Our Lawn Treatments Great Falls VA Experts Talk about Lawn Fungal Disease

Late fall and winter months are slow when it comes to your property’s vegetal activity, but it doesn’t mean all things stay dormant and quiet. On the contrary, some fungi and pathogens cannot wait for the right conditions to attack your turf grasses. Our experts in lawn treatments in Great Falls, VA, are here to provide you with information regarding a fungus that severely impacts both warm-season and cool-season grasses. Rhizoctonia solani is the cause that leads to the disease you probably know as Large Patch or Brown Patch. Let’s see more about these matters today!

What is Rhizoctonia solani?

As we said, Rhizoctonia solani is a fungus that becomes active when temperatures fall under 80 degrees, and moisture sits on the turf blades for more than two days in a row. Our specialists in lawn treatments in Great Falls, VA, warn homeowners that rain, excess irrigation, and a lack of soil aeration can trigger this disease.

What you may not know is that the name of this disease differs from warm areas to cold areas, depending on the grasses it affects:

  • In warm places where you grow seasonal grasses such as Bermuda, St. Augustine, Zoysia, or Centipede, experts call this disease the Large Patch;
  • In cold places, where people grow Bluegrass, Fescue, or Ryegrass, this disease carries the name of Brown Patch.

Even if it has different labels, it is the same disease caused by the same fungus. For this reason, our pros in lawn treatments in Great Falls, VA, recommend you to pay attention to all turf decline signs and symptoms, no matter what type of grasses you grow on your property.

Symptoms of Large Patch or Brown Patch

The most significant signs that you have a fungal disease on your property in the cold season are the following:

  • Brown spots on the leaf blades;
  • The spots expand into patches, affecting the turf blades solely, but not the stems or roots;
  • If you pull out a few grass blades, you will see they break easily, slide out of their sheaths, and present darkened wet portions at their base.

How to Treat this Fungal Disease

In case you did not aerate the soil, you should until the first frost hits the ground. Talk to our experts in aeration in Great Falls, VA, about soil drainage. Moreover, our lawn treatment experts in Great Falls, VA, will apply a fungicide and re-apply the treatment after 20-30 days if the infection does not recede.