turfgrass

Brown Patch

Brown Patch

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

JA Peterson – posted 24 July 2011 11:09

Over the past two years, my front yard has a reoccuring brown patch of dead grass, about 10′ x 15′ in size. It starts appearing in the late spring.

In talking with a couple of grass “experts”, they think that it could be a case of chinch bugs or “Take All Root” fungus. I have treated the grass for both fungus and bugs with no apparent results.

I put in Tiff 419 over thirty years ago and have had virtually no problems until two years ago. Suggestions to remedy the situation has gone from plugging the infected area with a more resistant tiff such as “Champions” tiff to excavating the entire yard and starting over.

Whatever thoughts and remedies would be greatly appreciatied……

jeffaggie – posted 03 August 2011 19:06

419’is typically tolerant of brown patch but it can occur in some instances. Brown patch occurs when night time temperature drop into the 60’s there is abundant moisture and high nitrogen fertility. If these spots are occurring during summer, it is most likely not brown patch. It is most likely fairy ring, are the mushrooms present? Also bermuda is resistant to chinch bugs, because of the small size of the stolons. If it only shows up in summer it is most likely fairy ring. It can be controlled marginally by ProStar fungicide,or trying to mask it with nitrogen and iron supplementation. If you can pull the grass back like sod it could be grub worms.

jeffaggie – posted 03 August 2011 19:08

After terracing your post, I would check for grub worms. Dig a little area up and see if you see white stumpy worms.

Leave a Reply

Skip to toolbar