Leaf Blight: How you can identify it and how we can treat it!

Leaf Blight, or Ascochyta (if you want to get fancy, or Latin) is a disease that occurs in Kentucky bluegrass, and unfortunately it’s common in Colorado. Leaf Blight physically manifests as straw-colored tips to your grass blades – it will look like your lawn is dying, but only in certain spots or sections. There will also usually be healthy blades interspersed in these patches. It will probably seem like you just need to water these areas, so look for these signs, and note that Leaf Blight usually shows signs very quickly, like overnight.

Of course, the easiest way to treat Leaf Blight is just to prevent it from happening in the first place! The best way to do so is to mow regularly and to keep the grass at a healthy height of 2.5 – 3″ (this is our regular setting 🙂 Also, keep your blades sharp (we sharpen ours daily) and fertilize throughout the season. It’s a misconception that mowing companies can transfer the disease between houses; according to the CSU Turf School, the fungus that leads to Leaf Blight is already present in every lawn, and caused by environmental factors.

If you’re already in the midst of a war of attrition with Leaf Blight, we can help! We have a treatment that our Service Manager will apply to the lawn. Leaf Blight requires two applications two weeks apart. We recommend not watering for 48 hours after each treatment for best results.

Keep in mind that Leaf Blight is a foliage disease (as opposed to root), so it will rarely kill your lawn or other affected plant. Given time, the lawn should fully recover from the disease 🙂 If it doesn’t recover after our treatment, at the very least, the fungus will be out of those areas, so that you can reseed or resod to get the lawn looking great again.

If you’re worried that you might have Leaf Blight or some other confusing lawn disease, give us a call! We’ll send our Service Manager out free of charge to assess the situation and provide advice.