How To Prep Your Lawn for Vacation & Fixing Gray Leaf Spot Disease

What’s up y’all? I hope you are having a great week!

I know many of you are still planning summer vacations away and are wondering about mowing leading up to, and just before you leave, in addition to what to do when you get back.

Here is a podcast segment we broke out that gives you some strategies to employ to keep your yard game on track even while you are gone:

Next, I’m getting reports of disease in lawns - especially in the deep south where tropical storm rains pounded us in Florida - and have moved to Hurricane rains through the Mississippi and Louisiana Gulf Coast.

Long days of rain and no sun in summer invite all kinds of disease and in my lawn, it was leaf spot.

Probably the worst I’ve seen it. Now here in Florida, this is gray leaf spot which isn’t going to do too much long term damage, but I still do want to push it out if I can.

Here is the time-stamp in Sunday’s video where I apply 2 fungicides, both available at any local store:

In that video, I also apply Humic Acid via Humic12 from Greene County Fert.

This will help oxygenate the soil and pull out any nutrients that are in the soil so the turf can recover without a huge flush of Nitrogen.

Remember, some diseases can be pushed out with Nitrogen, others cannot.

I went over all that in this playlist which we have sorted for your ease of use:

Once you apply your fungicides and Humic Acid, wait about a week and apply Micronutrients. (0-0-2 MicroGreene - also approved for use in Florida Blackout areas)

These will help support the grass plant as it recovers and the fungicide works to stem the tide of the infection.

As I always mention, bag your grass clippings when mowing diseased grass.

CarbonX In Stock

We have CarbonX in stock!

This can be used in summer if you are able to apply at lower rates - 3 lbs/1,000 sq ft max (delivers .72 lbs/N/1,000 sq ft), and probably better if you can get down to 2 lbs/1,000 sq ft (delivers .48 lbs/N/1,000 sq ft).

This time of year we don’t want to push growth in cool-season turf like KBG, Rye and Fescue rather, we just want to sustain green and the lower rates will do that.

If you have Bermuda, St Augustine or Zoysia, then the higher rate of .72 lbs/N/1,000 sq ft is just fine - keep pushin’ every 4-6 weeks and keep up the good mowing!

Centipede and Bahia - stay with the lower rates or consider just using MicroGreene and 7-0-0 Greene Effect only in summer ((Double Dark))

As I always state though, CarbonX is a professionally formulated fertilizer so the prills are a little larger and therefore not as easy to apply.

If you want to get some for fall time, CarbonX is an excellent fall fertilizer and winterizer for cool season lawns.

Feel free to load up higher rates at 4 lbs/1,000 sq ft (delivers .96 lbs/N/1,000 sq ft) as temps are coming down.

Thank you for being a part of the Lawn Care Community online, I’ll see you in the lawn!
-AL