Healthy Lawns—Diseases

The UC Guide to Healthy Lawns

Diseases

Diseases most often occur on lawns that are stressed from factors such as drought, excess moisture, heat, or high traffic. Pathogenic diseases in turf are mostly caused by fungi, but a few bacterial diseases are problems as well. For a pathogen to become damaging, the disease-causing agent must be present on a susceptible grass species, and the surrounding environmental conditions must favor the development of the disease.

Find out more about diseases that may occur in turfgrass.

For more information on lawn diseases, refer to:

Poor maintenance practices or inappropriate use of fertilizers or herbicides may also cause symptoms resembling damage from pathogenic diseases.

Before taking any control action, be sure it is actually a disease problem caused by a microorganism and not something else.

Refer to the following section for more information:

Diagnosing your problem

Statewide IPM Program, Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of California
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