Electric Fishwrap

As snow goes, yellow circles are revealed

By Kate Martin

Reporter-Herald Staff Writer

As piles of snow withered in the sunlight, patches of grass emerged from the winter cover.

But something else took root in Dale E. Osborn’s lawn.

Snow mold.

Usually relegated to climes where the snow remains on the ground for a prolonged period, the turf scourge causes round, straw-colored patches on otherwise healthy lawns. It’s rarely harmful, but the dead circles snow mold leaves behind were more than enough to concern Osborn.

The healthy parts of his lawn are already growing back from the winter slumber. The lawn feels like a soft mattress underfoot.

But the mold-infested patches on his back lawn crunch with every step and look like a dog used the area as a rest stop. Osborn doesn’t own a dog.

“It’s almost like a leopard pattern,” he said.

Osborn grew the lawn from scratch five years after he and his wife Susan moved to the Seven Lakes neighborhood, south of Horseshoe Lake.

He remembers farming as a young boy, a tow-headed child dressed in overalls and picking potato bugs from the plants on his great-grandfather’s Nebraska farm.

He later cultivated Loveland’s young minds for 32 years as a principal in the Thompson School District.

Now that he’s retired, Osborn can work his passion on the plants and flowers near his home, often growing more tomatoes, bell peppers and cucumbers than he and his wife can eat.

He also takes pride in his healthy lawn. He fertilizes once a month from April through September.

Some lawns in his neighborhood are seemingly untouched, while others are completely covered by the mold.

Alison Stoven, a horticulture agent with the Larimer County Cooperative Extension, said the last time snow mold grew along the Front Range was in the 1980s, probably after the blizzards that blanketed the area.

Despite the fact that snow mold is a fungus, Stoven said fungicides will not help your lawn this season.

“Fungicides have to be used as a preventative,” she said. “They have to be used in fall to prevent the grass from getting it.”

The healthier a lawn is before the first snow, the more likely it is to stave off the snow mold, she said.

But now that the snow mold is already here, Stoven said the best thing homeowners can do is to gently rake the patches affected by the fungus. Raking loosens up the mats of grass, which improves air circulation. Disinfect the tools before using the rakes on healthy patches of lawn.

“You could spread fungus from one area to a healthy area of the lawn,” she said.

That is something Osborn is not likely to do.

Originally published March 12, 2007.