Please Help! Fungus?

Bermuda, St. Augustine, Zoysia, Centipede, Bahia, Paspalum, etc
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oclor
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Location: Austin, Tx
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Please Help! Fungus?

Post by oclor » July 16th, 2017, 7:04 pm

I have a bermuda lawn in Austin, Tx. I have been getting some yellow spots but today when I went out to mow I noticed this area especially is looking horrible. The grass was growing great. Maybe I over fertilized? I had applied Ammonium Sulfate (fast release nitrogen) about 4-5 weeks ago at close to 1/lb per 1000sqft (grass was dry, then I watered it in). Maybe that over fetilizing caused this? Certain parts of my lawn are great and growing quickly, but others are stagnant and this area is obviously terrible. Anyways what can I do now to at least stop this? Thank you in advance


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andy10917
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Re: Please Help! Fungus?

Post by andy10917 » July 16th, 2017, 7:10 pm

Being a Northern guy, I can't identify Bermuda problems with any degree of certainty, but I know this much for sure -- a fertilizer burn doesn't show up 4-5 weeks after an application.

Green
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Re: Please Help! Fungus?

Post by Green » July 16th, 2017, 9:28 pm

Did this ever happen before?

Was anything put down or sprayed recently?

Have you done the screwdriver test in multiple areas to see how far it goes into the soil?

oclor
Posts: 21
Joined: April 28th, 2017, 9:00 pm
Location: Austin, Tx
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Re: Please Help! Fungus?

Post by oclor » July 16th, 2017, 10:01 pm

Thank you for your reply.

This has not happened before as far as I am aware. Moved into this house in January (built 2014). I have not sprayed or fertilized in at least 4 weeks. The yellowing started in a couple of spots, thought it was probably related to drought? But I've been watering and it's only growing in size. I will check the screw driver tomorrow

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andy10917
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Location: NY (Lower Hudson Valley)
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Re: Please Help! Fungus?

Post by andy10917 » July 16th, 2017, 10:19 pm

You've got Northerners offering diagnostic techniques -- hold out for a Suthernah...


PW405
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Location: OKC (Central OK)
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Re: Please Help! Fungus?

Post by PW405 » July 29th, 2017, 6:07 pm

For what it is worth, we're having a very similar issue with bermuda in OKC. Almost every single bermuda lawn around here has these same brown spots! The little bermuda I have seems to be affected as well!

I did one treatment of Honor Guard fungicide and Scott's Lawn fungus control back in mid June. It seemed to help, as the bermuda spread in and around the damaged areas pretty quickly. However, it appears to be coming back now.

Here's a spot from my "hell strip". Seems to follow the path the mail man takes every day....

Image

oclor
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Re: Please Help! Fungus?

Post by oclor » July 29th, 2017, 7:43 pm

I put down an application of headway fungicide and grub killer, also detached and started watering like I should have been. Seems to be coming back but I’ll wait to see if it’s going to be a full recovery or not.

PW405
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Re: Please Help! Fungus?

Post by PW405 » July 30th, 2017, 11:04 am

The strange thing about this is that it doesn't seem to affect the blades like the fescue diseases I am familiar with. The blades just get thin, turn brown, then die. Disease in bermuda is almost unheard of in my experience (~15 summers as my primary lawn grass). I know it can happen, but it is generally the exception to the rule. I treated my bermuda again with some scott's fungus control. Hopefully it will stop spreading. Very unusual.

Billy
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Re: Please Help! Fungus?

Post by Billy » July 31st, 2017, 9:40 am

What specific disease do you guys think you're seeing? Diseases are a different game than most things we're used to. When we see weeds, we can get pretty good results just by generalizing. For example, for most broadleaf weeds, a phenoxy three-way works pretty well. If you don't know the difference between white clover and hop clover, it usually doesn't matter, since they're susceptible to the same treatments.

But, diseases are different, since the spectrum of the control materials isn't as wide as it is for herbicides, and other factors (environmental and cultural) are important. For most weeds, you can apply something that controls that broad category and get at least some efficacy -- you can control weeds almost without trying. But, diseases require a bit more knowledge. You can't hope to treat a disease if you don't know which one you're trying to get rid of.

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Begotten
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Re: Please Help! Fungus?

Post by Begotten » July 31st, 2017, 12:10 pm

Looks like a yard down the street has the same thing going on. I'm seeing a lot of lawns in my neighborhood hit by disease this summer too. Happens every few years.

