Frequent, light waterings encourage a weak, shallow root system that is prone to damage from moisture stress. Midnight to early morning is the best time to water turf. Watering in the evening or mid-morning may encourage several damaging foliar diseases. To remove early morning dew from turf foliage, you can drag a pole or hose over bentgrass and ryegrass greens and tees. This may help to reduce the risk of Pythium blight, especially when environmental conditions favor this disease.
Resistance is an effective and economical disease control tool.
When establishing a new lawn or other turf area, choose the cultivar of the turfgrass that is best adapted to that site and most disease-resistant. Most of the recently released Kentucky bluegrass and fine fescue cultivars have good resistance to many damaging diseases. However, some disease resistance is available. Hybrid bermudagrass cultivars are more resistant to leaf spot and crown rot than common bermudagrass, although they are more likely to be damaged by spring dead spot. Common and Gulf Star St. Augustinegrass have better gray leaf spot resistance than the other cultivars.