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Preventing Spring Dead Spot in Winter Essential Steps for a Healthy Lawn
39 sections • 0% read
Mysterious dead circles in an otherwise well cared for lawn usually are not from drought, grubs, or the dog. When they keep showing up in the same spots every spring on bermudagrass or zoysiagrass, you are almost certainly looking at spring dead spot. It is one of the most frustrating lawn problems I see, because by the time you notice it, the damage was done months earlier.
Spring dead spot is a destructive fungal disease of warm season grasses that infects roots and crowns in fall and winter, then shows up as dead patches during spring green up. That timing is what tricks most homeowners: they try to treat in spring when the disease is already finished for the year. If you want a healthy lawn next growing season, preventing spring dead spot in winter is essential.
In this guide I will walk through exactly what spring dead spot is, how to be sure that is what you are dealing with, why winter and late fall are the critical windows for control, and the cultural and fungicide programs that actually work. I will also cover soil management, regional differences, and give you practical checklists and timelines you can follow without wasting money on products that do not help.
If you see circular or irregular straw colored patches in bermudagrass or zoysiagrass at spring green up, especially in the same spots each year, it typically points to spring dead spot. Confirm by checking the roots and stolons in those patches: if they are black, rotted, and the turf pulls up easily while surrounding turf is firmly anchored, you are not dealing with drought or pet damage.
The fix requires two tracks: short term cosmetic recovery in spring, and real prevention in fall and winter. In spring, lightly rake out the dead grass, fertilize modestly, and, where patches are large, plug or sprig in healthy grass to speed fill in. Do not waste money on fungicides in spring for this problem, and do not hammer the lawn with high nitrogen trying to make it recover, that only sets you up for worse disease next year.
For true prevention, you need to address it the previous fall: reduce thatch, improve drainage and compaction, avoid high nitrogen after late summer, correct very high pH if present, and, in moderate to severe cases, apply a targeted fungicide when soil temperatures drop into roughly the 60 to 70 °F range. Expect that even with a good program, it can take 2 to 3 seasons to shrink long established patches, but you should see smaller, less severe spots after the first proper fall treatment.
Spring dead spot is a perennial root and crown disease of warm season turfgrasses, most commonly bermudagrass. "Perennial" here means the fungus survives in the soil year after year, so the disease tends to come back in the same places unless you change the conditions or actively treat it. The primary pathogens are fungi in the genus Ophiosphaerella that infect during cool, moist periods in fall and winter.
It is important to separate spring dead spot from generic "dead spots." Dead turf can be caused by drought, chinch bugs, white grubs, dog urine, fertilizer burn, or winter desiccation. Those are symptoms, not diagnoses. Spring dead spot is a specific disease with a specific pattern: circular or irregular patches that fail to green up in spring on warm season lawns that normally go dormant in winter.
The reason you only see it in spring is that the fungus does most of its damage when soil temperatures cool in fall. It colonizes and kills roots, stolons, and rhizomes. When real winter cold arrives, that already weakened turf cannot tolerate low temperatures and winter injury finishes the job. When everything else starts greening in April or May, those infected areas stay straw colored and dead.
The identity of the pathogen matters because not every fungicide touches these Ophiosphaerella species, and timing is different from diseases that attack leaf blades in warm weather. General purpose hose end "fungus killers" sold for brown patch or dollar spot usually do very little for spring dead spot because the active ingredients, the rates, and especially the timing are wrong for a root disease that infects in cool soil.
I mostly see spring dead spot on bermudagrass lawns, especially hybrids like Tifway on home lawns, sports fields, and golf fairways. Common bermuda can get it too, but the finer textured hybrid varieties seem more prone, partly because they are often pushed harder with fertilizer. Zoysiagrass can develop similar patches, particularly in transitional climates, but bermuda is by far the number one victim.
Lawn construction plays a role. High sand content athletic fields and golf turf tend to be at higher risk if they are compacted or poorly drained because the combination of low organic matter, thatch buildup, and frequent nitrogen fertilization is perfect for the disease. Typical home lawns on native soil tend to see it less severely, but when the site is low lying or has been over fertilized, it shows up plenty.
Recently sodded lawns can be surprisingly vulnerable. You get a nice roll of hybrid bermuda put down on a compacted subsoil, throw high nitrogen at it to get it growing, and do not core aerate for a couple of years. That scenario often sets up textbook spring dead spot by year 2 or 3. Established lawns that have had thatch and compaction ignored for a decade are also common trouble spots.
Several environmental and management factors favor spring dead spot:
After maintaining thousands of lawns, the pattern is clear: the worst spring dead spot is almost always in lawns that are pushed hard with fall nitrogen, rarely aerated, and sit on compacted, poorly draining soils.
Spring dead spot is not primarily a leaf disease. The fungi target the lower parts of the plant, especially the roots, rhizomes (underground stems), and stolons (aboveground runners). In fall when the top growth is slowing, the pathogens infect these tissues and gradually kill them. Under a microscope you can see dark mycelium in those structures, but you do not need a lab to understand the effect.
As infection progresses, the root system in those spots becomes sparse and unhealthy. The rhizomes and stolons that normally store carbohydrates for winter survival are degraded. When your bermudagrass goes dormant in winter, those weakened plants have far less stored energy and a compromised crown. A cold snap that healthy bermuda would shrug off finishes off the infected plants.
Come spring, the rest of the lawn starts to green up from viable rhizomes and stolons, but the infected patches are simply dead. Over time, if you do nothing, the fungus keeps living in that soil. Each fall it can expand outward, infecting more roots along the margin of the patch. That is why patches tend to get larger year over year and sometimes merge into bigger irregular dead areas.
This cumulative damage is what makes prevention so important. You are not just dealing with one bad winter. You are looking at a disease that can gradually destroy large sections of a bermuda or zoysia lawn if cultural conditions never change.
