Red Thread

11 years ago

With the recent snow melt i was out in my back yard yesterday and noticed about twenty or so spots of dead grass. Upon closer inspection they were dead grass with a pale red/pinkish coloring to them. It looks like its a fungus. I put winterizing treatment on my lawn to prevent snow mold and things like that. Anything I can do now to prevent the red thread from spreading? Or should I even worry about it?

Thanks!

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Comments (3)

tiemco
11 years ago
The first thing is proper identification. Red Thread and Pink Patch generally occur in spring and fall, not winter. Red thread has antler like projections called sclerotia that grow from the blades, so it's easy to tell if you have that. I suspect you have pink snow mold or Fusarium patch. What was this winterizing treatment you used to prevent snow mold? Did you mow your grass lower than usual once it was dormant, or did you leave it long? Most of the winter molds only affect the blades, leaving the crowns intact and will clear up once growth resumes in spring.
bandy1080
Original Author
11 years ago
This is the treatment I had put on by my lawn service -
http://www.lawndawg.com/services/supplemental/winterizer

I didn't realize there was such a thing as pink snow mold, I had only heard of gray snow mold. The grass had been covered in snow and ice up until recently when the temps sky rocketed to 50 degrees for a couple of days. Now it is covered in a couple of inches of snow again.

That would explain it a bit more since I also didn't think red thread could occur in the winter. The lawn was left at about 2.5 inches before putting away the mower in november.
tiemco
11 years ago
The late fall fertilizer drop is important to carbohydrate storage, but fertilizer doesn't prevent fungus. In some cases if it's done too early (before topgrowth ceases) it can actually make your lawn more susceptible to fungal disease, especially if you leave your lawn long going into the snow season.