What's turning the grass black

 Both my neighbor and I have spots where the grasses turning black, almost
moldy looking. The areas are irregular. I can't see anything like a fruiting
structure, but it is black, not brown.
No frost yet

Cheryl
(southern NH)

 
Here's a link to your state's cooperative extension service. The 6th link
looks promising. If not, I'd give them a call. One of their functions is to
assist homeowners with questions like yours. And, they'll be more familiar
with local disease issues than probably any other source.

http://www.googlesyndicatedsearch.com/u/UNHCE?q=black+grass&sa=Search&domains=extension.unh.edu&sitesearch=extension.unh.edu

Main page:
http://extension.unh.edu/  

 On 9/12/07 9:51 AM, in article d9SFi.15933$ya1.4527@news02.roc.ny,


Thanks ;)
Cheryl

 
fruiting

If it looks like tiny balls/dots of black on the surface of the blades,
maybe affecting a small patch 6-12 inches wide, then it is probably slime
mold. Slime molds are not pathogenic to the grass, it just looks ugly. It'll
just go away when it gets drier, but it will come back in the future. No
control measure is needed. You could just hose it off.

-al sung
Rapid Realm Technology, Inc.
Hopkinton, MA
(Zone 6a)

 Craig said:

This is an old tip that I've never had the occasion to test directly (but I
will comment more after):

Drive a small spade down in one or two spots  around one of your
plants and cut a few roots.  This might shock the plant into ripening
the tomatoes.

OK, this year one of the new varieties I was trying was not ripening any
tomatoes, not even a hint of color, even after all the others were doing
so.  It was so full of green tomatoes that the stake was leaning over
threatening to crash into the fence. (I have electric wires at the top so
this would have been a Bad Thing.)   I drove in a couple of small stakes
to tie off the larger one and stop the leaning.  And shortly after that, a
whole bunch of tomatoes on that plant started turning red.

 Now, I would think this was entirely coincidental, except for having
remembered that old advice.  So I may have unintentionally confirmed it
works.  Or, maybe not.  I doubt it would hurt to try.

--
Pat in Plymouth MI ('someplace.net' is comcast)
  
Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
(attributed to Don Marti)