The classic symptom is a circular or irregular patch of straw colored bermudagrass that does not green up in spring while surrounding turf does. Depending on how long the disease has been in your lawn, these patches can range from a few inches across to several feet. In sports fields and fairways I have seen patches 3 to 6 feet across merging together into big dead zones.
Often the dead areas are ringed by a border of weak or thin turf that is slower to green. Sometimes weeds invade the dead centers first, so you see weeds in circles in an otherwise fairly clean bermuda lawn. To the untrained eye it may look like winter kill from exposure, but the circular pattern and repeat occurrence in the same locations are big clues that this is spring dead spot.
Over the years you will usually notice a predictable progression. The same patches show up each spring, but they are a bit larger. The centers often refill slowly as stolons creep inward from the edges, but because the fungus is still active in the surrounding soil, the patch edges keep marching outward. The net effect is a persistent problem that never really goes away on its own.
Many problems cause brown or straw colored turf, so you need to rule out a few other common issues. Diseases like brown patch, dollar spot, and summer patch are far more common in cool season grasses like fescue and Kentucky bluegrass, and they usually appear during warm, humid weather, not at spring green up. If your lawn is tall fescue in the North, you are almost certainly not dealing with spring dead spot.
Drought stress tends to show as irregular, non circular areas, often on slopes or hot spots, and timing is in summer when temperatures and evapotranspiration are high. Pet urine spots have a different signature: small spots, often with a greener ring around a burned center, and they develop through the growing season, not exactly at green up.
To separate spring dead spot from insect damage, do a simple at home check. In spring, go to the edge of a dead patch where it meets healthy grass. Grab a handful and tug gently. With spring dead spot, the turf in the dead area will often pull up much easier than the surrounding turf because the roots and stolons are rotted. Look at those below ground parts. If they are blackened, shriveled, and brittle, that is consistent with spring dead spot. If you peel back the turf and find 10 or more white grubs per square foot, then grubs are the primary culprit, not this disease.
If you are still uncertain, consider having a sample sent to a diagnostic lab or having a local turf specialist look at it. Many county extension offices offer disease diagnosis or can direct you to a university lab.
Correctly identifying spring dead spot matters because the control strategy is very specific. Herbicides will not help. Insecticides will not help unless you also have a grub problem, and generic "fungus control" products applied in spring are usually a waste of money. This is a fall and winter root disease, and you need to time and select treatments accordingly.
If you misdiagnose and throw down more nitrogen fertilizer to "fix" the problem, you can actually make it worse the following season. High late season nitrogen promotes lush top growth and succulent tissues that are easier for the pathogen to colonize. It also delays hardening off for winter, so the infected turf is even less cold tolerant.
On the flip side, if you correctly identify spring dead spot, you can focus your efforts where they matter: improving soil conditions, adjusting your fertilizer program, and, when needed, scheduling a fungicide program in fall. That is how you break the cycle over 2 to 3 seasons instead of fighting the same circles every year.
The fungus that causes spring dead spot is most active in the root zone when soil temperatures are cool, roughly in the range of about 50 to 70 °F at 2 inches. That usually corresponds to mid to late fall in many regions, then again during warm spells in winter, particularly in transitional climates. Infection does not wait until you see symptoms; it happens months before.
By the time your lawn starts to green in April or May and those dead patches become obvious, the infection period for that year is essentially over. The fungus is going dormant or slowing down along with the lawn roots. Spraying fungicide at this point is like putting sunscreen on after you are already sunburned; you are too late for prevention and the damaged tissues will not come back.
This is why you often hear that preventing spring dead spot in winter is an essential step for a healthy lawn. The main action window is actually late fall, just before or as bermudagrass is going dormant, when temperatures are trending down but the ground is not yet frozen. Some programs use two applications, spaced 21 to 30 days apart, covering that cooling period.
Most lawn fungicides work best as protectants, not cures. They protect healthy tissue from becoming infected. With spring dead spot, by the time you see the symptom, all the infected roots, rhizomes, and stolons in that patch are already dead. There is nothing left in those spots for a fungicide to save. That is why spraying in spring does not bring those areas back.
You may see products marketed as "all season disease control" and it is easy to assume they cover spring dead spot regardless of timing. Skip the marketing claims - here is what I have seen actually work: for this particular disease, fungicides applied during late fall when roots are still active are what make a difference, and only when combined with good cultural practices.
If you want to use fungicides efficiently, save that budget for a targeted fall program. In spring, your money is better spent on light fertilization, possible plugging or stolonizing of bare areas, and improving drainage or compaction so those spots are less prone next season.
Because the pathogen survives in the soil, and because the disease weakens turf over multiple seasons, you should go in expecting a multi year strategy. With a good program, you often see some improvement after the first fall treatment: patches are slightly smaller or less severe the following spring. With 2 to 3 years of consistent fall treatments and soil/cultural corrections, most lawns show substantial recovery.
If your lawn has had severe spring dead spot for 5 or more years, you may have large, thin areas that are more weeds than bermuda. In those extreme cases, it can make sense to combine disease control with more aggressive renovation steps, such as plugging or strip sodding in spring after you start to get the disease suppressed.
Excess thatch is one of the biggest cultural contributors to spring dead spot. Thatch holds moisture, stays cooler than mineral soil, and creates a favorable environment for the fungus. A small amount of thatch, up to about 0.5 inch, is fine. When you are over that, especially 1 inch or more, it is time to take action.
Core aeration is the most practical tool for homeowners. For bermudagrass and zoysiagrass, plan on core aerating in late spring or early summer when the grass is actively growing, roughly when soil temperatures are above 65 °F and the lawn is fully green. Pull cores 2 to 3 inches deep, spacing them about 2 to 3 inches apart, and go over high risk areas twice in perpendicular directions if you can.
On lawns with very heavy thatch, vertical mowing (verticutting) can help reduce that layer more aggressively. This is usually a job for rental equipment or a pro, and I recommend doing it only when the turf is in a strong growth phase so it can recover, typically early summer. Always follow heavy dethatching with proper irrigation and a light fertilizer application to help the lawn fill back in.
