yard weed

northwest – posted 14 November 2004 14:01

I’m here in Washington state and I have a pink sticky cotton candy looking substance growing in the yard. It’s killing the grass wherever it is and it’s spreading. Any ideas?

GC Superintendent – posted 15 November 2004 23:36

I’m here in Washington state and I have a pink sticky cotton candy looking substance growing in the yard. It’s killing the grass wherever it is and it’s spreading. Any ideas?

WOW!!! I try to avoid this kind of “substance” on my TG. It sounds to me like it is a some sort of fungal organism. That should be an obvious place to start looking for answers. You should contact your local county extension agent to help identify what sort of organism you might be dealing with and how best to prevent/control it.

Ross Page – posted 17 November 2004 12:15

Youve got a disease called Red Thread. The result is balls of mycelium that are pink to redish in colour. The main cause of this disease is low fertility and if you apply fertiliser this should be enough to grow the disease out. The damage of this is not very serious and will turn some small parts of your lawn straw like but an apllication of fertiliser will return the turf to its origional colour.

mikemaas00 – posted 06 January 2005 14:41

Red thread usually does not result in mycelium formation. Red thread is an indication of a lack of nitrogen, usually. Sounds like you might have something like pythium or something related to it. You will need to spray a systemic fungicide to get rid of that. Heritage or Subdue will take care of your problems.

turfie – posted 28 January 2005 08:47

Can you take a digital photo of it and post it? There are a few different things this could be, but unless we see it, we can only speculate.

Thanks.