How to Fix Yellow Rings in Your Lawn | Necrotic Ring Fungus in Utah Lawns

If your lawn has rings of dead, yellow grass, it's probably struggling with a lawn fungus called necrotic ring disease. Necrotic ring fungus lives in the soil and dissipates over time with proper care, but it cannot be eliminated. Our lawn specialist explains how to fix the yellow rings and lessen the effects of the disease.
Watering for necrotic ring:
If you live in Utah and have a Kentucky bluegrass lawn, follow a normal watering schedule outlined in the link below:
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If your lawn has necrotic ring spots, continue to follow a normal watering schedule, but on hot summer days, also water for 3-5 minutes in the heat of the day to cool down the roots.
Fertilizing for necrotic ring:
Use slow-release fertilizers with a well-balanced formula of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium.
Check out our blog post for more information:
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Check out our other necrotic ring video about how to overseed necrotic ring spots:
• Over-seeding to treat ...
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Call or text our office at 801-226-2261 for information about our lawn spraying program.
Video Transcript:
Hi, I'm Jason with Stewart's, and today we're going to be talking about necrotic ring. Necrotic ring spot is a serious lawn disease that we're staring to see spread through Utah. The way that you can identify it is that you'll have these irregular rings of brown grass that is dying out, but the center of the ring still looks like it's green and healthy. If you leave this untreated, the problem that we're concerned about is that this disease will continue to get worse, and it can even spread throughout your lawn.
As you see this is happening, you might say to yourself, I’m just going to rip out this ugly grass and I'm going to bring in some new sod and put that down. The problem is the disease lives in the soil and not in the actual turf, so if you tear out that turf and put down that new sod, within about 2-3 years, this fungus is going to bring back those rings and continue to grow through the lawn.
Instead, what we recommend is to first, follow proper watering and fertilizing guidelines because watering and fertilizing properly will help prevent the infection from getting worse. This is really important because a lot of times we will see that overwatering can make the fungus come out a lot worse and create an environment that it can thrive in.
The second thing that we recommend is aerating the lawn. Like other fungi, necrotic ring spot really thrives in damp, overwatered soil. Aeration helps to loosen up that soil, and it makes it more difficult for the necrotic ring to survive. Just make sure you use a clean, sanitized aerator in order to avoid spreading this disease. Because we'll also see that people who have no idea what necrotic ring looks like, if they hit spots that have the necrotic ring and do not clean and sanitize their machine, if they go to another home, they run the risk of spreading that disease to other homes.
The third recommendation is to over-seed the affected areas with a disease-resistant grass seed. The one that is generally used is a perennial ryegrass. Ryegrass will blend in well with the bluegrass, and it is unaffected by the necrotic ring, so overseeding with it will be really successful to conceal the infection. Even though it does not get rid of the infection, you can still have green grass that will grow in those spots.
Following these steps should help fill in the yellow areas, but be patient because the necrotic ring will usually remain in the soil for 3-5 years before it really starts to dissipate.
We really appreciate you watching! If you have any questions about necrotic ring, call or text our office today.
Music: Crazy by Patrick Patrikios