What is causing the yellow and brown spots in my lawn in Massachusetts in November?
What is causing the yellow and brown spots in my lawn? It is unusual in eastern Massachusetts to see turf injury in November. My initial reaction was a fungal disease. Looking at the margins of the injured areas the blades show symptoms similar to a disease, but without any characteristics to identify the disease.
This is the result of Chilling Injury. The symptoms show up on areas where it is sunny in the afternoon and has excellent air movement. It showed up all over Concord, Sudbury and Framingham over the past week. Reports came in beginning on Wednesday, Nov 4th and getting worse each day. Similar to winter burn in ornamentals, the cause is rapid dessication due to excessive transpiration. It is a rare injury to have here in New England. Chilling Injury is a condition I have never seen or heard of it before. I would still be trying to identify the disease if I had not received the update from UMASS detailing Chilling Injury. The contributing factors are sudden onset of cold temperatures, dry air and dry wind, plus lots of sun.