When the snow starts melting on your lawn, it may leave a lawn that was lush green dead and brittle.
The reason for these pink and gray circular spots that take over your lawn is none other than snow mold.
These patches on your lawn ruin its beautiful look and may spread rapidly if you leave it untreated.
In this guide, we will help share causes and tips on how to get rid of snow mold on a lawn.
Related Blog: 7 Effective Remedies to Tackle Brown Patches in the Lawn
What is Snow Mold?
A fungal lawn disease called snow mold, sometimes referred to as snow rot, develops when wet leaves or snow cover are left on the grass for an extended period.
It is active in the winter, but the damage is apparent as the snow melts in the spring. Left untreated, it can harm the lawn over time and ruin practically any grass that must withstand freezing weather and snow.
What Causes Snow Mold?
A thick layer of snowmelt may seem harmless on your lawn. However, the worst cases of snow mold occur when there is deep, heavy snowfall before the ground has fully frozen.
Snow mold is a problem because of the strain on delicate grass plants, the high levels of winter precipitation, and the shelter provided by leaves, long grass, and lawn detritus.
Snow mold comes in two varieties: pink snow mold, also known as Fusarium patch or Microdochium patch, and gray snow mold, also known as Typhula blight, which we will discuss later in the blog.
What Does Snow Mold Look Like?
When the snow starts to melt in the spring, pink and gray snow mold symptoms are typically most obvious. When the snow melts, the lawn develops straw-colored circular areas a few inches to several feet across.
These spots typically include crusty, matted grass. If the patches are caused by gray snow mold, they will seem grayish-white; if they are caused by pink snow mold, they will appear whitish-pink.
While gray snow mold often just affects the blades of grass, pink snow mold can be more severe, killing the roots and crown of grass plants.
Now, let’s look at the two common types:
Common Types of Snow Mold
Here are the types of snow mold that you may notice:
1. Gray Snow Mold
Gray snow mold, also known as typhula blight, is like fluffy cotton strands sprouting on your grass.
Typhula blight develops distinct, round spots. Although it is mainly recognized as a grass disease, it also infects wheat and causes crop destruction.
Snowfall is the ideal growing condition for this fungus. Gray mold affects grass stems, while the roots are unaffected. Your grass will readily regrow after treatment.
Nevertheless, typhula blight produces sclerotia (these are resting spores of this mold). These are dark-colored hard structures that endure throughout the summer.
Your gray snow mold needs to be properly treated, as it may come back.
2. Pink Snow Mold
Fusarium patch, another name for pink snow mold, is hazardous for your yard. This fungus causes rings of dead, bare ground to appear on your lawn by attacking both the roots and the grass blades.
Additionally, fusarium patches often grow in distinct circles. In contrast to gray mold, pink snow mold doesn’t truly require a lot of snowfall.
Most prevalent in colder temperate climates, pink snow mold grows best during periods of cool, humid weather.
Which Grass is More Susceptible to Snow Mold?
Any kind of cool-season turfgrass that receives prolonged snow cover is susceptible to the growth of snow mold.
This fungus is more common in some grasses, such as bentgrass. The most common cool-season grass, Kentucky bluegrass, is somewhat impacted, but fine fescue is more resilient to this mold than other varieties.
Snow Mold Allergy
Molds reproduce and grow differently from plants or animals. Their seeds, called spores, travel through the air. They can disperse them into the air if anything comes in contact with spores.
Generally, some spores spread in dry, windy weather. Others spread with fog or dew when humidity is high. This makes it easier for you to breathe the spores into your lungs.
While not everyone may have a mold allergy, inhaling the spores causes allergic reactions in some people.
Snow Mold Allergy Symptoms
The signs and symptoms of mold allergy are similar to those of other upper respiratory allergies. The following are some indications that a mold allergy is causing allergic rhinitis:
- Cough
- Congestion
- Itchy throat, nose, and eyes
- Headaches
- Scaly, dry skin
- Sneezing
- Runny nose
- Watery eyes
The severity of mold allergy symptoms varies from individual to person. It’s possible that you have symptoms all year long or they just get worse at specific seasons.
In moist weather or areas with high levels of mold, both indoors and outdoors, you may have symptoms.
How To Get Rid of Snow Mold on Lawn in Winter
The problem with snow mold is that once you notice it growing on your lawn, it’s too late to apply fungicide. The best way to get rid of mold is to rake the areas to loosen any moldy grass and expose the soil to the air.