Aeration also addresses compaction, which is strongly linked with spring dead spot. A simple screwdriver test works: if you cannot push a screwdriver 6 inches into the soil with firm hand pressure when the soil is moderately moist, it is too compacted. Plan to aerate at least once a year in those conditions.
Fertilizer timing is critical for this disease. For bermudagrass, you should front load nitrogen applications in late spring and early summer when the grass is growing vigorously. As you move into late summer, start tapering off. A good rule of thumb in many climates is to make your last nitrogen application at least 6 to 8 weeks before your typical first frost date.
As an example, if your first average frost is around October 15, your last nitrogen should be no later than early to mid August for bermuda lawns prone to spring dead spot. Pushing a high nitrogen application in September may give you a nice green color short term, but it leaves the grass lush, tender, and more susceptible to infection and winter injury.
Keep total annual nitrogen in a reasonable range, commonly 3 to 4 pounds of actual nitrogen per 1,000 square feet per year for home bermuda lawns, divided into 3 to 4 applications. Do not try to "fix" weak spring dead spot areas by dumping an extra pound or two of nitrogen on them in fall. It rarely solves the problem and usually makes next year worse.
Also pay attention to potassium if your soil test shows low levels. Adequate potassium helps with stress tolerance. While it will not eliminate spring dead spot by itself, it is part of building a more resilient plant.
Cool, wet soil in fall favors spring dead spot. That does not mean you should let the lawn dry out and suffer in late season, but you should avoid overwatering as temperatures drop. In early fall, when evapotranspiration rates decline, adjust your irrigation schedule downward so that you are still aiming for roughly 1 to 1.25 inches of water per week from rain and irrigation combined, not double that.
Watch for areas that stay wet longer after rain, such as low spots or where runoff from downspouts concentrates. These are frequent disease hot spots. Improving drainage may be as simple as extending a downspout, regrading a small depression, or adding a French drain in a chronic wet zone. In clay soils, repeated aeration plus topdressing with sand or compost can slowly improve infiltration over several years.
During winter dormancy, established bermudagrass and zoysiagrass usually do not need regular irrigation unless you are in an area with very dry, windy winters that cause desiccation. In those situations, occasional deep watering during extended dry periods is useful, but avoid keeping the soil saturated in cold conditions.
For mild cases of spring dead spot, cultural practices and time sometimes are enough. If you have a handful of quarter sized spots that do not get worse year to year, I would focus first on thatch control, aeration, and fertilizer timing and see how the lawn responds for a season or two.
Fungicides become justified when:
At that point, a fall fungicide program, applied properly, can significantly reduce disease severity over time.
The fungicides that have shown the best results against spring dead spot are from the DMI (demethylation inhibitor) and SDHI (succinate dehydrogenase inhibitor) classes, and some strobilurins. Actives commonly used by professionals include propiconazole, tebuconazole, myclobutanil, azoxystrobin, and the SDHIs like fluopyram. Many homeowner products with those actives are labeled for spring dead spot on bermudagrass.
You do not need the most expensive product on the market, but you do need:
Always read and follow the label. Labels override any generic advice.
For most regions, the best timing is 1 or 2 applications in fall. A common schedule is:
If you do not track soil temperatures, you can approximate: in many transition zone areas, that is mid October and early November, but it varies by region. Your local extension office can give more precise timing for your area.
Application technique matters. Spring dead spot is a root and crown disease, so you want the fungicide in the upper soil profile, not just sitting on dry leaf blades. A few key points:
Granular fungicides can work if they are labeled for spring dead spot and you water them in properly. However, in my experience, liquid applications often give more reliable soil coverage for this particular disease.
Fungicides are not magic bullets. If you keep over fertilizing in fall, ignore thatch, and let water sit in low areas, you will be disappointed with the results. The best results I have seen are always where homeowners combine a 1 to 2 year fungicide program with:
Think of fungicides as one tool in a package. Used alone, they may reduce symptoms somewhat. Used alongside good lawn management, they can almost eliminate spring dead spot over a few seasons.
There is good evidence that high soil pH can increase spring dead spot severity in some regions, especially on high sand content soils. Many bermudagrass lawns do well in a pH range of roughly 5.8 to 6.5. When you start getting into the upper 6s and 7s, the disease pressure can increase for certain pathogen species.
The first step is to get a soil test. Do not guess at pH. Many extension services offer affordable soil testing, and their recommendations are tailored to your region. If your soil test shows pH above about 6.5 and you have persistent spring dead spot, slight acidification may be part of the long term solution.
Elemental sulfur is often used to gradually lower pH, especially on sandy soils. Rates depend on how high the pH is and your soil texture. For example, on a sandy loam, it might take in the ballpark of 5 to 10 pounds of sulfur per 1,000 square feet over a year or two to lower pH by 0.5 to 1.0 unit. Always follow soil test recommendations or extension guidance; overdoing sulfur can cause other problems.
Soil with decent organic matter and structure tends to drain better yet hold adequate moisture, which gives roots a healthier environment. Very sandy, low organic matter soils can swing from saturated to bone dry quickly, stressing turf and sometimes making disease more severe. Heavy clays that stay wet too long are also trouble spots.
Topdressing with quality compost at light rates, about 0.25 inch once or twice a year after aeration, can slowly improve soil structure and biological activity. You are not trying to build a thick layer, just dust the surface so that it works into the aeration holes and upper profile. Over several years, this can improve both drainage and moisture holding capacity.
On sand based athletic fields and lawns, some managers use topdressing sands with slightly more fines and organic content to avoid extremely droughty, sterile surfaces. Again, the goal is moderation. You want roots that can explore a stable, well aerated profile with enough oxygen and not sit in standing water in fall.
The transition zone is where I see the worst spring dead spot, and that is not a coincidence. Winters are cold enough to injure bermudagrass, but not consistently cold enough to fully suppress the pathogen all winter long. Fall often has extended cool, wet periods, which is exactly what the fungus wants.