PW405
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Re: Please Help! Fungus?

Post by PW405 » July 31st, 2017, 9:58 pm

I'll try and take some macro shots of the affected areas tomorrow. I'm pretty curious as to what it is as well.

oclor
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Re: Please Help! Fungus?

Post by oclor » August 16th, 2017, 7:38 pm

Update: my lawn has seemed to make a full recovery. Growing very rapidly now and I'm having a very hard keeping up with mowing. I don't know what the problem was initially, but I treated it for pretty much everything.
-Headway fungicide
-grub killer
-grub prevented
-Dethatching
-heavy watering

-one week after that fertilized with nitrogen only


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Dchall_San_Antonio
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Re: Please Help! Fungus?

Post by Dchall_San_Antonio » August 18th, 2017, 11:39 am

Looks like drought stress to me. The grass looks better on both sides of the fence. You might want to make your next fertilize an organic to try to restore the soil damaged by the fungicide and insecticides.

What was your watering plan prior to the issue?
Is there anything special about the periodic green spots in the first pic?
Are there sprinkler heads in those spots?

Next time, before you spend a lot of money on stuff you probably don't need, write in here. Post pictures taken on a cloudy day both from a distance and very close up (3 inches away). I find that most issues with lawn grass are fixed by deep and infrequent watering. After that it's either improper mowing height, a disease (sometimes caused by frequent watering or too much rain), or pet urine damage. Rarely is the problem due to insect damage.

Billy
Posts: 445
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Re: Please Help! Fungus?

Post by Billy » August 18th, 2017, 3:48 pm

Dchall_San_Antonio wrote:
August 18th, 2017, 11:39 am
Next time, before you spend a lot of money on stuff you probably don't need, write in here.
He did write in here. Nobody was strong enough in disease identification to respond with any specificity. Of all the things that he did, the fertilizer and water were probably responsible for the recovery. When we see brown grass, it's very tempting to say that it's a disease or an insect -- as if we're looking for a reason to spray, a reason to use the quick fix, kinda like diet and exercise in a pill.

But, on warm-season turf, there's not that many disease problems in the summer. I think we've got to get out of the "I see brown grass, what do I spray" mentality and, instead, get back to the basics of growing plants.

oclor
Posts: 21
Joined: April 28th, 2017, 9:00 pm
Location: Austin, Tx
Grass Type: Bermuda
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Re: Please Help! Fungus?

Post by oclor » August 18th, 2017, 4:33 pm

Good to know, thanks for your replies. Yes I wrote here a month ago and unfortunately my patience ran out. I was terrified that I would have to re-sod this entire section of my yard so I tried to treat it for anything I could think of. It wasn't cheap, the Headway was $100 just by itself, but I figured re-sodding was going to be a whole lot more.

I'll try to put down some organic fertilizer and maybe compost.

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Dchall_San_Antonio
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Re: Please Help! Fungus?

Post by Dchall_San_Antonio » August 21st, 2017, 5:33 pm

Oops! My bad, and my bad. :sorry: :sorry: :sorry:

PW405
Posts: 327
Joined: June 25th, 2016, 12:37 pm
Location: OKC (Central OK)
Grass Type: Primary: TTTF (blend), KBG. Bermuda (hellstrip)
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Re: Please Help! Fungus?

Post by PW405 » September 15th, 2017, 11:09 pm

oclor wrote:
August 16th, 2017, 7:38 pm
Update: my lawn has seemed to make a full recovery. Growing very rapidly now and I'm having a very hard keeping up with mowing. I don't know what the problem was initially, but I treated it for pretty much everything.
-Headway fungicide
-grub killer
-grub prevented
-Dethatching
-heavy watering

-one week after that fertilized with nitrogen only


Image
Glad to see the amazing recovery. That's what I love about bermuda... give it sun and nitrogen, and generally all wrongs will quickly be fixed. I honestly think that I saw the most improvement in mine as a result of the nitrogen. I still have a hunch that conditions for disease were ideal this year. I've never seen as many lawns have random dead spots in the summer. Usually bermuda in July is such a chore that you feel like you need a supercharger on your lawnmower just to cut it every week! I've found that the only enemy of bermuda is shade. Even then, it will surprise you. I've seen it grow runners 4' long, under sidewalks, and even through space/time fabric itself. :rotfl:

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