If you live in a humid region that receives heavy rainfall, your lawn can develop fungus.
The occurrence of fungus in your lawn can be a result of high moisture, extreme temperature, poor lawn care, scalping, night watering, and soil compaction.
If you fail to identify it on time, your lawn will start turning brown. To prevent that from happening, you can use a lawn fungicide.
So, let’s learn about different fungicides for lawns in this blog.
Learn more: Lawn Care Schedule: Bring Out the Green Side All Year-Round
What is a Lawn Fungicide?
You can use a lawn fungicide to manage or stop fungal infections. Fungicides function by eradicating or preventing the fungus that causes a disease to infect plants and spread throughout the lawn.
In contrast to what you may expect, a lawn fungicide doesn’t make your lawn healthy again after it is affected by fungus. The role of a lawn fungicide is just to remove the fungus from your grass.
Moreover, a lawn fungicide is strictly for fungus and not for any other insect-inflicted disease on your grass.
That is why, before proceeding with a lawn fungicide in Canada, make sure that the harm is caused by a fungus and not any other species.
What Does Fungal Growth Look Like?
The fungus’s mycelium grows in a circular pattern, which gives rise to its distinctive charcoal-like structure.
Over time, the covered area expands, and the hat fungus always grows at the margins of the mycelium that forms on the expanding circle.
The circles might not be apparent in the early stages of development. They may also be visible as a cluster of hat fungus or a very green patch of grass.
The fungus on the lawn occasionally goes away and then comes back after a year or two.
Common Fungal Lawn Diseases
Here are the diseases that you can control with the help of a lawn fungicide:
Brown Patch: During the summer, your lawn may develop brown patches due to the brown patch fungus. This is a common disease for grass that grows in Canada, such as bentgrass, tall fescue, and perennial ryegrass. It may not spread to the roots, but the leaves will be lifeless because of it.
Leaf Spot: This will make a debut in your lawn as lesions or dark brown or black spots on grass before progressing to decay. The boundaries of the spots may be purple or yellow, and multiple spots could merge into a single, huge spot.
Anthracnose: This is a serious disease that destroys your lawn in two stages. In the first stage, it attacks grass leaf blades, shifting to the turf’s base and lower stems. In stage one, anthracnose can cause yellowing of the grass blades with tan lesions and dark, fuzzy patches. In the subsequent stage, it can cause the grass stems to decay. This disease has a high chance of going unnoticed. However, as the grass gets dry, you will spot it more easily.
Dollar Spot: This causes ugly round spots of bleached, dead grass to appear all over a lawn. Dollar spot is common in bent grass, Bermuda, fescue, ryegrass, and Kentucky bluegrass. Hence, for this too, you will need a lawn fungicide in Canada.
Powdery Mildew is a fungus that affects specific categories of plants and makes the grass look like it has flour or talc on it.
Related Blog: 7 Effective Remedies to Tackle Brown Patches in the Lawn
Best Lawn Fungicide in Canada: Top Common Types
Here are the common types of lawn fungicides:
1. Preventative Fungicide
The purpose of preventative fungicides is to shield plants from disease infestation. Plants that have received a prophylactic fungicide treatment are better equipped to resist infections by fungal diseases.
Applying a prophylactic lawn fungicide can stop a fungal disease from re-infecting a lawn that has already experienced it.
2. Curative Fungicide
After a plant becomes infected, curative fungicide reduces and eventually eliminates fungal damage to plant tissue.
A curative fungicide prevents or greatly reduces the spread of disease and damage, but it cannot reverse the damage done to a plant.
3. Systemic Fungicide
When plants come into touch with a systemic lawn fungicide, they absorb the chemical and migrate within the plant to both guard against and kill fungus.
The systemic lawn fungicide can travel a short distance within the plant. It depends on where the plant absorbs it, such as from the tip of a leaf to the base of a leaf or throughout the plant from the roots.
4. Contact Fungicide
As the name suggests, this lawn fungicide does not penetrate the plant. Instead, it remains on the surface, providing a barrier of defence against other fungicides on the treated plant.
Therefore, you can use this lawn fungicide with different preventative treatments.
For a contact lawn fungicide to work, it has to remain in contact with the affected area.
You may have to reapply this fungicide when the plant spreads out and after being washed away by rain or irrigation systems because their residual lasts for several days.
5. Narrow-Spectrum Lawn Fungicide
This lawn fungicide effectively targets only a few species of fungi, making them incredibly specialized.
6. Broad-Spectrum Lawn Fungicide
Various types of fungus can be controlled with broad-spectrum fungicides, making them a widely used option.
Terms Used for a Lawn Fungicide
Before you get a lawn fungicide, you need to be familiar with the following concept:
The way that a fungicide’s active components impact the fungus is referred to as its mode of action.
Certain lawn fungicides harm the fungus’s cell membranes, while others may disrupt vital metabolic functions like respiration and kill the fungus’s spores.
Various active ingredients can share the same mode of action by identically acting on fungus.
Matching the active ingredients to the type of fungal illness you are attempting to cure or avoid is crucial.
When to Apply Lawn Fungicide
You can find lawn fungicides in multiple forms. The majority of which are designed specifically to maintain lawns.
Ideally, you can use a lawn fungicide as a preventative measure. A premixed fungicide is the most effective way to manage disease when curative treatments are needed.
However, you need to consider the following aspects:
- Selection of fungicides
- Sprayer parameters
- Quantity and pH of the water
- Weather circumstances
All of the effectiveness of a lawn fungicide treatment can be impacted to differing degrees.
We are also frequently asked how a fungicide applied close to a plant might kill it. It’s safe as long as you use a natural, safer fungicide and follow the recommended procedures.
Here are the best times to apply a lawn fungicide:
- After noticing the first signs of a disease
- After you mow your lawn
- Throughout the summer months
- Early in the morning
- A day before rain is expected in the region
How to Use a Lawn Fungicide
Read the directions on the fungicide label first.
Ensure you are equipped with the appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE).
Utilize the suitable spray kit under the directions on the label.
Until the mixture drips off the blades of the grass, thoroughly spray the lawn fungicide.
Organic Lawn Fungicide: For minor areas of fungal growth, applying organic remedies like neem oil, compost tea, or a weak baking soda solution can be beneficial.
FAQs
What is a good fungicide for lawns?
Broad-spectrum contact fungicides like Chlorothalonil and systemic fungicides like Propiconazole provide longer-lasting protection. Both work well for typical lawn illnesses.
When should I put fungicide on the lawn?
When disease symptoms appear, such as discoloured patches, apply fungicide right away. You can also apply it proactively during high-risk times, such as humid weather. Applications for prevention can aid in preventing serious outbreaks.
How often do you apply lawn fungicides?
Generally, you should reapply fungicide every two to four weeks, as directed on the label of the particular product. Depending on the product being used and the severity of the illness, adjust the frequency.
Which is the fungicide for lawn mushrooms?
For major outbreaks, commercial fungicides like flutolanil or azoxystrobin can be utilized. If there are only a few, you can use a vinegar solution on them.
Contact Falcons Landscaping to Apply the Best Lawn Fungicide on Your Lawn
Now you know how a lawn fungicide works and how you can use them to treat your lawn.
Even though you can apply a lawn fungicide in various ways, such as liquid or granule, it’s important to comprehend its various characteristics to choose the one that best benefits your grass.
To diagnose the issue correctly and the prompt application of the treatment, you can contact lawncare services in Mississauga.
We know which lawn fungicide will work brilliantly for the revival of your lawn.