Rapid blight on poa

View Larger Note the water soaked appearance of the foliage in the top photo. This is characteristic of rapid blight, caused by Labyrinthula terrestris. The lower 2 photos are high magnification micrographs that show Labyrinthula cells inside turf cells (middle photo) and after they have been released from turf cells (bottom photo). High levels of soil sodium (120 ppm) made the plants more susceptible to this saline-loving disease organism. Although sodium was very high, overall salts (EC) was only moderate at 2.7 dS/m.

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Turf Diseases