Type: Disease, fungus

Fungal Pathogen: Sclerotinia homoeocarpa

Appearance: A yellowish-brown spot, about the size of a silver dollar. As it grows, the spots might bleed into each other, making bigger, round patches.

Risk: It spreads easily, even if you just walk on it and then walk to another part of your lawn. While it is common on cool and warm-season grasses, it is most aggressive on golf courses. It likes wet grass blades and dry soil.

Timing: Early summer to early fall; times when there is high humidity, low rainfall, and temperatures between 60 and 80 degrees

Outlook: Your lawn can outgrow dollar spot, but it might not look healthy for a while.

How to Control Dollar Spot

Prevention

Like many other diseases that plague your lawn, keeping a healthy turf is key to preventing dollar spot. Best practices include:

• Water Well: Your grass needs adequate water to thrive. It prefers long soakings about two to three times weekly instead of daily watering, depending on the rain levels from the week.
• Reseed patchy spots: Grass roots go deep into the ground and take up a lot of space, taking away the valuable real estate weeds need to thrive.
• Aerate Your Soil: Soil compaction keeps air and water from reaching the deeper levels of soil where grass roots grow, so only plants that grow nearer to the surface, like weeds, can thrive.
• Check Your Lawn’s pH Level: If your soil’s pH level isn’t neutral (about 7.0), your grass doesn’t have the right environment to thrive, but weeds might. To balance the pH level, your soil may also need applications of lime.

Treatment

With proper care, your lawn can outgrow dollar spot without any additional treatments, though anti-fungal treatments are available. You can also avoid watering in the late afternoon and evening.

It’s easier to prevent than treat the disease, so if you end up with dollar spot on your lawn, but sure to use preventative measures to avoid an infestation next year.

Shades of Green Lawn & Landscape knows just what your lawn needs. We used science-based practices to ensure your yard is as healthy as can be and can fend off dollar spot troubles. Our lawn care packages offer all-around care for your yard. Call us today at 765-771-9998 for a free quote and more information.

Need Help with Dollar Spot?

Call Shades of Green Lawn & Landscape today at 765-771-9998 and let's talk about how we can help you with Dollar Spot and other Indiana lawn diseases.

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