Question
I read that the residue is a rust fungus.  I too am having the same problem.  We had placed a large amount of lime on our yard.  I thought that would help the nitrogen level.  I live in PA and this is our first year for our lawn.  Is it the type of seed we used?  We currently have TruGreen Lawn Care treating our lawn since the beginning of summer.  Do you think this may have any affect on our rust problem?  I was wondering if the other individuals that had this same problem had new lawns or had a fertilizer treatment plan? Is there something I can recommend to TruGreen to put on our lawn to help with this problem?

Answer
TruGreen puts 2 kinds of Lawn Care on the menu: 'Natural Nutrient Program' and the traditional 'TruGreen Lawn Care Program'.  I don't know what products they use for their 'Natural' service, so I can't comment on that although I do have my suspicions.  You have selected their traditional treatments:  Weedkiller(s), Chemical Fertilizer(s), maybe a dusting of Lime and a Fungicide and one or more Pesticides, probably including a Grubkiller.

Here's the problem.

To grow strong, healthy Grass, you need great Soil.

None of those treatments, maybe not even their 'Natural' treatments, pays any attention to the Soil you have at your house.

When these guys learn how to do Lawn Service, they look at the Grass.  They don't even test for pH to determine if you need any Lime.  They just assume it's a good idea.

They don't care if you have Grubs.  An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, right?

Wrong.

Ever notice how some people don't do anything to their Lawns, and it looks OK, they have no clue there's even Grass out there, they mow it once in a while and that's it.

Then someone else moves into the house and starts putting down all those 1-2-3 programs with catchy names and great commercials.  The new homeowners take care of their Grass.  They love it to death.  They put down that whole menu, everything in columns A and B, pouring resources into high intensity Lawn Care that costs an arm and a leg.

What's wrong with that?  Why are they the ones who end up with splotches of Brown, or Yellow, or Rust?  What is wrong with that picture?

The way Most People see it, Soil is just 'there'.  We don't like Bugs.  Fungi.  Bacteria.  Protozoa.  Nematodes.  We don't care about Miscellaneous Microbes.  WHO CARES if we get rid of those?  When it comes to their Lawns, Most People are perfectly happy to throw the Nitrogen Cycle and the Carbon Cycle out the window.

Can't blame them.  Dirt?  Who needs it?

Trouble is, we're not growing our Grass in Air, or in Water.  Grass is built to get nutrients out of the Soil and grow a certain way.  Soft Grass tissue following a growth spurt after you put down Chemical Nitrogen Fertilizer is vulnerable to disease and insect attack.

There's more.

MOST of the microbes in the Soil are NOT BAD FOR GRASS.  Never knew that, did you?

It's true.

Most of the Fungi, the Bacteria, even the Bugs down there are NOT BAD.  And if you're not part of the Problem down there, you're part of the Solution.  Because....

Bad Fungi, Bad Bacteria, Bad Insects, Bad Nematode populations are KEPT UNDER CONTROL by the other 90 percent of the Microbes.

Unless you kill the Microbes.

Which you do with Chemicals.  Or in your case, which TruGreen does with Chemicals.

If you have a Fungus attack now, it's because your Grass was not healthy enough to resist it, and your Soil was no longer balanced to control the guilty Fungus.

Let's look at Rust.  Which you may have.

Rust is a Fungus.  Now that you know what Fungicides do to a Soil, do you know why using a Fungicide would be the WORST thing you could do to cure your Grass of Fungus?

North Dakota State University's Dept of Agriculture describes symptoms of the Puccinia Fungus -- 'Rust' -- on Lawngrasses.  Rust, they write, 'becomes severe on susceptible varieties during hot periods of the Summer when Grass growth is reduced.'

Here's the URL:

www.ag.ndsu.edu/pubs/plantsci/landscap/pp950w.htm

How's your weather in Pennsylvania?

In a BAD case of Rust, note the NDSU pundits, 'The Lawn may have a Yellowish to Reddish-Orange appearance.  A Red-Orange dust fills the air when the Grass is mowed and also collects on shoes and clothing.'

Sound like anything you know?  Or not?

Best weather for this Fungus is VERY humid.  High levels of moisture in the air keep spores on Grass from evaporating quickly.  Even better when night temps stay high (low to mid-70s) and day temps hit 85 to 95 degrees F.  Add an occasional drink from a garden hose and you suddenly discover a full fledged Rust epidemic on your Lawn.

Rust is REALLY bad on Merion and Touchdown Bluegrasses.  Those Grasses are widely held to be VERY prone to Rust.  Low mowing and areas of shade make it worse.

What's a homeowner to do?

Treatment consists of:

(1) a healthy dose of ORGANIC Nitrogen fertilizer, and

(2) correcting your watering techniques.  (This is easy; it simply means you should water your Grass once a week, long and deep.)

DO NOT USE A FUNGICIDE.  You will only make it worse.

A slow-release fertilizer, such as Milorganite or (smelly) Fish Emulsion, will cure this Rust attack.  Mow high, to the extent you do any mowing.  If you have access to Manure, top-dress with CURED, AGED Manure asap; it's a terrific Soil amendment.  And if there's anything your Grass needs, it's better Soil to grow in.

Decay is part of the Balance of Nature.  We DEPEND TOTALLY on Fungi and Bacteria for Decay and Cycling.  Organic matter MUST be living in our Soil if Fungi and Bacteria are going to live a full and happy life.  Their most important job is to MAKE Humus and GENERATE Nutrients.  Humus is 'the dark organic material in Soil, produced by the decomposition of vegetable or animal matter and essential to the fertility of the Earth.'  (Dictionary.com)

And that's the problem with Chemicals.  They pay zero attention to the Soil.

By definition, Chemical Fertilizer is SALT.  You may think of it as Plant Food, but Fertilizer, Herbicides, Pesticides and Fungicides wipe out beneficial Insects and Earthworms.  After a few months of that, someone walks out one morning and the Grass is sick and there are weird colors all over the turf.

Good, rich, healthy Soil DEPENDS on microbes.

Without microbes, there is no Humus.

Decomposing leaves, grass clippings, Bacteria and other things normally found in healthy Soil are free, natural Amino Acids.  Amino Acids are built from molecules of Nitrogen.  In healthy Soil, as Bacteria and Fungi and other microbes grow and multiply, they seize any Nitrogen they can find right out of the Soil to grow -- and make more Amino Acids.  That's the kind of Nitrogen that is in organic matter, waiting to be consumed by the microbes in the Soil.  Dream Soil.  Ultra Soil.  The best that money can buy.

This is why 'cleansing' Soil, wiping out any of these actors, becomes a problem.  That's exactly what happens when you put down Chemicals.

We didn't always know that.  But we know that now.

TruGreen, however, has a business to run, a service to offer, and they are basing their work on what we knew 20 or 30 years ago.  Soil scientists didn't have any way to measure microbes in a Soil sample until the 1980s.  This is very new.

When TruGreen came along with a concentrated Nitrogen Fertilizer 'treatment', they damaged the microbes population AND they revved up cell growth of blade tissue without the roots to support it.  It was only a matter of time before your Grass came down with something.

Remember, most homeowners and landscapers learned Lawn Care from the Chemical Companies.  TruGreen is no different.

Thanks for writing.  Please rate me.

THE LONG ISLAND GARDENER