Are there signs of an Alien Invasion on your lawn.

If you see rings on your lawn that look like a rather small alien space craft landed on it, leaving your yard in a hurry with rings of brown or light green grass behind, you don’t have to fear for your life too, too much. It may sound alien to you but it’s from our planet and our planet alone. It’s scientific name is Rhizoctonia Blight. In un-scientific terms it’s commonly called Brown Patch, Large Patch or Yellow Patch.

Large Patch affects warm season grasses and appears as a light green area in the fall. Areas can turn a bright yellow and then turn brown as the grass comes out of dormancy in the spring. Symptoms can persist in the spring during cool wet weather when it lasts for a while. Bermudagrass usually recovers quite quick as the weather warms up. Other grasses like Zoysiagrass takes much, much more time.

Brown Patch and Yellow Patch here in South Florida aren’t really an issue. Large Patch has an effect on Bermudagrass, Zoysiagrass, St. Augustinegrass and Kikuyugrass. It usually develops in fall and spring when the grass is going in or out of dormancy.You can control this disease with proper irrigation and leaf wetness management. Fungicide applications may be important if leaf wetness ans soil moisture can’t be managed. Your best bet to control the disease is to combine cultural management techniques with fungicide applications for the best management of the disease.