I was told that snow mold can also be caused by tall blades. The person mentioned that in order to prevent snow mold, the blade has to be cut really short. Is there any truth about this?

I have many snow molds in my lawn but fortunately, all at the back.

wxman81, I too was riddled with snow mold (the pink variety) and I dropped my fall fertilizer after top growth stopped (mid-November). The year before I was a little earlier and had less of a problem. I've been reading the same things about snow mold and fertilizer and I plan to drop my last application no later than mid-October this year as well.

v1rtu0s1ty, if there's a foot of snow on the ground, I don't think the length of the blade will matter.

so be it long or short, it can get snow mold? And from my reading above, looks like that applying fert later than october can invite snow mold. Am I correct?

I will never drop fertilizer in November again after what happened to my lawn this Spring.

Snow mold grows right around the freezing point. It thrives in cold, damp places with little air circulation - like under a late or early snow. It usually effects just the tender topgrowth, but a severe problem can kill off patches of grass.

Unfortunately, it sounds like you had the perfect situation for snow mold. An early snow traps the warm ground underneath and you get a little pocket where they meet where snow mold can thrive. The late nitrogen application certainly didn't help and probably made the situation worse, but the root cause was the odd weather.

I stopped mowing about 2 weeks earlier than my neighbors and that was a mistake because the grass was still growing. That let it get a little longer than I would have preferred. It wasn't a disaster but it wasn't ideal. I also put down the winter fert around this time (about the last week of October I think) and I think this aided in the snow mold I got. I'm still waiting for damage to hopefully grow out.

This year I'm probably not going to use a winter fert. I know that the amount of snow we got was a big part of it, but I don't want to risk anything. I feel like it probably did more harm than good.

This year I'm probably not going to use a winter fert.

The only thing you'll give up is the earliest of the spring greening, so if snow mold is a problem for you that's a really good idea.

I'd give up early spring greening if I didn't have to deal with half dead patches of grass until May. If my lawn was Rye or TTTF instead of creeping bentgrass, I would have had to reseed a ton of little circles everywhere. Thank god for the stolon spreading ability of bent. No winterizer for me this fall. I'd rather have brown dormant ALIVE grass than snow mold EVERYWHERE.

I'm also putting down Daconil before the first snowfall to give me some extra help.

I think winterizer is more for people who live south of the constant winter snow field. I think I read somewhere that it takes about 20-30 days to start snow mold growth, which we definitely get here EVERY winter.

Wxman81,
I did have to seed a bunch of tiny little circles with my TTTF backyard. I plan on using a fungicide (possibly Bayleton) before the snow comes myself. Do you think Daconil would be a better choice?

+1 for everyone who wants to avoid snow mold by fertilizing less. In fact guys take it one step further. Almost (almost) every disease afflicting lawns correlates to one degree or another to over fertilization, dollar spot and rust being notable exceptions. Otherwise that over-app comes at a price. Namely the price of another product.

My lawn got a late November shot of urea at 1# N per 1000. This was preceded by an earlier application of cracked corn in October. My snow mold was minimal and cleared up really fast when the grass greened up. Green up was earlier than usual this year matching my neighbors unimproved KBG/Rye/fescue lawns. One neighbor still has damage from snow mold. Last years fertilizer was all soy and corn plus a lot of mulched leaves and a little compost in problem areas. I am beginning to believe dchall's occasional sermon about cornmeal. It worked for me.
Bill Hill

Hi billhill,

I'm interested about what dchall mentioned. Please let me know. I've got so many patches on the south side.

Thanks,

Ron

Many have had success spreading 20lbs/1000 ft^2 of cornmeal on areas of snowmold after the snowmelt. This will take about 3 weeks to show substantial results. If you use a larger grain like fine or corse cracked corn the results may take longer.

To prevent snow mold spread 10-20 lbs of corn meal/cracked corn in late fall.

Many will tell you that spreading corn will cause a flock of beds to eat it all leaving you with nothing. I have not experienced that, and welcome birds into my lawn.

If you have it now, spreading corn meals would be good for the lawn, but the warming spring will probably provide the most benefit.