Winter and Spring Lawn Diseases in Mississippi and Louisiana

Late winter and early spring here in the south brings cool temperatures and wet weather. When combined, these two factors can result in the development and spread of destructive lawn diseases. Through proper lawn care and maintenance, and with diligent monitoring, you can keep your lawn safe from these nasty problems. Here are a few winter and spring lawn diseases to watch for in your Mississippi and Louisiana lawns.

Dollar Spot

One of the winter and spring lawn diseases affecting Mississippi and Louisiana lawns is dollar spot. This nefarious disease forms as small, sunken circles of dry, straw-colored grass. These patches are typically no bigger than a silver dollar, thus the name. If this fungus is left to fester, the patches will grow and merge together, forming large, ugly patches of diseased grass.

Dollar spot affects lawns all year long but can be especially bad in the spring. Cooler temperatures and consistently wet weather is dollar spot paradise.

Fairy Ring

Fairy ring is a strange fungal infection that affects lawns every spring and can come back year after year. Watch your lawn for large circles of brown or dark green grass. Usually, these circles are surrounded by a ring of darker green grass or large mushrooms. While this lawn fungus may look fanciful, it is extremely harmful to the affected grass. The fungus makes the soil and grass hydrophobic, meaning water won’t be able to permeate. The grass in the circle eventually dies from dehydration and drought-like conditions.

Fairy ring pops up pretty often in the spring. The wet weather over an extended period of time is a perfect habitat for this fungus.

Brown Patch and Large Patch

Brown Patch

Another lawn disease affecting our Louisiana and Mississippi lawns this spring is brown patch. Brown patch can be devastating to a lawn. This disease does not discriminate, it affects all grass types. It appears as irregular-shaped brown patches of thinning grass. Over time, your lawn becomes thinner and weaker. The immune system suffers, causing your lawn to be more open to attacks from pests, weeds, and other diseases.

Keep an eye on your lawn this spring. As temperatures warm up and the weather stays consistently wet, the likelihood of developing brown patch increases. Early detection and quick action can help resolve the issue.

Large Patch

Similar to brown patch, large patch is a quick-spreading lawn disease that can cause significant problems to your lawn. The difference between brown patch and large patch, besides the size of the patch, is that large patch only affects warm-season grasses. Zoysiagrass, St. Augustine grass, and centipedegrass are all under threat from large patch. Appearing as large swathes of thinning, brown grass, large patch can get huge. Typically, large patch can have a diameter around 3 feet, but can get as large as 25 feet!

In the spring, large patch can be a real menace to warm-season lawns. Watch out for the telltale signs when nighttime temperatures are over 55 degrees. Be especially vigilant after extended periods of wet weather and heavy dew.

Protect Your Lawn From Lawn Diseases With Help From TruGreen Midsouth

The best way to keep your lawn healthy and prevent these winter and spring lawn diseases is with consistent care. Give your lawn a healthy boost and the care it needs with a lawn care program from TruGreen Midsouth. Combined with our aeration services and your lawn will be strong and resilient against dangerous turf diseases.

If you want to start protecting your lawn from destructive lawn diseases, then call us at (662) 844-9006 in Mississippi and (225) 752-7252 in Louisiana. For an easy and FREE quote, go here. Follow our Facebook for the most up to date deals and check out our blog for helpful hints and tips for your lawn, trees, and pest control.