In these areas, fall fungicide programs and tight control of late season nitrogen are especially important. Aeration and drainage improvements are also high priority. Your timing window for fungicides is usually mid October through early November, but again, follow local extension timing.
Further south, winters are milder and bermuda often suffers less winter injury overall, so spring dead spot tends to be less severe, but it can still occur, especially in northern parts of the Deep South or at higher elevations. Here, the focus is still on avoiding late season nitrogen and keeping thatch under control. In many coastal areas, soil pH tends to be higher, so soil testing and potential acidification can be more important.
Because soil rarely freezes deeply, the fungicide timing can be a bit more flexible, but you still want to catch that cooling period in fall when soil temps are falling through the 70s into the 60s.
In the upper edge of bermuda country, like parts of Kentucky, Missouri, and Virginia, winter injury is more common, and some of what looks like spring dead spot may simply be cold damage in exposed areas. However, where bermuda is used on athletic fields and fairways, spring dead spot is still a frequent disease.
Here, good cultivar selection, adequate potassium, and pH management matter a lot, along with the usual cultural practices. In some of these regions, overseeding with ryegrass for winter color is common. Overseeding does not cause spring dead spot, but if done aggressively it can weaken bermuda going into winter, so you want to balance rye seeding rates and timing with bermuda health.
Use the growing season to strengthen the turf so it has a better chance against disease in fall and winter. A simple checklist:
As you move toward fall, your focus shifts from pushing growth to preparing for dormancy.
This is the make or break period for preventing spring dead spot in winter.
In winter, active work is limited, but you can still set up spring success.
When you see which patches fail to green up, mark them and use that information to refine your fall fungicide targets and cultural improvements for the coming year.
Many articles on spring dead spot gloss over a few important details that I consistently see trip homeowners up.
The biggest mistake is applying fungicides in spring when you first notice the dead spots. As we covered, the infection period is behind you at that point. If you see a product claiming spring dead spot control and the instructions talk about spring timing, be very skeptical.
Always anchor your plan to fall applications when soil temperatures are cooling through the 70 to 60 °F range. If you miss that window, accept that you are into recovery mode for this year and plan for next fall, rather than throwing money at off season sprays.
Another common miss is skipping soil testing. Without knowing your pH and nutrient levels, you are guessing. High pH is strongly associated with this disease in many situations, yet a lot of homeowners continue to apply lime "just because" or because a neighbor did, pushing pH even higher and making the problem worse.
Get a soil test at least every 2 to 3 years, follow its recommendations, and be very cautious with lime unless the test clearly calls for it.
When homeowners see thin or dead patches, the instinct is often to dump extra fertilizer on those spots. With spring dead spot that usually backfires. Heavy nitrogen in late season and early fall softens the grass and feeds the fungus cycle.
Use nitrogen strategically: heavier in early to mid summer, light in late season, and never applied as an emergency fix in fall on known spring dead spot areas.
Because the pathogen is soil borne and patches have built up over years, one round of fungicide and a single aeration are rarely enough to erase severe spring dead spot. Some online guides oversell quick fixes. Be realistic: plan on 2 to 3 growing seasons of consistent management. You should see gradual improvement and shrinking of patches, not necessarily instant perfection.
Preventing spring dead spot in winter really starts months earlier, with how you manage your bermudagrass or zoysiagrass through the growing season and into fall. Diagnose correctly by looking at timing, pattern, and root condition. Then attack the problem at the root, literally, with a combination of:
After maintaining thousands of lawns, I can tell you that you do not need exotic or overpriced products to get this under control. What you need is accurate diagnosis, disciplined timing, and a consistent seasonal plan. If you want to plug this into your broader yard work, use this guide alongside a Monthly Lawn Care Calendar or a Spring Lawn Preparation Checklist so you coordinate disease prevention with mowing, fertilizing, and other tasks.
If you are building out your annual plan, check out our Winter Lawn Protection & Care guide next. It will help you tie your spring dead spot prevention into a full off season strategy that keeps your lawn ready to hit the ground running when warm weather returns.
Mysterious dead circles in an otherwise well cared for lawn usually are not from drought, grubs, or the dog. When they keep showing up in the same spots every spring on bermudagrass or zoysiagrass, you are almost certainly looking at spring dead spot. It is one of the most frustrating lawn problems I see, because by the time you notice it, the damage was done months earlier.
Spring dead spot is a destructive fungal disease of warm season grasses that infects roots and crowns in fall and winter, then shows up as dead patches during spring green up. That timing is what tricks most homeowners: they try to treat in spring when the disease is already finished for the year. If you want a healthy lawn next growing season, preventing spring dead spot in winter is essential.
In this guide I will walk through exactly what spring dead spot is, how to be sure that is what you are dealing with, why winter and late fall are the critical windows for control, and the cultural and fungicide programs that actually work. I will also cover soil management, regional differences, and give you practical checklists and timelines you can follow without wasting money on products that do not help.
If you see circular or irregular straw colored patches in bermudagrass or zoysiagrass at spring green up, especially in the same spots each year, it typically points to spring dead spot. Confirm by checking the roots and stolons in those patches: if they are black, rotted, and the turf pulls up easily while surrounding turf is firmly anchored, you are not dealing with drought or pet damage.
The fix requires two tracks: short term cosmetic recovery in spring, and real prevention in fall and winter. In spring, lightly rake out the dead grass, fertilize modestly, and, where patches are large, plug or sprig in healthy grass to speed fill in. Do not waste money on fungicides in spring for this problem, and do not hammer the lawn with high nitrogen trying to make it recover, that only sets you up for worse disease next year.
For true prevention, you need to address it the previous fall: reduce thatch, improve drainage and compaction, avoid high nitrogen after late summer, correct very high pH if present, and, in moderate to severe cases, apply a targeted fungicide when soil temperatures drop into roughly the 60 to 70 °F range. Expect that even with a good program, it can take 2 to 3 seasons to shrink long established patches, but you should see smaller, less severe spots after the first proper fall treatment.
