Fairy Rings

Fairy rings are a group of diseases in lawn turf that are caused by fungi.

There are thousands of fungi that can cause fairy rings. The most common type can be recognised in lawn turf, because it causes the lawn turf to grow dark green, in a ring or arc. These measure about 75-200mm wide as an arc, and up to a metre in diameter as a ring.

Fairy rings can be many years old, and will grow as long as there is lawn turf in which to grow.

There are other types of fairy rings that cause the lawn turf to turn yellow, others that can cause a patch of stunted, reddish lawn turf, and still others that can cause the grass to wilt and die.

Fairy rings begin when a fungus starts growing in your lawn turf. What causes a fungus to start growing in lawn turf is not clear to scientists, but often lawn turf that has a thatch layer and is growing on natural soils that receive ample moisture, will develop fairy rings.

Generally, they do not attack living lawn turf, and the best method to control them is through masking their appearance with fertilizer.

There are several things that you can do to reduce the appearance of fairy rings in your lawn:

• Fertilize your grass to reduce the appearance of the fairy ring.
• Aerate your grass to allow water to reach the grass roots in the fairy ring.
• Once or twice a year, spread and rake 6mm of good loam soil into your lawn turf.

There are fungicides approved for use to control fairy rings, but their effectiveness may be inconsistent.

The only way to completely get rid of a fairy ring is to dig out and replace, to a depth of about 300mm, all of the soil within the fairy ring and about 300mm outside of the ring.

All of the soil should be moved well away from the lawn - and take care not to spill any on the lawn turf.