Snow Mold Cure ?

[Scotty]

Every winter I get a type of winter mold that kills off large patches of my grass. Its is a sun and shade mixture for the northeast. I understand how to prevent the mold by putting down expensive amounts of systemic fungicide just before the grass goes dormant. If I don't put it down as I didn't last year the mold returns and my lawn is very damaged. I want to know how to cure it once and for all. Even if its an expensive cure, in the long run it would be cheap compared to the 120 $ application of fungicide every fall. Thanks a bunch William

[Steveo]

You may need to introduce more resistant turfgrass variety's, sounds like your blend is susceptible to it. You're right, bayleton is not at all cheap.

Think it's too thick to slice seed some resistant variety's of blue and ryegrass this Aug?

How many sq ft do you have?

[Peter H]

I suspect that the cure for your problem lies more with what you do with your lawn in the summer than in the fall or winter. The cure won't cost more, in fact it is cheaper.

My suggestion would be to avoid all fertilization of the lawn in the summer months and keep the watering to a very minimum. Make certain that your nitrogen applications for the entire season are equal to or less than 4 pounds/ 1,000 square feet. ( that's nitrogen, not fertilizer). For your last cut in the fall take it down lower than your regular cut. Get it down to about one inch.

Good luck,

Peter H

[Steveo]

Might work, but his lawn will look dormant all summer unless it rains quite a bit. That's a hard sell when it can be fixed by applying money. :)

[Pat Kiewicz]

I get a little of this, mostly where the soil is more compressed (commonly used routes across the lawn) or where extra snow was piled on the lawn from clearing walks or the driveway. The spots are small and fill in quickly. They were worse this year when I didn't get my usual fall aeration.

My suggestions: Have the lawn aerated in the fall.

As the growing season ends, gradually lower the mowing height. Your last cut should be just tall enough that you aren't scalping the lawn anywhere.

Avoid walking on the snowy lawn.

[Jeffrey K. Judd]

Scotty,

I have the same problem and I am in the Northeast too. My research indicates that too much nitrogen, at least near the end of the growing season, makes the grass susceptible to snow mold. I will be mowing to a 1" or so length this fall too. I usually mow the grass shorter but never that short so far. Here are some pics of what my lawn looked like in early spring:

have not found the solution. I would be interested to know what fungicide you used. Does It work? Were you able to get it without a license?

Good luck, Jeff

[Scotty]

I have found a good website with a test of fungicides on just this problem in the northeast. From what I hear there is no cure, looks like I am stuck with prevention. Here is the site with the information.

site has a lot of great information in it go to the home site its awesome. Thanks for your help

[Pete B]

My lawn got hammered by what I also believe to be snow mold. It came out of it's first winter great but got creamed this time. From what I have read there are 2 contributing factors. One is a high nitrogen feeding prior to winter, this is my last time for Scott's winterizer. I don't plan to do any feeding after mid September. The second factor is less in our control and that is getting snow cover before the ground freezes hard. This seems to say that with a blanket of insulation the mold has a party with all that nitrogen. These are just pieces I'm putting together so take them for what it's worth.

[Bill Freeman]

Try Jerry Baker's site and advice. Go to

under "Archived Articles" for "WIPE OUT DASTARDLY DANDELIONS." In the last problem solver section dealing with snow mold, "Because the fungus that causes snow mold becomes inactive in warm weather, there's not much point in treating your lawn with a fungicide." Jerry has some useful, clever cures and advice.

Bill