You may know it as the grass rust fungus allergy and unless you take swift action, the end result will be catastrophic for your beloved garden. It’s a nightmare for you since it’s gonna ruin your garden pretty soon no matter how healthy and thriving it looks right now.
When I first noticed the yellow/orange coating on the grass leaves of my garden, I knew what’s going on and I was asking myself how do I get rid of rust in my lawn? Is there any natural remedy for lawn rust? Luckily after a lot of digging, I found some amazing fixes to solve the problem.
5 Effective Ways To Get Rid Of Rust In Your Lawn
Again, without much effort and time, you can’t expect a healthy and well-manicured garden. When you find lawn rust that indicates damaged or unhealthy grass as well. You were not taking good care of your lawn grass 🙁
Apart from that, there are a lot of factors that may result in lawn rust. Due to bad weather, overly moist soil, excessive watering, etc. will encourage several organisms like Puccinia striiformis and Puccinia coronata to attack your lawn that will cause rust in your lawn.
I will take more about it later in this article. But you need quick actions to fix the problem, so apply the below-mentioned proven ways:
- Watering Carefully
Watering early in the morning is a great natural remedy for lawn rust. It helps your garden two ways to fight against such fungal attack. Watering regularly ensures normal growth of the grass and keeps the entire lawn healthy. It discourages fungus growth. Watering early in the morning gives your lawn enough time to dry out the water completely. Hence it discourages rust growth as well.
But you have to be careful about too much watering. Excessive watering will give you a negative result. Too much water will make the lawn an ideal place to spread. So, you have to ensure optimal watering. Too much and too little – both are bad for your lawn.
Don’t water your lawn until you notice drought stress. You can use any smart sprinkler controller to balance between the two. It also ensures the optimal amount of water for your entire lawn that ultimately helps to fight rust effectively.
- Ensure Proper Sunlight
If there are branches and hedges in your lawn, your lawn may not be having the right amount of sunlight to consume the water and other fertilizers. So, cut off such hedges and branches to get rid of such shades. I would get rid of ornamental shrubs as well if I were you.
Proper sunlight is crucial to fight rust since it will help to evaporate excess moisture due to regular watering. This will eventually make the lawn environment less favorable for the rust to grow.
- Apply Fertilizer
Still, it’s a natural way to solve the problem. Regular fertilizing helps the grass to grow faster and this is crucial to fight lawn fungus. The slow growth of your grass encourages lawn fungus. The fungus gets enough time to attack the entire lawn.
So, you need nitrogen for lawn rust to solve the problem. And the best way to do this is to apply nitrogen-enriched fertilizer regularly.
- Regular Mowing
The lawn rust affects the upper part of the lawn grass first. And the proper way to fix the problem is to regularly mow your lawn. You will get a much better benefit if you use a lawnmower with a grass catcher. Let me explain why and why should you mow regularly.
A lawnmower will cut off the top layer of the grass that is already rust affected. This will ensure better air circulation for the remain grasses. But where will the cut off grasses go if you don’t have a grass catcher as well?
If the fungus affected grasses remain on the lawn after mowing, the rust will spread very soon. So, you should have a lawnmower with a grass catcher and make sure to clean/wash it to get rid of the attached rust dust as well.
- Fungicides As The Last Resort
Let me explain why you should use fungicides only when all the previous methods don’t give you the desired results. Such fungicides contain toxic chemical compounds. So, they will help you to get rid of the rust problem but will bring other sorts of problems for your garden.
I am pretty sure if you apply some of the methods mentioned above, you won’t be needing such fungicides at all. Now watch the video to learn some cool tips:
Well, what now?
If the whole lawn is not affected severely, you should see significant improvement within weeks. The infection should disappear when you apply the natural remedy. The above remedies should be followed repeatedly to avoid the same problem in the future.
Your focus should be on keeping the lawn healthy. A healthy lawn that is fast-growing is free of such a problem. Ensure the proper condition like optimal watering, removing shades, keeping the soil fertile, etc. for your lawn to grow naturally healthy. Only then, your lawn will have a natural ability to fight rust.
Depending on where you live, what is the average weather condition where you live – the severity of the turfgrass problem will vary. But you can follow the above tips as some preventive measures to have a healthy lawn all the seasons.
Early Signs Of Lawn Rust
From perennial ryegrass to tall fescue, the rust disease is pretty common. The same goes for Zoysia, Kentucky bluegrass, etc. I have seen rust on Bermuda grass as well. It happens mainly during the late summer or early fall. Remember, this is the time when your lawn grows really slow!
But you have already seen the fix is not that hard if you can early detect the problem. So, here are some early signs that you should check to be 100% sure the lawn fungus has attacked your precious lawn:
- Check whether the grass blades are coated in spores that look like rust. Besides, you should notice brown/yellow coating and somethings orange coatings as well.
- The growth of the grass is really slow.
- When you walk on the lawn, you may notice a yellow/orange color on your shoes.
- If you notice raised pustules, the situation is already bad and probably beyond recovery.
Causes & Effects Of Lawn Rust
So, why there is rust in your lawn in the first place? Well, if you notice it early and take appropriate measures mentioned above, you should not be overly anxious. Several factors lead to lawn rust and some of them are beyond your control.
However, have a look at the following causes to have rust in your lawn and how it may affect your lawn:
- Lack of nitrogen due to lack of enough fertilizer.
- Dry weather.
- Overwatering.
Well, how bad it is? Is lawn rust harmful to pets? Well, there are lots of concerns whoever first notices it for the first time. This is how your lawn may be affected:
- The grass of your lawn loses the ability to photosynthesize.
- Weak grasses along with slow pace growth rate.
- Invites other problems to appear on your lawn.
- Color stains on shoes, pets, etc.
Conclusion
I literally mentioned everything that you should know. So, you don’t need to ask yourself how do I get rid of rust in my lawn. It’s pretty straightforward and easy to follow. But I would recommend you take preventive measures. And again, the fungicides method should be applied only as of the last resort!
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