Spring dead spot is a perennial root and crown disease of warm season turfgrasses, most commonly bermudagrass. "Perennial" here means the fungus survives in the soil year after year, so the disease tends to come back in the same places unless you change the conditions or actively treat it. The primary pathogens are fungi in the genus Ophiosphaerella that infect during cool, moist periods in fall and winter.
It is important to separate spring dead spot from generic "dead spots." Dead turf can be caused by drought, chinch bugs, white grubs, dog urine, fertilizer burn, or winter desiccation. Those are symptoms, not diagnoses. Spring dead spot is a specific disease with a specific pattern: circular or irregular patches that fail to green up in spring on warm season lawns that normally go dormant in winter.
The reason you only see it in spring is that the fungus does most of its damage when soil temperatures cool in fall. It colonizes and kills roots, stolons, and rhizomes. When real winter cold arrives, that already weakened turf cannot tolerate low temperatures and winter injury finishes the job. When everything else starts greening in April or May, those infected areas stay straw colored and dead.
The identity of the pathogen matters because not every fungicide touches these Ophiosphaerella species, and timing is different from diseases that attack leaf blades in warm weather. General purpose hose end "fungus killers" sold for brown patch or dollar spot usually do very little for spring dead spot because the active ingredients, the rates, and especially the timing are wrong for a root disease that infects in cool soil.
I mostly see spring dead spot on bermudagrass lawns, especially hybrids like Tifway on home lawns, sports fields, and golf fairways. Common bermuda can get it too, but the finer textured hybrid varieties seem more prone, partly because they are often pushed harder with fertilizer. Zoysiagrass can develop similar patches, particularly in transitional climates, but bermuda is by far the number one victim.
Lawn construction plays a role. High sand content athletic fields and golf turf tend to be at higher risk if they are compacted or poorly drained because the combination of low organic matter, thatch buildup, and frequent nitrogen fertilization is perfect for the disease. Typical home lawns on native soil tend to see it less severely, but when the site is low lying or has been over fertilized, it shows up plenty.
Recently sodded lawns can be surprisingly vulnerable. You get a nice roll of hybrid bermuda put down on a compacted subsoil, throw high nitrogen at it to get it growing, and do not core aerate for a couple of years. That scenario often sets up textbook spring dead spot by year 2 or 3. Established lawns that have had thatch and compaction ignored for a decade are also common trouble spots.
Several environmental and management factors favor spring dead spot:
After maintaining thousands of lawns, the pattern is clear: the worst spring dead spot is almost always in lawns that are pushed hard with fall nitrogen, rarely aerated, and sit on compacted, poorly draining soils.
Spring dead spot is not primarily a leaf disease. The fungi target the lower parts of the plant, especially the roots, rhizomes (underground stems), and stolons (aboveground runners). In fall when the top growth is slowing, the pathogens infect these tissues and gradually kill them. Under a microscope you can see dark mycelium in those structures, but you do not need a lab to understand the effect.
As infection progresses, the root system in those spots becomes sparse and unhealthy. The rhizomes and stolons that normally store carbohydrates for winter survival are degraded. When your bermudagrass goes dormant in winter, those weakened plants have far less stored energy and a compromised crown. A cold snap that healthy bermuda would shrug off finishes off the infected plants.
Come spring, the rest of the lawn starts to green up from viable rhizomes and stolons, but the infected patches are simply dead. Over time, if you do nothing, the fungus keeps living in that soil. Each fall it can expand outward, infecting more roots along the margin of the patch. That is why patches tend to get larger year over year and sometimes merge into bigger irregular dead areas.
This cumulative damage is what makes prevention so important. You are not just dealing with one bad winter. You are looking at a disease that can gradually destroy large sections of a bermuda or zoysia lawn if cultural conditions never change.
The classic symptom is a circular or irregular patch of straw colored bermudagrass that does not green up in spring while surrounding turf does. Depending on how long the disease has been in your lawn, these patches can range from a few inches across to several feet. In sports fields and fairways I have seen patches 3 to 6 feet across merging together into big dead zones.
Often the dead areas are ringed by a border of weak or thin turf that is slower to green. Sometimes weeds invade the dead centers first, so you see weeds in circles in an otherwise fairly clean bermuda lawn. To the untrained eye it may look like winter kill from exposure, but the circular pattern and repeat occurrence in the same locations are big clues that this is spring dead spot.
Over the years you will usually notice a predictable progression. The same patches show up each spring, but they are a bit larger. The centers often refill slowly as stolons creep inward from the edges, but because the fungus is still active in the surrounding soil, the patch edges keep marching outward. The net effect is a persistent problem that never really goes away on its own.
Many problems cause brown or straw colored turf, so you need to rule out a few other common issues. Diseases like brown patch, dollar spot, and summer patch are far more common in cool season grasses like fescue and Kentucky bluegrass, and they usually appear during warm, humid weather, not at spring green up. If your lawn is tall fescue in the North, you are almost certainly not dealing with spring dead spot.
Drought stress tends to show as irregular, non circular areas, often on slopes or hot spots, and timing is in summer when temperatures and evapotranspiration are high. Pet urine spots have a different signature: small spots, often with a greener ring around a burned center, and they develop through the growing season, not exactly at green up.
To separate spring dead spot from insect damage, do a simple at home check. In spring, go to the edge of a dead patch where it meets healthy grass. Grab a handful and tug gently. With spring dead spot, the turf in the dead area will often pull up much easier than the surrounding turf because the roots and stolons are rotted. Look at those below ground parts. If they are blackened, shriveled, and brittle, that is consistent with spring dead spot. If you peel back the turf and find 10 or more white grubs per square foot, then grubs are the primary culprit, not this disease.
If you are still uncertain, consider having a sample sent to a diagnostic lab or having a local turf specialist look at it. Many county extension offices offer disease diagnosis or can direct you to a university lab.
