Gray, Matted Patches on Your Lawn After Winter? It Could Be Snow Mold. Here’s How to Fix It

When springtime arrives, it's normal to start dreaming about perfect barbecues in your backyard, hanging out around the fire pit with friends and family, and feeling your bare feet in the grass. If you've been hit with snow mold though, that pristine lawn that's been in your dreams might feel further from reality. Luckily, snow mold is an incredibly easy-to-manage lawn disease that mostly requires patience to fix. Here's everything you need to know to about how to get rid of snow mold and fix any lawn damage it leaves behind.

How to Get Rid of Snow Mold

First of all, let’s make this difference clear: There’s snow mold, and then there’s the effect of snow mold on your lawn. Getting rid of the fungus is one thing, while making your lawn look as if nothing happened is something else completely (we'll get to that below). 

One cannot happen without the other, so whether you are dealing with pink or gray snow mold, to get your lawn looking its best, first you’ll need to get rid of the organisms that now reside on it. 

Your first instinct might be to go to the hardware store and get a product, but you’d be wrong, says Kelly Kopp, extension water conservation and turfgrass specialist and professor in the plants, soils, and climate department at Utah State University. 

“You can just sort of rake them up, sort of fluff up the matted down leaves,” she says. “Turfgrass areas tend to recover pretty easily from both of these diseases.”

That’s pretty much it. 

Unless you're working with a highly-managed landscape, like a golf course, Kopp is adamant that fungicides are not recommended. She explains that experts advocate an integrated pest management approach, which means you should consider all your options and start with cultural management practices first, such as recurrent mowing and proper irrigation.

“It doesn't at all mean that you should never use fungicides or pesticides,” she continues. “It just means that you should look at all the options and kind of have those as something of a last resort—for one thing, fungicides are very expensive. For another thing, they're not necessarily super effective, especially in the hands of somebody who doesn't know very well the life cycle of these diseases.” 

Angela Madeiras, a plant pathologist and diagnostician at the Extension Plant Diagnostic Lab at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, also advises against using fungicides as your first choice. 

“Most diseases of turf on residential lawns, if they're being cared for properly, can be prevented or mitigated by cultural practices, things like proper mowing height, proper irrigation, alleviating thatch and compaction, proper fertilization, etc.,” she says. 

Raking and ruffling the infected patch will help remove dead turfgrass and any thatch preventing proper ventilation. Once the temperature warms up and the patch is dry, the fungus will die, only to leave a bald spot on your otherwise—probably—beautiful lawn. 

Related: Here's How I Spring Seed My Lawn as a Yardcare Expert

How to Fix Bare Patches Left by Snow Mold

A fungal infection sounds bad, no matter who the victim is. The good news is that, when it comes to snow mold on your lawn, the effects are mostly aesthetic, as the grass crowns are typically not killed—it's just the leaves.

“People don't like it because it makes the lawn look ragged,” says Madeiras. “The problem is that you won't see any recovery of the grass until it's a little bit warmer and the grass actively starts growing. So, basically, you just have to be patient.”

The UMass expert says that once the weather warms up and your grass blades start popping up, you can encourage growth with a light fertilization using a nitrogen-rich product. This, she says, will give your lawn “a little bit of a bump and it will start to recover.” 

Just make sure you start seeing some growth before you apply fertilizer, as that will be an unequivocal sign that your grass is out of dormancy and actually absorbing nutrients again. Otherwise, the fertilizer would just sit on the soil, unabsorbed, risking dilution or being washed away.

Additionally, Kelly Kopp suggests overseeding to fill out your lawn’s new bald spot. Species like tall fescue and other bunch-type grasses, which, she explains, don’t spread laterally quite as aggressively as other grasses, will benefit from overseeding, as they tend to be more clumpy and take longer to grow back. 

Other than that, some TLC and some patience will have your lawn looking like new—hopefully in time to enjoy it during the spring and summer.