Your lawn is the first impression guests get of your home, and a beautiful, healthy lawn makes spending time outside grilling or playing with the kids even more enjoyable. A fungus like stripe smut, also known as Ustilago Striformis, can destroy your lawn, making it unhealthy and unappealing. Read on to learn about this fungus, how to get rid of stripe smut, and how to prevent it before it infects your lawn.

What Is Stripe Smut?

Type: Fungus, perennial disease

Fungal Pathogen: Ustilago striiformis

Appearance: Stripe smut grows in patches, large swaths, and can even cover an entire lawn. Initially, grass appears slightly lighter in color than the grass around it. Later, a dark mycelium grows along the grass blade’s veins, which then rupture, causing the grass to wilt and curl into thin, dark-brown strips.

Risk: Cool-season grasses like bentgrass and Kentucky bluegrass are at an increased risk, particularly young lawns.

Timing: Stripe smut appears when temperatures range from 60 degrees to 78 degrees and is most recognizable in the spring and fall.

Outlook: If untreated, grass affected by stripe smut can die after a hot summer.

You can learn even more about Stripe Smut and other weeds in our Lawn Disease Library.

How to Get Rid of Stripe Smut

This fungus’s spores linger in the soil, attaching to grass seed as they grow, so treatment is essential. They even survive cold weather in a dormant phase! You will likely need to use a fungicide to treat stripe smut, which is why it’s most helpful to turn to a lawn care company, like Shades of Green Lawn & Landscape, to get rid of the disease.

How to Prevent Stripe Smut

Prevention methods are key for a disease like stripe smut. Because it’s a perennial disease, it survives cold weather in a dormant stage within infected grass blades or as spores in the soil, so you might be dealing with it before signs appear. The spores of the disease spread through various means including wind, rain and mowing the lawn. Here’s how you can prevent it:

• Use a fungicide as a preventative measure. Fungicides should be applied in the fall, just before the disease goes dormant for the winter.
• Avoid treating your lawn with nitrogen in summer to help to reduce the likelihood of the appearance of this disease.
• Aerate your lawn to loosen soil and puncture thatch, allowing for better drainage and reducing soil dampness.
• Choose turfgrasses that are resistant to stripe smut.
• Reseed your the lawn with seeds treated with fungicide to the frequency of stripe smut infections.

Turn to Shades of Green Lawn & Landscape for Lawn Disease Help.

You can also call Shades of Green Lawn & Landscape. We know stripe smut and have the tools to get rid of the fungus. In addition to treating diseases, we offer lawn care packages that offer you an opportunity to achieve your healthiest yard yet. Call us today at 765-771-9998 for more information and for a free quote.