Moisture and disease: a surprising relationship

Can you control turf diseases by withholding water? Many people think so. But new research shows why keeping turf dry frequently hurts more than it helps.

We first came across this counter-intuitive phenomenon while studying gray leaf spot, a disease caused by the fungus Magnaporthe grisea, and the first example that we encountered where dry conditions caused increased disease damage, rather than decreased damage. The top two photos to the right illustrate this trend, which is explained in more detail…