Tony Koski, Extension Turf Specialist
Ascochyta in a Greeley lawn. The green spot just next to the sidewalk is where a sprinkler head is located; others are about 30 feet away in both directions. Pressure problem? |
The calls and emails are coming in about beautiful lawns
turning ugly almost overnight. This seems to be pretty much an annual happening
throughout Colorado in the late spring. When we have wet, cool springs and move
into hot, dry summer conditions without much of a transition, massive outbreaks
of brown, dead-looking turf can be seen everywhere.
Ascochyta leaf blight, though rarely a fatal turf disease,
is a darn ugly one. When this disease occurs, it can almost always be connected
with an irrigation problem of some sort – not watering at all (“It just rained
last week. You mean I have to begin watering already?”), not applying enough water,
and – most often – poor coverage due to some sort of irrigation malfunction.
Broken heads, heads that have sunken, heads that are blocked by overgrown
plants on the borders of lawns, poor system design (which results in poor
coverage), pressure problems that prevent head-to-head coverage - and the list
goes on. Just because you see water coming out of your heads when you turn your
system on in the spring doesn’t mean all is well with your irrigation system.
When you experience this disease in your lawn, believe me –
IT’S BECAUSE OF WATER (shouting was intentional :) ).
Overseeding, fertilizing, applying fungicides, etc. WON’T fix the problem. You
won’t get turf recovery until the irrigation problem is solved – or unless you
get a number of well-timed, soaking rains. But the problem will show up again when the rain stops.
Once you have corrected the cause of the Ascochyta
outbreak (corrected the irrigation problem), avoid overcompensating with water in an attempt to hasten recovery.
Irrigate to maintain a moist soil, but not soggy, saturated turf. Too much
water will delay recovery and perhaps lead to other disease problems. Depending
on severity and turf species, recovery can take 2-4 weeks.
One more thing: the fungus causing this disease isn’t spread
by mowers or other turf care equipment – so your lawn care professional did not
bring this disease to your lawn.
Read more about Ascochyta in some of our past blogs:
Thanks for the blog post buddy! Keep them coming...
ReplyDeletepest control san antonio
Helpful. Would be even more so if offered a recommendation for recovery watering time. How much is too much? It's tempting to soak it every day.
ReplyDeleteAs I wrote in the article, avoid overcompensating with water in an attempt to hasten recovery. Irrigate to maintain a moist soil, but not soggy, saturated turf - so daily soaking is too much. Excessive water will delay recovery and perhaps lead to other disease problems. Depending on severity and turf species, recovery can take 2-4 weeks.
Delete