My zoysia lawn has basketball size "Brown spot"s.
I was going to treat with a liquid fungicide, but would like to know if it will be affective since it is November here in Atlanta.
Please let me know if this fungus can be treated when the zoysia is ready to go into its dormant state.

Thanks J.

Most fungus problems in the yard will show themselves in the summer as explained in our LAWN FUNGUS CONTROL article. Here in Atlanta, you'd be best served by treating when conditions are most active. This can happen as early as April and as late as October. By November, we're almost always too cool and too dry though this year has been quite moist. Still, I don't see any real benefit that can be had by treating now so I say wait till next year.

However, there are two other "maintenance" concerns I have which most definitely need to be monitored and could have a big impact in your yard. Getting these "right" now would go a long way to ensure your zoysia has it's best chance of defeating the fungus next year. In most all cases, lawns become susceptible to fungus, insects and weeds when the soil under the grass gets out of whack. As our SOIL PH CONTROL article explains, the most important thing you can do for your soil is to keep it at the balanced PH level. Only then will everything else you do have a chance to work properly. November through February is the best time to adjust this PH if it's unbalanced. If you haven't been monitoring this level, now is a great time to start. Get a good PH METER and thoroughly check the soil. Make sure it's up around 7.0 and if not, now is time to get it adjusted using one of the products listed in our article.

The second major problem we see here in town in our lawns is related to grubs. They commonly infest most any turf and one of the more common "symptoms" of a grub infestation is when you see grass "browning" in patches that resemble a fungus. Have you been doing any treatments to keep them minimized? Read our GRUB CONTROL article and if you haven't recently treated, do so now. Winter is a good time to apply granules to the turf and get this problem corrected so come next spring, you'll have the best chance at keeping lawn fungus under wraps.

In summary, don't worry about treating your zoysia now as we move to the winter months here in Atlanta. What does makes sense is to check your PH and get that in check. Additionally, it's a good time to treat for grubs. Take care of these concerns now, from November through February and by next March, you should be all set to deal with any lawn fungus that shows up in April or May.