Our nice mondo grass border by our front porch has a problem. Grass is rapidly becoming brown and dead looking. I'm guessing its fungal, but not sure. It has always been lush and green, with no issues. Does anyone have an opinion of the cause and a recommendation for the cure?
Thanks in advance,
Entlie
Heat? Try cutting a small section back to a couple of inches and see if it rebounds.
Doug
Heat, too dry, and very hot sun combined or separately could be the culprit.
Seeing that you have flowering vinca ells me that it is full sun, or nearly.
The mound effct, tells me dry, plus the roots are getting very hot if the sun is bearing down in the afternoon.
good luck
jan
I like the idea of cutting back a small area. Yes, it is incredibly dry here and the mondo is very thick. It gets lots of water but maybe not down to the roots.
Entlie, did the fungicide help?
I think the fungicide did help, it looks a little better. We used Fertilome systemic fungicide, and it's been about two weeks now, I'm thinking of putting another treatment on it. Also, I've been watering a little less. I also posted this on the Carolina forum, and had a suggestion it might be pythium caused by overwatering. I do water this bed a lot, it's the showpiece of our front walk. After an inch of rain, however, I stuck a water gage right down into the mondo, and it showed smack in the middle.
So I'm watering less, and using the fungicide, and I think I see some improvement.
Here's Bobthescgardne comments, which sounds exactly like what's happening to mine, except he has heavy soil and we have that sandy stuff they call "dirt here in New Bern, so it should be pretty well drained.
"I had this problem last year w/ a large, established patch of dwarf mondo. At first, the blades would get some tip burn and general yellowing of foliage. Eventually affected plants would completely brown out and die. Diseased plants could be easily pulled out as roots were rotting away. After searching around on web discovered it was caused by Pythium splendens. The soil in this garden was particularly heavy and was probably getting too much water from combination of overhead irrigation and rain. I cut back irrigation and used a drench to control Pythium. I can't remember the fungicide I used but anything for control of this Pythium should work."
