"The red thread pathogen survives winter as sclerotia in the thatch and soil layers. These sclerotia are a significant source of inoculum for outbreaks in subsequent years." ---- >"We have put down fungicide twice the past year" Which type? See link for more info. Good luck Here is a link that might be useful: Purdue Unv - Rde Thread

>>Their recommendation has been to increase our watering (every other day, 30 minutes per zone at 5am and 5pm.) I think your lawn service is looking for business because that's a quick way to make red thread explode. Red thread is most active in cooler temperatures (70 degrees or below) with lots of water, and in underfed turf. There are exceptions. Cut back your watering frequency, but increase the amounts. Target, ultimately, would be 1" of water a week, delivered in one watering. For now, cut back slowly to avoid shocking the lawn--add an extra day between waterings. In two weeks, add another. Keep extending the time you water to put more water down. By the end of the season, you should have added 3 or 4 days depending on how much longer the weather holds. Fungicides are not recommended because red thread usually doesn't kill the lawn, it's merely extremely unsightly. Grass crowns aren't generally impacted and the grass will re-grow blades when the stress levels drop. Plus we really don't want to breed a fungicide-resistant red thread...

I agree 100% with the comment above (i.e., San Antonio)! I am hoping to help anyone who has had an on-going problem with red thread. Believe me that I have tried it all. I struggled with an outbreak for over ten years on an acre of land. There is no way to explain how this took over my life at times considering the amount of lawn I had and the length of time I struggled with it. I have spent untold thousands of dollars. I even became friends with a research scientist for a company that produced a natural microbe product, in addition to the president of a company that produced a nitrogen product with beneficial microbes. I did a lot of legwork and made many professional connections over the years. While some of the more natural remedies might be helpful (rather than using commercial fungicides which sterilize the soil and seem to perpetuate disease because the population of beneficial microbes is disturbed), I eventually felt that only correcting the true crux of the problem would lead to a solution. In other words, to try and approach red thread with the mindset that you have to overcome, annihilate, kill ... will never work, or at least in my experience. You can try to do everything you want to kill it, but the only way to get to a true solution is to boost the health of everything involved (i.e., soil, plant, microbes, etc.)! It is no different than the immune system of a human being! You have to boost the entire system with nutrients and not just one or two or three. And shouldn't minerals and beneficial microbe diversity be the first line of defense for plant life, just as it is for us? For us, 80% +/- of our immune system is in our guts, and if we don't have the correct amount of good bacteria and the proper bacterial diversity, disease takes over and autoimmune diseases develop. I used this knowledge and applied it to my lawn. Yes, it is true that lawns low on nutrients will be more prone to red thread and other diseases. We all know that the general solution is said to be nitrogen. Well, I tried the highest nitrogen I could get for a couple of years. Still had red thread. I have spoken with university extensions who said that when it developed, one application of nitrogen should eliminate it and they had witnessed this. Still waiting on that. So, it may be true for some, but not for me. I think this could be because commercial nitrogen itself can possibly compromise the soil microbiome? That may be up for debate? Since I knew the soil itself was the problem, I started researching the basis of all life ... minerals. I came upon an article on the Net entitled, "Turfgrass Diseases: The Relationship of Potassium." Now I had already gotten a soil analysis which said my potassium was high. But I couldn't help feeling that perhaps this was a potassium problem? Perhaps there was potassium in the soil, but to get it into the plant is a different matter altogether? Could it be that getting it into the cells of the plant was the issue? Soil compaction problem? Root issues? So many possibilities, who could say. But again, it's the same for humans. You can take all the vitamins and minerals you want, but if your gut isn't able to assimilate them, you are going to develop a deficiency. Keep in mind I had tried milk, corn meal (both corn gluten meal and regular), natural fungicides with clove or beneficial microbes (which sometimes did help short-term, but the red thread always came back), chicken manure, compost tea (which I eventually realized could make the problem worse because tea has to be brewed and immediately applied or it may end up feeding the bad bacteria, or so I was told and seemed to experience myself), etc. Name something and I have tried it. In any event, I decided to take a shot and get some liquid kelp on the off-chance my soil had a compaction issue (which I knew it did) and had trouble getting potassium into the plant itself -- and would probably provide overall anything and everything I was missing ... like covering all the possible bases because kelp does so much. More than I could explain in a post. Well, here it is almost nearly November when I normally have a huge outbreak that takes out at least 1/3 of my acre -- and no red thread. In fact, I had no red thread from the time I first applied kelp throughout the rest of the summer. Any further nitrogen? No. Any other natural fungicides? No. I admit I did apply a bit of beneficial microbes one time made by Morgan Composting, Inc. (it is called Plant Protector and it has a picture of a cow on the container) which is an excellent product in itself. But the kelp I applied is made by Fertrell's. I did also apply granular chicken manure earlier in the season, but it never seemed to eliminate the problem permanently and it can also lead to a build-up of calcium in the soil if over-used for too long or too many years (so use in moderation within the realm of a rotational program)? Don't know if that's true, but just what I heard? I loved the chicken manure product made by Groganic and it helped tremendously, but let's face it, if your soil isn't right, nothing will help permanently for the long haul or lead to a permanent solution. The kelp is cost efficient and my lawn looks fantastically green, even approaching November. I do believe this is the end of my problem. Synopsis: if you want to get rid of red thread, at least try liquid kelp. If you want to do all you can to make your lawn look like a golf course, get kelp, granular chicken manure, beneficial microbes in the form of liquid like the one by Morgan, maybe a little bit of corn meal thrown in (some say corn gluten meal is better, some say regular is better ... it's still up in the air to me which one helps to grow the beneficial fungus more efficiently) ... Rotate these for a little while and I am confident you will be on your way to a permanent solution. I hope this helps!

Dear PJT, Thank you very much for your inquiry. The one thing I can tell you about red thread is that it is a classic sign of low fertility in turfgrass situation. It does not mean you have not fertilized, by any means, it just means that this area is low in nutrients, particularly nitrogen. In fact the number one recommendation is to apply a nitrogen fertilizer. If the area is chronic in terms an area prone to red thread, examine your practices, particularly water and fertility. If the area is on a slope or low area, it will have to be treated differently than the rest of the yard to prevent regular occurrence of the red thread (assuming the nitrogen application does not cure it.) Finally, it is not likely that the red thread will kill your lawn. I have not been privy to this phenomenon in my years in turf. Again, thanks for the question and let me know if you have more. Respectfully Trey Rogers The Yard Doctor