Rust on Kentucky Blugrass question

15 years ago

This lawn is 80 0/0 Bluegrass 20 0/0 Rye grass.

Why do I get patches of lawn with Rust on the blades of Grass? This happens every spring. These spots dont grow as fast as the rest of the lawn. The Problem is. I need to cut the lawn on the medium setting in order to get it all level. The lawn grows better when I cut it at the highest setting. I spray the spots with Mancozeb and Banner Max and the Rust gos away after a few weeks. But I would like to stop it ahead of time if I could. My soil is pretty hard stuff. Clay type. Its hard to get the water to soak in. Im sure that does not help. My buddy says we should aerate the lawn and fill the holes with sand. I would like to use perlite. So does anyone have advise for me on keeping the Rust from happening? Also what I can do to get the water to soak in better. It constantly wants to dry out. As you can see there is a slope to the front yard. Thanks Dave

This spot always gets rust.

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This spot is ok. No Rust.

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Comments (8)

dchall_san_antonio
15 years ago
Good pictures.

The reason your soil is hydrophobic (does not absorb water readily) is because you use Mancozeb and Banner Max on it repeatedly. Good soil needs healthy fungi and you're killing them every time you treat for rust.

If you are going to treat the rust with chemicals, you should come back as soon as the rust goes away and treat the entire yard with compost at a rate of 1 cubic yard per 1,000 square feet. The compost has all the beneficial fungi and bacteria that healthy soil needs. That should restore your soil so that it absorbs water again. It might even cure you of rust next year. Do you normally use fungicides later on in the season? If so be sure to follow up with compost at the same rate. That rate should look like a light dusting. That is only 1/3 of an inch so ALL the grass should be visible after you apply. I sweep it in with a push broom to get it off the grass blades.

Down in Brazil researchers found that rust and red thread could be treated with ordinary milk. Spray it on at 3 ounces per 1,000 square feet. Usually they dilute it in water to get that. If you use an Ortho sprayer, set it to 3 ounces per gallon and fill it with milk. It takes about 3 weeks but that usually gets it without damaging the other fungi in the soil. In fact milk is an organic fertilizer, but I don't know anyone using it routinely. I used it on African violets for awhile.
jer213
15 years ago
I get a rust too at times. From what research I had done, nothing specifically eradicates the rust fungus reliably (present advice excluded...didn't know about the milk!). Mine usually goes away on it's own, especially if I fertilize (sometimes I'm lax...not this year though!) and mow. They say that you should bag and discard the grass, but I've never done that. Perhaps it has extended the rusty time...?

The best thing that can be done is to keep your lawn fertilized (properly) and growing (and mowed!)...rust likes stagnant lawns. I got it really bad one fall and it darn near killed my lawn for the next year. After that I've been better about keeping fertilized and mowed.

