease from developing.

Proper lawn care can also help reduce the risk of summer patch disease. The fungus is more likely to take hold if your lawn becomes saturated with water after heavy rains (or through over-watering), and the grasses are more vulnerable to infection if you scalp them instead of trimming the blades regularly. Simply following a proper lawn care schedule can go a long way toward keeping your lawn healthy and free of summer patch and other fungal lawn infections.

Get Help From the Pros to Banish Summer Patch Fungus

Summer patch fungus and other lawn infections, such as brown patch and dollar patch, are preventable with proper precautions. If your lawn has become infected with summer patch, you may find that parts of the turf are now dead and must be reseeded, but your lawn will recover quickly if you take appropriate action.

For help battling summer patch fungus and other similar infections, contact the lawn care experts at Lawn Doctor. We can help you with all your lawn care needs and bring your yard back to its former glory.