The snow has finally melted in Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio. Now’s the time to take an inventory to see how the prolonged snow and ice affected your lawn. Gray and pink snow molds are two byproducts of piles of snow sitting on your grass for a long time during this past winter. In this article, we'll examine the different molds, and tell you how you can get rid of them.

Spotting Snow Mold

When you take a walk on your property, you need to look for circular spots that are gray, white, or pink. In the center of these spots, it will look like a bunch of cobwebs. This cobweb material is called mycelium. It’s one clue that you may have snow mold. (Learn about what causes Snow Mold by Clicking Here) Next, the tinge of the mold will tell you if it’s gray or pink. For gray snow mold, the pattern will be gray or white in color. If it’s pink snow mold, there will be more of a pinkish tone to it.

Generally speaking, gray snow mold will not kill your lawn. However, pink snow mold can be fatal. Thankfully, you’ll more likely to see gray snow mold on your Ohio lawn than pink. If you do find pink snow mold, call your local lawn care professional right away.

Five Tips to Help Your Lawn Recover

If you’re plagued with gray snow mold, here are five tips to help your lawn recover from it:

1. Know your grass type: All Cincinnati and Columbus, Ohio lawns have cool season grasses, such as annual bluegrass, Kentucky bluegrass, tall and fine fescues, and perennial ryegrass. Annual bluegrass (Poa annua) and bentgrass are the two most susceptible types of grass to develop snow molds.
2. Rake up the mold: You can help your lawn recover faster by raking away the molds. Granted, you won’t eradicate the mold entirely, but you’ll give your yard a fighting chance.
3. Add top dressing to the infected area: If you lean toward organic or natural lawn care, you may already know about the many benefits of top dressing. Top dressing is applying compost on top of the grass to feed the soil for a healthier lawn. It’s labor intensive, but you can focus your top dressing efforts to the parts of your turf that are most affected by snow mold.
4. Add a light layer of fertilizer: Instead of top dressing, you can add a light amount of fertilizer to the infected areas. Just make sure that it’s a light amount. Too much fertilizer can increase fungal growth or do further damage to your grass.
5. Relax and know that your grass will recover from snow mold: Unless you have a bout of pink snow mold, your grass will grow back to its healthier self the further along we get into spring. The above four suggestions will help you possibly speed up the process, but realize that if you don’t do anything, your lawn will still make a comeback closer to late spring or early summer.

Sometimes, these DIY projects for lawn rejuvenation can seem overwhelming and time-consuming. To save your back and your time, call your Cincinnati or Columbus lawn care service to help your lawn recover from snow mold.

How to Hire The Right Professional for Your Snow Mold

Finding the right professional to handle snow mold or any other lawn care problem isn't as easy as you may think. There are no restrictions to becoming a "lawn care" company, and because of this, there are a lot of companies who do not know what they're doing. But how do you seperate these companies from others when looking for a great lawn care company? We've put together the ultimate lawn care hiring guide that will walk you through step-by-step everything you need to know when it comes to hiring the right company. To get your free copy, simply click on the link below!

Resources for this Article:

Burke, Kelly. “Snow Mold: Pink and Gray Snow Mold Can Occur Under Certain Weather Conditions,” About.com: Lawn Care: http://lawncare.about.com/od/turfgrasspests/a/snow_mold.htm.

Burke, Kelly. “Topdressing the Lawn,” About.com Lawn Care: http://lawncare.about.com/od/lawncaretechniques/a/Topdressing-The-Lawn.htm.

Danneberger, Karl. “The Snow Molds,” OSU: Buckeye Turf: http://buckeyeturf.osu.edu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1248:the-snow-molds&catid=1:latest-news&Itemid=170.

Rimelspach, Joseph. “Snow Mold—How Much Damage and What Can Be Done?” OSU: Buckeye Turf: http://buckeyeturf.osu.edu/index.php?option=com_content&id=163:snow-mold-how-much-damage-and-what-can-be-done&Itemid=170.