Correctly identifying spring dead spot matters because the control strategy is very specific. Herbicides will not help. Insecticides will not help unless you also have a grub problem, and generic "fungus control" products applied in spring are usually a waste of money. This is a fall and winter root disease, and you need to time and select treatments accordingly.
If you misdiagnose and throw down more nitrogen fertilizer to "fix" the problem, you can actually make it worse the following season. High late season nitrogen promotes lush top growth and succulent tissues that are easier for the pathogen to colonize. It also delays hardening off for winter, so the infected turf is even less cold tolerant.
On the flip side, if you correctly identify spring dead spot, you can focus your efforts where they matter: improving soil conditions, adjusting your fertilizer program, and, when needed, scheduling a fungicide program in fall. That is how you break the cycle over 2 to 3 seasons instead of fighting the same circles every year.
The fungus that causes spring dead spot is most active in the root zone when soil temperatures are cool, roughly in the range of about 50 to 70 °F at 2 inches. That usually corresponds to mid to late fall in many regions, then again during warm spells in winter, particularly in transitional climates. Infection does not wait until you see symptoms; it happens months before.
By the time your lawn starts to green in April or May and those dead patches become obvious, the infection period for that year is essentially over. The fungus is going dormant or slowing down along with the lawn roots. Spraying fungicide at this point is like putting sunscreen on after you are already sunburned; you are too late for prevention and the damaged tissues will not come back.
This is why you often hear that preventing spring dead spot in winter is an essential step for a healthy lawn. The main action window is actually late fall, just before or as bermudagrass is going dormant, when temperatures are trending down but the ground is not yet frozen. Some programs use two applications, spaced 21 to 30 days apart, covering that cooling period.
Most lawn fungicides work best as protectants, not cures. They protect healthy tissue from becoming infected. With spring dead spot, by the time you see the symptom, all the infected roots, rhizomes, and stolons in that patch are already dead. There is nothing left in those spots for a fungicide to save. That is why spraying in spring does not bring those areas back.
You may see products marketed as "all season disease control" and it is easy to assume they cover spring dead spot regardless of timing. Skip the marketing claims - here is what I have seen actually work: for this particular disease, fungicides applied during late fall when roots are still active are what make a difference, and only when combined with good cultural practices.
If you want to use fungicides efficiently, save that budget for a targeted fall program. In spring, your money is better spent on light fertilization, possible plugging or stolonizing of bare areas, and improving drainage or compaction so those spots are less prone next season.
Because the pathogen survives in the soil, and because the disease weakens turf over multiple seasons, you should go in expecting a multi year strategy. With a good program, you often see some improvement after the first fall treatment: patches are slightly smaller or less severe the following spring. With 2 to 3 years of consistent fall treatments and soil/cultural corrections, most lawns show substantial recovery.
If your lawn has had severe spring dead spot for 5 or more years, you may have large, thin areas that are more weeds than bermuda. In those extreme cases, it can make sense to combine disease control with more aggressive renovation steps, such as plugging or strip sodding in spring after you start to get the disease suppressed.
Excess thatch is one of the biggest cultural contributors to spring dead spot. Thatch holds moisture, stays cooler than mineral soil, and creates a favorable environment for the fungus. A small amount of thatch, up to about 0.5 inch, is fine. When you are over that, especially 1 inch or more, it is time to take action.
Core aeration is the most practical tool for homeowners. For bermudagrass and zoysiagrass, plan on core aerating in late spring or early summer when the grass is actively growing, roughly when soil temperatures are above 65 °F and the lawn is fully green. Pull cores 2 to 3 inches deep, spacing them about 2 to 3 inches apart, and go over high risk areas twice in perpendicular directions if you can.
On lawns with very heavy thatch, vertical mowing (verticutting) can help reduce that layer more aggressively. This is usually a job for rental equipment or a pro, and I recommend doing it only when the turf is in a strong growth phase so it can recover, typically early summer. Always follow heavy dethatching with proper irrigation and a light fertilizer application to help the lawn fill back in.
Aeration also addresses compaction, which is strongly linked with spring dead spot. A simple screwdriver test works: if you cannot push a screwdriver 6 inches into the soil with firm hand pressure when the soil is moderately moist, it is too compacted. Plan to aerate at least once a year in those conditions.
Fertilizer timing is critical for this disease. For bermudagrass, you should front load nitrogen applications in late spring and early summer when the grass is growing vigorously. As you move into late summer, start tapering off. A good rule of thumb in many climates is to make your last nitrogen application at least 6 to 8 weeks before your typical first frost date.
As an example, if your first average frost is around October 15, your last nitrogen should be no later than early to mid August for bermuda lawns prone to spring dead spot. Pushing a high nitrogen application in September may give you a nice green color short term, but it leaves the grass lush, tender, and more susceptible to infection and winter injury.
Keep total annual nitrogen in a reasonable range, commonly 3 to 4 pounds of actual nitrogen per 1,000 square feet per year for home bermuda lawns, divided into 3 to 4 applications. Do not try to "fix" weak spring dead spot areas by dumping an extra pound or two of nitrogen on them in fall. It rarely solves the problem and usually makes next year worse.
Also pay attention to potassium if your soil test shows low levels. Adequate potassium helps with stress tolerance. While it will not eliminate spring dead spot by itself, it is part of building a more resilient plant.
Cool, wet soil in fall favors spring dead spot. That does not mean you should let the lawn dry out and suffer in late season, but you should avoid overwatering as temperatures drop. In early fall, when evapotranspiration rates decline, adjust your irrigation schedule downward so that you are still aiming for roughly 1 to 1.25 inches of water per week from rain and irrigation combined, not double that.
Watch for areas that stay wet longer after rain, such as low spots or where runoff from downspouts concentrates. These are frequent disease hot spots. Improving drainage may be as simple as extending a downspout, regrading a small depression, or adding a French drain in a chronic wet zone. In clay soils, repeated aeration plus topdressing with sand or compost can slowly improve infiltration over several years.
