Snow Melt Reveals a Hidden Lawn Killer—Here’s the Fix

As temperatures begin to warm and the snow melts away, keep an eye out for circular patches of brown grass. This isn’t just winter damage to your lawn, it’s a notorious fungal disease called snow mold that likes to grow under heavy blankets of snow. Here’s how to identify and get rid of it. 

What is Snow Mold?

Snow mold appears on your grass in damp, dark and cool conditions. It can develop under a blanket of snow on ground that isn’t completely frozen and can also form under piles of leaves trapped beneath the snow. The snow serves as insulation, creating the dark, cool, humid environment in which snow mold likes to grow. 

Related: Start Your Spring Grass Seeding Before It's Too Late

How to Identify Snow Mold

There are two types of snow mold to look out for:

• Gray Snow Mold: Gray mold looks like fuzzy white gray spider webs on the brown blades of grass. It typically only attacks the blades, leaving the roots intact, and usually dissipates when temperatures warm.
  
• Pink Snow mold: Pink snow mold appears in pinkish or salmon colored patches and has a slimy texture. This type of mold is more severe as it can kill the crown and roots of grass blades if it’s left untreated.  

How to Treat It

Snow mold is very easy to treat. All you need to do is add a little air flow to your lawn and wait for temperatures to rise. 

1. Rake the Soil: Gently rake the matted up patches of snow mold. The goal is to break up the crusted over fungus so oxygen can reach the soil and begin drying out the moisture the mold needs to survive.
   
2. Delay fertilizer: Snow mold loves nitrogen, which causes succulent growth in the early spring that snow mold loves to eat. Hold off on your early spring fertilizer regimen until you have the mold issue under control.
   
3. Monitor the situation: Snow mold usually dies off once the sun appears, temperatures climb, and the soil temperatures warm to 55 degrees. Most grass recovers from gray mold. If pink snow mold can has killed off some patches of grass, you’ll need to overseed to fill those dead patches. 

Related: Never Plant This Grass Seed Type in the Spring

How do I Prevent Snow Mold

Snow mold prevention begins in the fall when you’re prepping your lawn for the winter:

• Leaf Removal: Since leaves can act as a blanket under which snow mold can thrive, make sure you rake up and collect all leaves off of your lawn before the first major snowfall.
  
• The Final Mow: Snow mold forms when longer blades of grass matte under a blanket of snow. Prevent this by mowing your lawn down to about 2 inches for the final cut of the season.