Red thread

What you see

Irregular patches of straw-coloured grass a hand-span across, with fine pink-red needles or antlers of fungal tissue binding the leaf tips together. Visible best when the lawn is wet.

Conditions

Mild, damp weather in a lawn short of nitrogen - it is essentially a hunger signal. Common in spring and autumn on sandy or heavily used lawns.

Treatment

Feed the lawn with a balanced nitrogen feed and it grows out within a fortnight. Mow with a collector while it is present and remove the clippings.

Prevention

Feed the lawn adequately through the growing season. Scarify to reduce thatch, aerate compacted areas, and avoid mowing too short.

Months: April, May, June, September, October, November

Plants

Lawn

Remedies

Nettle liquid feed, Seaweed extract

The thing people get wrong

Red thread is not really a disease problem, it is a fertility reading - it appears almost exclusively on under-fed grass. The grass is not killed and it does not need a fungicide; it needs feeding. A lawn that gets red thread every autumn is telling you its feeding schedule is one application short.