Raking the mold will speed up the drying process and stop additional outbreaks brought on by too much moisture.
As spring draws near, you’ll be able to determine the extent of mold damage to your lawn.
Your grass will grow back if gray snow mold is present in your soil. However, you should rake the barren patches of your grass and reseed the area if you have pink mold.
How to Prevent Snow Mold: 8 Useful Tips
Here are the effective methods for prevention:
1. Mow Your Lawn
Let’s start our tips on how to prevent mold from the basics–mow your lawn.
If your grass grows long there will be space left between, providing the ideal environment for snow mold to thrive.
Hence, you need to cut your grass to around 1.5 inches when you see it turning yellow and going dormant in the fall. This will prevent snow accumulation and damage to your turf.
2. Grow the Resilient Types of Grasses
Although mold can grow on any grass, some varieties are more resilient than others. Tall and fine-leaved fescues are the least vulnerable to fungus. In Contrast, eed fescue and chewing’s fescue offer moderate resistance.
As mentioned above, bluegrasses and bentgrasses are on the more fragile end of the range. Planting these kinds increases the risk of mold growth.
3. Avoid Snow Accumulation
During winter, you may remove the snow from your driveway to easily enter and leave your property. However, many people make snow mountains outside their houses and leave them there.
The likelihood of developing snow mold problems increases with the length of time the regions are covered.
And, as you can now guess, once this snow starts to melt in your grass, you may unintentionally cause the growth of this mold.
Hence, regardless of the method you choose to clear snow, avoid accumulating much snow in one place.
4. Prevent the Lawn From Getting Wet
Wet grass is the ideal habitat for fungi. Effective drainage throughout your landscape is also necessary for the prevention of mold.
You may require sandier soil, grading, sloping, or runoff solutions if you experience standing water in your yard.
5. Give Your Grass a Break
Winter dormancy is the ideal time of year for grass to thrive. It is an important stage in the life cycle of a grass.
For this reason, you should never fertilize your grass six weeks before snowfall is predicted. By promoting grass growth, you can delay your lawn’s winter dormancy, which will allow mold to grow more easily on your turf.
6. Clean Your Lawn Regularly
The ideal growing environment for mold is damp patches of dead leaves or grass clippings. On top of that, a thick layer of snow makes the environment perfect for their development.
Before the first snowfall, always remove grass cuttings and rake the leaves.
Dethatching your lawn at least twice a year is also a good practice to keep different diseases at bay.
When your yard is covered in dense roots and debris, you leave enough organic matter to invite mold to grow in your garden.
7. Use a Fungicide
Now that we have added all the organic methods for preventing mold on lawns, let’s see how you can deal with it by applying chemical substances.
Fungicides are available in two general categories: eradicant and protective. To prevent infection, you can spray protective fungicides on your garden or lawn before the fungus takes root.
On the other hand, eradicant fungicides are made to eradicate mold. These are more powerful than the other type.
Properly applying preventative fungicides can reduce the risk of mold growth in your yard.
8. Fertilize Your Lawn with Caution
In addition to nourishing your plants, fertilizer may do the same for other living things, such as mold.
One pound of nitrogen or mixed fertilizer per 1,000 square feet is a general rule, though fertilizer kinds vary. Going overboard with the fertilizer may provide favorable conditions for mold growth.
If you want more information on fertilizers, here is our blog on Lawn Fertilizer Numbers Meaning for Every Season in Canada.
FAQs
Why does snow mold form?
When heavy snow covers the unfrozen ground, it creates cool, moist conditions perfect for the growth of fungi. This leads to the development of this mold, which usually appears following a long winter with steady snowfall.
What symptoms indicate snow mold?
It may show up on your grass as white, gray, or reddish blotches. The afflicted grass may have a fuzzy, mold-like film covering it and seem matted.
Is it possible for snow mold to permanently harm my lawn?
It rarely results in irreversible harm. Raking the impacted areas can hasten the process, but most lawns recover independently as the weather warms.
Contact Falcons Landscaping to Get Rid of Snow Mold in Ontario
Here is what every lawn owner must know about snow mold to eliminate it before it’s too late.
The simplest removal method is taking a leaf rake to gently rake the impacted grass areas to repair and avoid snow mold damage.
Raking allows sunlight to access the grass by breaking up the snow mold. After the snow mold breaks up or you remove it from the grass’s surface, the lawn will start to green up in a few weeks.
However, if the situation is already out of control, you can contact Falcons Landscaping.