fairy ring

I just signed a customer for a aeration/fert job this morning. She has a large brown circle in her lawn that she called a fairy ring. She was wondering what could be done about it. <br> I told her I wasn't sure and that I'd look into it.<br> Any advice?

 

Some soil problems can look to people like fairy ring. It's really not common by us. Probe to see if there is some structure underground: my first &quot;fairy ring&quot; turned out to be the sides of a long buried pond. Not much you can do if it really is fairy ring. Would suggest you get a knowledgeable person to identify for you. If it really is fairy ring, excavation and/or fumigation are about only real cures. To see more, go to http://www.colostate.edu/Depts/CoopExt/TRA/PLANTS/fairing.html.<p>----------<br>Jim<br>North central Indiana<p>

 

I wonder what cinderella would do? hmmmm

 

Fertilize to improve turf color and blend ring in with healthy turf.

 

If it is truly a fairy ring, you have a few of options. Fertilize and try to mask the problem or you can dig it out. You have to go down about 2 feet and replace the soil with non infected soil. Third option is just to let it go. Not much can be done with this disease.

 

ProStar a fungicide from Regal chemical Co. is registered for fairy ring. It's what the golf course boys use, the ones I have talked to about it claims that it sure helps. Good Luck!!

 

Hello,

We have developed a solution that works 100% of the time to solve Fairy Ring problems. It does not involve using any fungicides or chemicals. This is a organic to semi-organic solution.

A little bit about fairy rings. They are almost always hydrophobic. They may or may not have mushrooms. How to tell if you have a Fairy Ring: get a glass of water and a shovel and lift up a flap of soil & sod in the dead zone of the Fairy Ring. Pour water over the edge of that soil you lift up with your shovel. If the water runs off like it is water proof, chances are excellent that you have a Fairy Ring. You will also notice a very musky fungal odor coming out of that soil. You should also see a white mycelium of the fairy ring fungi in the soil. Sometimes it is a thin strip of fungi just under the surface. Sometimes you will see a white strip of fungi about an inch down in the soil. Sometimes you will see whiteish mycelium threads of fungi going down into the soil.

The fungi isolate the turf grass and as the grass roots die there is a nitrogen release and under that release is a darker circle or semi-circle of grass at the surface. There may or may not be a dead zone... but usually is. In some cases where water has been penetrating fairly well, the dead zone might not be there, but the darker green grass will be there.

The size of a fairy ring can go from a foot in diameter to 60 feet or more in diameter.

Another fact: where you have one fairy ring, you probably have several others. There may be several fairy rings all over the lawn and the only way you can find the others is to dig up a flap here and there to see what's in it. They will develop under the surface for quite a while before any sign of them shows up on the surface.

Here's how we treat them:
1. Rake up mushrooms and moss and pull out any weeds.. clean up the area. Bag this stuff and dispose of it. Wash off your tools so you don't carry the spores around to other lawns.
2. Core aereate the turf. Go the extra mile and get a lot of holes in the turf.
3. Apply BioVam Mycorrhiza with a drop spreader. You can overseed the dead zones to speed up truf recovery. BioVam is applied at the rate of one quart by volume (it's a dry powdery product) to 400 square feet of turf grass.
4. Water the application down well so the BioVam is washed into the turf.
5. Use a low phosphate fertilizer... 2 to 3% Phosphorous at the most.
6. Cut the grass when it needs it to a longer length... suitable for the grass species present.
7. Limit the amount of Nitrogen to 3 lbs per 1,000 square feet per year.

Here's what happens: BioVam's mycorrhiza starts up with the turf grass that is still alive and the new seed as it sprouts. The mycorrhiza bring minerals and water into the roots of the grass and prevent the Fairy Ring from isolating and killing any more grass roots. The mycorrhiza and grass roots will penetrate the Fairy Ring mycelium hydrophobic area and will allow water to easily get into the soil every time it is watered or when it rains. As the mycorrhiza and roots penetrate all through the area where the Fairy Ring is present in the soil, the area gets saturated with water.

It's the water that destroys the habitat of the Fairy Ring. It subsides and just goes away. If you follow the procedures above, this will work perfectly every time. With annual applications of BioVam Mycorrhiza, the Fairy Rings do not return or start up again.

By the way... this exact same procedure will also solve Necrotic Ring Spots... BioVam mixed with grass seed is the only modification to the above procedure.

A last word of advice: be sure to clean your equipment.. even wash it down with water with bleech mixed into it. You don't want to be carrying these diseases to other people's lawns!

This solution works and the work is simple. You also don't have to worry about the dangers of using toxic substances. There are none in this procedure.

Best Regards,
Thomas Giannou

 

Thomas: What a nice job you did to explain Fairy Ring and the treatment. My hat is off to you Sir!

 

Excellent first post Thomas, glad to have you aboard!

Mike

 

Thank you for that ata boy's. You know, of course, that one aw shucks (being nice now) will cancel all previous ata boy's. <grin>.

One thing I would add to the above method is that there is nothing detrimental being done to the soil to solve the above problem. In fact, that whole process is a building up process for the soil and microoganisms in the soil. I cringe when fungicides go down because they so often kill off the beneficial soil organisms and have less than optimal affects upon the pathogens. Killing off beneficial organisims also has the effect of strengthening the dominance of the pathogens. I think that is why fungicides fail so often. They end up strengthening the habitat of the pathogen by taking out of the way beneficial soil organisims that naturally fight those pathogens.

I have two other posts that I would like to make. One has to do with how BioVam can be used to take care of Necrotic Ring Spot disease. The other has to do with general lawn care principles.

As I was studying and reading many case histories and advice about taking care of a number of lawn diseases, I noticed a definate pattern of lawn care that most people are recommending as a means of masking over, eliminating, or preventing or minimizing various turf diseases.

In our own research with BioVam on turf grasses, we have come up with the same general procedures, but we have a much different result: the problems get fixed! And customers are not frustrated with us because they are finally seeing results instead of hearing hype that doesn't produce good results. The whole industry is really suffering from a lot of that.

Anyway, thanks for the welcome!

Best Regards,
Thomas Giannou