-Jeremy
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I'm going to chime in for just a second, only pertaining to the original question. I'm far from an expert. I finished up a new construction last year and planted annual rye on the whole yard, because I was out of money and couldn't afford to sod the yard in bermuda. The annual rye came up nicely for the most part, somewhat patchy but it did it's job of holding the yard until spring. I sewed bermuda and fescue, half rebels southern blend and half k31. Which have came up nicely in the shade. A month later I finally have bermuda germinating and hopefully by the end of the summer it will spread into a nice lawn. But my point I want to make is, about a few weeks ago I was thinking the rye was the dumbest idea ever, but now I have noticed its silver lining. At the same time my neighbor sodded half his yard, and sewed the other half in some kind of hybrid golf course fescue. My yard, although the rye looks bad now because it is dying, has very very few weeds in it, while the fescue half of his yard is probably 25% weeds. It's all thanks to the noxious weed I planted back in October. Another good thing about the rye is it has an extensive root system, which when it dies in the heat, leaves the soil ariated so the turf grass roots can grow easier. Not everybody can afford to go 100% top quality turf, but in a few years I hope to have grown one from scratch.
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Rust is a fungal disease that often appears in late summer. Rust is a disease of stressed lawns, and is usually most common on perennial ryegrass and some cultivars of Kentucky bluegrass. Symptoms can appear from not fertilizing a lawn properly. Grass that is growing slowly under stressful conditions is most susceptible to rust, especially when water, nutrition, and soil conditions are limiting. Rust is also favored by warm, cloudy, humid conditions, followed by hot, sunny weather. Symptoms include small, orange, blister-like pustules on leaf blades. These contain powdery, orange spores that often cover mowers, shoes, pets, etc., when activity occurs on the lawn. Affected areas in the lawn turn yellowish-orange in color. Fungicides to control rust are not recommended for home lawns; fertilizing the lawn in late summer and fall and irrigating to promote growth are the best options for managing it. A lawn can be fertilized even in December. Such feeding should be ideally given an organic type. Compost, composted cattle manure, sheep manureÂÂet alÂ Feeding an inorganic (chemical) fertilizer in December can only be applied IF the lawn was fed during a September feeding program. Inorganic fertilizer can be given and the fertilizerÂs slow release formula is released in the spring. But, over winter, snow melt, rain Âcan wash away much of the effects of this type granular fertilizer. Compost is much betterÂ.1/2" Â1" spread over the lawn nowÂDecemberÂwill feed the soil as it warms up. I'm sure the above info is what you have seen before...and you have had some success in reducing it. But, I agree, 1" of water every other day is a bit much...generally as said, 1" every 5 - 7 days is what is recommended.....and rain notwithstanding, you should try to keep it at such level. The above suggestion about not using a fungicide I find questionable....why cant one use a fungicide on a lawn. Garden sulfur is a fungicide that is used where acid loving plants are growing. Does rust get better or worse when the pH favors acidness.
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quite a bit of good info in previous posts. In my experience, mostly a severe pest of common ryegrasses. Can also be a problem on some bluegrasses, but is always a complaint on certain Rye only lawns. Also seemed to be worse on newer lawns on rotten soil (surprise, surprise...) lots of Rye and rotten growing conditions. N does help but also one needs to apply it and irrigate heavily prior to severe onset to keep the grass growing aggressively. Bagging may help somewhat but the spores are everywhere in the fall (even on your neighbors lawn--he just has a non-susceptible or less susceptible variety). In central PA, Southern NJ, RI and eastern CT (my personal realm of turfcare experience), I NEVER saw rust on a lawn in the Spring or Summer. It was exclusively a Fall disease. What I was told by various academics was that it did not overwinter in the 'North', but rather arrived annually on large storms that come up from down south where it can survive year round. That always made some sense when I thought of Hurricane seasons onset and the arrival of rust in lawns. If you have a Rye lawn, don't worry as Spring will allow for you to get 'red thread' infestations. I almost always saw it on the same lawns in the Spring that had been rusted up in the Fall. Though red thread will also affect other grasses as well. Same cultural practices apply (N + H20) to 'grow' that out although bagging clippings always seemed more effective at limiting the spread. I never recommended fungicides on home lawns (too expensive, needed too often and only effective preventatively). A recipe for failure at high cost if ever I saw one. It always made much more sense to either overseed with resistant varieties (in cases of mild disease infestations) or Glyphosphate and switch to a different turf (Tall Fescue or Kentucky Bluegrass). So the answer is : It will be there every Fall. You can chose to give it something different to try to grow on by renovation with a better type of turf. There are three things necessary for any disease to be active. You need a 'Host', a 'Pathogen' and Environment(advantageous environmental conditions). Remove any of those three things and the disease will not occur. Fungicides, in one way or another, modify (though temporarily) the environment. This principal actually relates to ANY disease scenario...from mildew on your shower curtain (Bathroom fans,and windows are also attempts to modify that micro environment) to bread mold. Since Pathogens are generally thought of as omnipresent...you can change the host or modify the environment. One caveat: Changing hosts often just changes which diseases are possible. The problem can change with the host. But, I never thought losing rye for either TF or KY blue was a bad trade.
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decklap
15 years ago
In my neck of the woods rust doesn't show up until much later but if it is rust you have then that is an indicator as jer213 mentioned that you aren't fertilizing enough. Its one of the very few turf diseases that correlate with too *little* fert.
grayentropy
15 years ago
You can also do a soil dunk with 50% milk and water as the area is small. I often take my kids leftover cereal milk and mix in a little water. I dump it on any active red thread or previous red thread areas for prevention. I haven't had red thread for a year or two now. Dchall taught me to use milk on all red fungus (rust, red thread, etc.) and I like the soil dunk for a quick attack followed with preventative milk sprays.
arockerdude
Original Author
15 years ago
Thanks for the advise. I didn't realize I was killing the healthy fungi with the chem's. I will give the milk a try. I have only been spraying this small area ounce every spring.
I guess my soil does soak the water up ok. I don't get any run off. We were in the middle of a heat spell when I originally posted. Temp was 101. For a few days there.
I wish Kentucky Bluegrass was deeper rooted.
I use Bandini Pro Choice 21 7 14 With split nitrogen. It is the best I have found so far. What do you all use for your Kentucky Bluegrass? Thanks Dave
I planted this lawn Six years ago. It came from the Mello Turf Ranch. They are located in Patterson Ca. I should call them and ask what type of Bluegrass they use. Sorry about all the pics. But I can never pick just one. Not when it comes to my KGB. I love it!! We never had Fescue around here until the droughts came in the 80s
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It hold up to this lightning fast Boston Terrier!!!
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This is the back lawn.
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auteck
15 years ago
Beautiful dark green kentucky bluegrass!! I wouldn't let that creature walk over it (no pun intended)

California is suppose to have the best soils in the country to grow grass, I think is shows.

KBG will take the a lot of heat, 100's are no problem. I'm in central North Carolina, we experience one the hottest and driest summers on record and my KBG survived with just grub damage.

Your average summer temperatures are very good, with 55f for average low!! Love that...

How often do you fertilze?

Keep the pictures comming!
m1shmosh
15 years ago
Arockerdude, ditto on the awesome KBG. You really should ask them what type of KBG they use!
auteck
15 years ago
The best picture is the first one. Dark green and very lush...

Picture # 9 is a rare picture indeed, there's a PALM tree in the backround... You don't see that every day, a bluegrass lawn next a palm tree...

Usually where there're palm trees there's heat, and where there's heat, there's no kentucky bluegrass.

Rust on Kentucky Blugrass question

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dchall_san_antonio

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Rust on Kentucky Blugrass question

Comments (8)

dchall_san_antonio

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