During winter dormancy, established bermudagrass and zoysiagrass usually do not need regular irrigation unless you are in an area with very dry, windy winters that cause desiccation. In those situations, occasional deep watering during extended dry periods is useful, but avoid keeping the soil saturated in cold conditions.
For mild cases of spring dead spot, cultural practices and time sometimes are enough. If you have a handful of quarter sized spots that do not get worse year to year, I would focus first on thatch control, aeration, and fertilizer timing and see how the lawn responds for a season or two.
Fungicides become justified when:
At that point, a fall fungicide program, applied properly, can significantly reduce disease severity over time.
The fungicides that have shown the best results against spring dead spot are from the DMI (demethylation inhibitor) and SDHI (succinate dehydrogenase inhibitor) classes, and some strobilurins. Actives commonly used by professionals include propiconazole, tebuconazole, myclobutanil, azoxystrobin, and the SDHIs like fluopyram. Many homeowner products with those actives are labeled for spring dead spot on bermudagrass.
You do not need the most expensive product on the market, but you do need:
Always read and follow the label. Labels override any generic advice.
For most regions, the best timing is 1 or 2 applications in fall. A common schedule is:
If you do not track soil temperatures, you can approximate: in many transition zone areas, that is mid October and early November, but it varies by region. Your local extension office can give more precise timing for your area.
Application technique matters. Spring dead spot is a root and crown disease, so you want the fungicide in the upper soil profile, not just sitting on dry leaf blades. A few key points:
Granular fungicides can work if they are labeled for spring dead spot and you water them in properly. However, in my experience, liquid applications often give more reliable soil coverage for this particular disease.
Fungicides are not magic bullets. If you keep over fertilizing in fall, ignore thatch, and let water sit in low areas, you will be disappointed with the results. The best results I have seen are always where homeowners combine a 1 to 2 year fungicide program with:
Think of fungicides as one tool in a package. Used alone, they may reduce symptoms somewhat. Used alongside good lawn management, they can almost eliminate spring dead spot over a few seasons.
There is good evidence that high soil pH can increase spring dead spot severity in some regions, especially on high sand content soils. Many bermudagrass lawns do well in a pH range of roughly 5.8 to 6.5. When you start getting into the upper 6s and 7s, the disease pressure can increase for certain pathogen species.
The first step is to get a soil test. Do not guess at pH. Many extension services offer affordable soil testing, and their recommendations are tailored to your region. If your soil test shows pH above about 6.5 and you have persistent spring dead spot, slight acidification may be part of the long term solution.
Elemental sulfur is often used to gradually lower pH, especially on sandy soils. Rates depend on how high the pH is and your soil texture. For example, on a sandy loam, it might take in the ballpark of 5 to 10 pounds of sulfur per 1,000 square feet over a year or two to lower pH by 0.5 to 1.0 unit. Always follow soil test recommendations or extension guidance; overdoing sulfur can cause other problems.
Soil with decent organic matter and structure tends to drain better yet hold adequate moisture, which gives roots a healthier environment. Very sandy, low organic matter soils can swing from saturated to bone dry quickly, stressing turf and sometimes making disease more severe. Heavy clays that stay wet too long are also trouble spots.
Topdressing with quality compost at light rates, about 0.25 inch once or twice a year after aeration, can slowly improve soil structure and biological activity. You are not trying to build a thick layer, just dust the surface so that it works into the aeration holes and upper profile. Over several years, this can improve both drainage and moisture holding capacity.
On sand based athletic fields and lawns, some managers use topdressing sands with slightly more fines and organic content to avoid extremely droughty, sterile surfaces. Again, the goal is moderation. You want roots that can explore a stable, well aerated profile with enough oxygen and not sit in standing water in fall.
The transition zone is where I see the worst spring dead spot, and that is not a coincidence. Winters are cold enough to injure bermudagrass, but not consistently cold enough to fully suppress the pathogen all winter long. Fall often has extended cool, wet periods, which is exactly what the fungus wants.
In these areas, fall fungicide programs and tight control of late season nitrogen are especially important. Aeration and drainage improvements are also high priority. Your timing window for fungicides is usually mid October through early November, but again, follow local extension timing.
Further south, winters are milder and bermuda often suffers less winter injury overall, so spring dead spot tends to be less severe, but it can still occur, especially in northern parts of the Deep South or at higher elevations. Here, the focus is still on avoiding late season nitrogen and keeping thatch under control. In many coastal areas, soil pH tends to be higher, so soil testing and potential acidification can be more important.
Because soil rarely freezes deeply, the fungicide timing can be a bit more flexible, but you still want to catch that cooling period in fall when soil temps are falling through the 70s into the 60s.
In the upper edge of bermuda country, like parts of Kentucky, Missouri, and Virginia, winter injury is more common, and some of what looks like spring dead spot may simply be cold damage in exposed areas. However, where bermuda is used on athletic fields and fairways, spring dead spot is still a frequent disease.
Here, good cultivar selection, adequate potassium, and pH management matter a lot, along with the usual cultural practices. In some of these regions, overseeding with ryegrass for winter color is common. Overseeding does not cause spring dead spot, but if done aggressively it can weaken bermuda going into winter, so you want to balance rye seeding rates and timing with bermuda health.
Use the growing season to strengthen the turf so it has a better chance against disease in fall and winter. A simple checklist:
As you move toward fall, your focus shifts from pushing growth to preparing for dormancy.
This is the make or break period for preventing spring dead spot in winter.
In winter, active work is limited, but you can still set up spring success.
When you see which patches fail to green up, mark them and use that information to refine your fall fungicide targets and cultural improvements for the coming year.
Many articles on spring dead spot gloss over a few important details that I consistently see trip homeowners up.
The biggest mistake is applying fungicides in spring when you first notice the dead spots. As we covered, the infection period is behind you at that point. If you see a product claiming spring dead spot control and the instructions talk about spring timing, be very skeptical.
