These pictures were taken in my next-door neighbors yard, but I have some of the same growth, just not as large patches. I am guessing this is some kind of mold or fungus. In the full sun it is perhaps 1/8" thick, slightly crusty, and black. In the shade, it is up to 1/4" thick, slimy, and very dark green to black. It grows mainly in sparce areas of the yard and there the grass is really thick, it does not grow. Apparently it has to have dirt to grow on. My neighbor's yard is St. Augustine and my yard is Bermuda. These globs/patches don't seem to harm the grass but I am thinking that grass will not grow where this stuff is. The last picture shows the patch disturbed with a stick.
What is it and more importantly, how do I get rid of it?
drdawg (Dr. Kenneth Ramsey)
The reason it's so hard to lose weight when you get up in age is because your body and your fat have become good friends.
This stuff does not seem to grow on grass blades, but on bare soil. Also, it does not go away - ever. My neighbor has had this stuff (more now than ever) for at least a year. It may be the same type of mold though, just grows in a different way.
drdawg (Dr. Kenneth Ramsey)
The reason it's so hard to lose weight when you get up in age is because your body and your fat have become good friends.
OK, let's say that's it then. I really need something that will get rid of this stuff. Simply raking it, blowing it, or hosing it with a strong stream of water is both labor-intensive (there's an awful lot of it) and really does not solve the problem. I have done all three things with the stuff in my yard (last fall) and I have more now than then.
I need something that I can spray and kill the stuff.
drdawg (Dr. Kenneth Ramsey)
The reason it's so hard to lose weight when you get up in age is because your body and your fat have become good friends.
I just got an email from the MS Extension Service's director and she forwarded my email/pictures to their pathology/lawn disease expert at Mississippi State University. Hopefully, I will get some forward movement.
Thanks to all of you for suggestions and links.
drdawg (Dr. Kenneth Ramsey)
The reason it's so hard to lose weight when you get up in age is because your body and your fat have become good friends.
Name: Rick Corey Everett WA 98204 (Zone 8a) Sunset Zone 5. Koppen Csb. Eco 2f
I'm speculating that anything mold-like (other than lichens) needs organic matter. Maybe withholding compost would help, if you both add compost to your lawns. Starve it.
Keeping the soil surface drier might help. Water less or encourage it to drain better, if you have a slope or grade to work with.
Do you get runoff water coming onto your properties from uphill? Or subsurface water perking upwards as water evaporates from the soil surface and grass? Might that be carrying a lot of organic matter into your soil?
I would not have expected slime molds to thrive in full sun, in Mississippi.
Please do let us know, when you hear!
If the conditions are good for them, poison might not help more than temporarily. But maybe spraying a small patch with diluted household ammonia would knock them back.
The lawn that is involved is actually on a slope and there is practically no top-soil. I have never added anything organic to my yard on the slope. I might have perhaps 1" of topsoil and there is nothing but clay beneath that. The clay is many feet deep. There is really nothing above my slope that would feed this part of the yard with anything - organic or moisture. This area actually is about the driest part of all my lawn. The slime mold also grows mostly in full sun. It just seems that every criteria that fits slime mode appearance does not fit my conditions. Go figure.
The lawn expert at Mississippi State University (he has a PhD in lawn and turf management) says the only way to control this stuff (and he is pretty much positive it is slime mold) is to have a healthy lawn. He further said there is really nothing else that controls slime mold and there is nothing out there that will do much to kill it. How about that. With all our knowledge about high-tech stuff, we don't have a control for slime mold! I have always believed that lawns needed fertilizer in the spring, after greening-up and after mowing once or twice and then again in late summer, a "winterizing" fertilizer. The expert says Bermuda grass is an extremely heavy feeder and I should be fertilizing my (dormant) grass now with Scott's Turf Builder Plus Bonus S and then applying a high nitrogen fertilizer every month during the spring and summer. In all my years of lawn care, I have never heard or read this application schedule. Live and learn, huh?
drdawg (Dr. Kenneth Ramsey)
The reason it's so hard to lose weight when you get up in age is because your body and your fat have become good friends.
Name: Rick Corey Everett WA 98204 (Zone 8a) Sunset Zone 5. Koppen Csb. Eco 2f
>> This area actually is about the driest part of all my lawn. The slime mold also grows mostly in full sun. It just seems that every criteria that fits slime mode appearance does not fit my conditions. Go figure.
Amazing. I would have said "well, that proves it can't be slime molds!"
I reconciled to the fact that my cat can usually out-smart me, or at least out-stubborn me. But now slime molds can fool me! I guess they're right when they say the mind is the first thing to go.
I just don't know Rick. Every expert, and now I have university tuft management experts (all with Ph.D's) from four different states tell me it HAS TO BE SLIME MOLD. Perhaps slime mold, like other organisms, just adapt to different conditions. I hope this doesn't indicate that my mind is leaving the house! But at 71, I guess that is possible. LOL
drdawg (Dr. Kenneth Ramsey)
The reason it's so hard to lose weight when you get up in age is because your body and your fat have become good friends.
