Your lawn was perfect last fall. You spent endless hours all last summer caring for your grass. You watered it, you kept your mower blade sharp, you mowed it at the right height never taking more than a 1/3 of the grass blade off. You had a honest lawn care service apply the right fertilizers at the right time, you even had lawn aeration done to help the roots and reduce the thatch. When fall came you made sure the leaves where picked up. All this to make your lawn the envy of the neighborhood.

Winter has just arrived and your lawn is now white and you think I don’t need to worry I did everything right to have the best lawn around. However none of us figured it would be 50 degrees in January. What does this mean you ask? This means when the snow disappears you have a chance to have a disease we call snow mold.

What is Snow Mold?

Snow Mold is a disease that effects most all types of grasses that are subject to freezing temperatures and snow. Snow Mold is often the first disease we see in the spring and it causes your lawn to develop ugly circles about the size of a volleyball. When looking at this the grass is either colored Grey or Pink and is all matted down. This is how it gets it name either Pink or Grey Snow Mold.

Controlling Snow Mold

The best way to control Snow mold is to lightly rake the matted area. This allows air to reach the root crown and allows new grass to grow when it warms up in the spring. Also make sure if you still have snow piles that you break them down to help speed up the melting process. I also suggest that you schedule lawn fertilization with a crabgrass preventer to be done in the spring. If you hire a service don’t let them use a strait fertilizer in the spring this will cause too much growth and could harm your turf.

How Can I prevent Snow Mold Next Year?

Preventing snow mold can be tricky, our weather has alot to do with it and we can’t control that. Here a few hints to help prevent Snow Mold.

1. Make sure your lawn is mowed short in the fall. I suggest 1-1/2 inch to 2 inches. Slowly bring your lawn to this height by dropping the mower blade a notch each week, not all at once. I suggest you start this process in mid to late fall.

2. Follow a proper balanced fertilization program. Too much fertilizer in late fall can cause excessive growth. This can help Snow Mold form.

3. Thatch management is also very important and I suggest core aeration each year to help keep thatch bellow 1/2inch.

Lawn Alert!!!
We have already noticed an alarming number of lawns with grubs and grub damage this fall. Many of the lawns were not quite yet showing any symptoms, and the only clue was skunks digging up the grubs at night. Some sites however are already showing
browning out of the lawn caused by the grubs feeding on the roots. If your lawn received our Merit Grub Preventer, you don’t have to worry. But if it did not, you may wish to check your lawn for grubs.
How to check: To look for grubs simply grab a handful of turf and try to pull it up, if it comes up easily- like the grass has no roots left, you probably have grubs. Look around in a few different places in the soil and you should find them. If the turf did not easily peel back, you might be OK, but a quick inspection at the root zone in soil in a few places is still a good idea. If you have any questions regarding grubs, and how to treat or prevent them, please call our office.

We here at Turf Care are always promoting the benefits of mowing you lawn to a height of 3.5″, so it may surprise you to hear us say it is time to cut it short! This time of year you should be gradually decreasing your mowing height, down to around 2″. Doing so will help protect it from winter kill and Snow Mold. An added bonus is that the shorter grass will also allow leaves to blow on by, and not accumulate as much in your yard!

Thanks, and have a great fall!