Hello Deborah,

Thank you for your question.

This looks like Pythium Blight to me.

This condition is caused by soil born fungi.

Pythium blight thrives in wet conditions and causes extensive damage. In cool-season grasses, the disease is most severe during hot, humid, or rainy weather with warm nights, typically when temperatures range from 86 to 95°F.

Here are some ways to deal with this situation.

Cultural Controls:

For summer seedings, do not apply excessive amounts of seed and fertilizer, and prevent free water from standing on the soil surface.

It is also important to avoid using excessive quantities of mulch following seeding.

Chemical Controls:

Control can be achieved with preventative fungicide applications or applications of fungicides after symptoms appear if the disease is detected before significant damage occurs.

Fungicides labeled for Pythium include Terrazole (etridiazole), Subdue MAXX (mefenoxam), Banol (propamocarb), Segway (cyazofamid), Disarm and Fame (fluoxystrobin), Disarm C and Fame+C (fluoxystrobin + chlorothalonil), and Disarm M (fluoxystrobin + myclobutanil). Although not labeled specifically for Rhizoctonia damping off, Disarm and Fame fungicides control other diseases caused by Rhizoctonia.

Having said this, I would highly recommend sending in a sample for testing to make certain this is the exact and only issue affecting the turf grass.

Below is a link with instructions for submitting a sample.

https://turfpestlab.psu.edu/sample-submission/