Always anchor your plan to fall applications when soil temperatures are cooling through the 70 to 60 °F range. If you miss that window, accept that you are into recovery mode for this year and plan for next fall, rather than throwing money at off season sprays.
Another common miss is skipping soil testing. Without knowing your pH and nutrient levels, you are guessing. High pH is strongly associated with this disease in many situations, yet a lot of homeowners continue to apply lime "just because" or because a neighbor did, pushing pH even higher and making the problem worse.
Get a soil test at least every 2 to 3 years, follow its recommendations, and be very cautious with lime unless the test clearly calls for it.
When homeowners see thin or dead patches, the instinct is often to dump extra fertilizer on those spots. With spring dead spot that usually backfires. Heavy nitrogen in late season and early fall softens the grass and feeds the fungus cycle.
Use nitrogen strategically: heavier in early to mid summer, light in late season, and never applied as an emergency fix in fall on known spring dead spot areas.
Because the pathogen is soil borne and patches have built up over years, one round of fungicide and a single aeration are rarely enough to erase severe spring dead spot. Some online guides oversell quick fixes. Be realistic: plan on 2 to 3 growing seasons of consistent management. You should see gradual improvement and shrinking of patches, not necessarily instant perfection.
Preventing spring dead spot in winter really starts months earlier, with how you manage your bermudagrass or zoysiagrass through the growing season and into fall. Diagnose correctly by looking at timing, pattern, and root condition. Then attack the problem at the root, literally, with a combination of:
After maintaining thousands of lawns, I can tell you that you do not need exotic or overpriced products to get this under control. What you need is accurate diagnosis, disciplined timing, and a consistent seasonal plan. If you want to plug this into your broader yard work, use this guide alongside a Monthly Lawn Care Calendar or a Spring Lawn Preparation Checklist so you coordinate disease prevention with mowing, fertilizing, and other tasks.
If you are building out your annual plan, check out our Winter Lawn Protection & Care guide next. It will help you tie your spring dead spot prevention into a full off season strategy that keeps your lawn ready to hit the ground running when warm weather returns.
Spring dead spot is a fungal root and crown disease, mainly in bermudagrass and sometimes zoysiagrass, that infects in fall and winter but shows up as straw colored circular patches that fail to green up in spring. The fungus kills roots and rhizomes so the affected plants cannot survive winter cold, leading to recurring dead spots in the same areas each year.
Spring dead spot usually appears at spring green up as circular or irregular straw colored patches in warm season grass that were dormant in winter, often in the same spots as previous years. To confirm, tug on the turf in the dead area and inspect the roots and stolons: if they are blackened, rotted, and the turf pulls up easily while surrounding turf is firmly anchored, it typically points to spring dead spot rather than drought or pet damage.
Apply fungicides in fall, not spring, targeting the period when soil temperatures at 2 inches are falling through roughly 70 to 60 °F. In most regions this means 1 or 2 applications spaced 21 to 30 days apart in mid to late fall, followed by light irrigation to wash the product into the root zone, where the spring dead spot fungus attacks.
You cannot reverse the damage to already killed plants in spring, but you can speed recovery. Rake out dead material, apply a light rate of fertilizer once the lawn is actively growing, and, for larger bare patches, plug or sprig with healthy bermudagrass so it can spread in. Avoid heavy nitrogen or fungicides in spring for this issue, and focus your real prevention efforts on cultural practices and fall treatments.
Spring dead spot is often worse in lawns that are "over cared for" in the wrong way, especially with high late season nitrogen, excessive thatch, and compacted or poorly drained soil. These conditions encourage the fungus in fall and weaken the turf for winter, so shifting nitrogen earlier in the season, aerating, managing thatch, and correcting drainage usually does more good than simply adding more water and fertilizer.
Most lawns with moderate to severe spring dead spot need 2 to 3 years of consistent management to see major improvement. With proper fall fungicide timing, corrected fertilization, aeration, and soil adjustments, patches typically get smaller and less severe each year, though long neglected lawns with large dead areas may also need plugging or partial resodding to fully restore dense turf.
Common questions about this topic
Spring dead spot is a fungal root and crown disease, mainly in bermudagrass and sometimes zoysiagrass, that infects in fall and winter but shows up as straw colored circular patches that fail to green up in spring. The fungus kills roots and rhizomes so the affected plants cannot survive winter cold, leading to recurring dead spots in the same areas each year.
Spring dead spot usually appears at spring green up as circular or irregular straw colored patches in warm season grass that were dormant in winter, often in the same spots as previous years. To confirm, tug on the turf in the dead area and inspect the roots and stolons: if they are blackened, rotted, and the turf pulls up easily while surrounding turf is firmly anchored, it typically points to spring dead spot rather than drought or pet damage.
Apply fungicides in fall, not spring, targeting the period when soil temperatures at 2 inches are falling through roughly 70 to 60 °F. In most regions this means 1 or 2 applications spaced 21 to 30 days apart in mid to late fall, followed by light irrigation to wash the product into the root zone, where the spring dead spot fungus attacks.
You cannot reverse the damage to already killed plants in spring, but you can speed recovery. Rake out dead material, apply a light rate of fertilizer once the lawn is actively growing, and, for larger bare patches, plug or sprig with healthy bermudagrass so it can spread in. Avoid heavy nitrogen or fungicides in spring for this issue, and focus your real prevention efforts on cultural practices and fall treatments.
Spring dead spot is often worse in lawns that are "over cared for" in the wrong way, especially with high late season nitrogen, excessive thatch, and compacted or poorly drained soil. These conditions encourage the fungus in fall and weaken the turf for winter, so shifting nitrogen earlier in the season, aerating, managing thatch, and correcting drainage usually does more good than simply adding more water and fertilizer.
Most lawns with moderate to severe spring dead spot need 2 to 3 years of consistent management to see major improvement. With proper fall fungicide timing, corrected fertilization, aeration, and soil adjustments, patches typically get smaller and less severe each year, though long neglected lawns with large dead areas may also need plugging or partial resodding to fully restore dense turf.
