How do we stop spring dead spot from coming back in our HOA's bermudagrass every year?

By OurHOA · General information · Revised October 29, 2026

How an HOA board maps spring dead spot in bermudagrass, times fall fungicide by soil temperature, fixes thatch and late nitrogen, and helps the patches fill in.

Part of the HOA board handbook: vendors, projects and upkeep.

The short answer

Spring dead spot is a root disease of bermudagrass. The round, straw-colored patches you see in April were infected the previous fall, and nothing sprayed in spring will bring them back. NC State Extension says that once symptoms show, the only fix is getting healthy bermudagrass to grow into the patches from the edges. So the board's plan runs on two seasons. In spring, map every patch while it is easy to see. In fall, have a licensed applicator treat the mapped patches with a preventive fungicide once the soil cools to about 70 degrees F, and stop the habits that made the turf vulnerable: thick thatch, compaction, and nitrogen too close to dormancy. Expect a multi-year job. The patches come back in the same places and grow a few inches a year if nobody manages them. Rules vary by state and by your governing documents. This guide is general education, not legal or agronomic advice for your site.

Confirm what you are looking at

Bermudagrass greens up unevenly every spring, so a slow corner is not proof of disease. Look for these signs together: - Patches from about 6 inches to several feet across that stay brown and bleached while the turf around them greens up. The Texas A&M Plant Disease Handbook describes them as well defined and often slightly sunken. - Black, rotted roots and stolons when you pull up a piece from the patch edge. - The same spots every year, sometimes with green grass or weeds filling the middle so the patch turns into a ring. - Worse damage in shade, on north-facing slopes and in compacted or poorly drained ground, per NC State. NC State lists bermudagrass and zoysiagrass as hosts. If your common turf is St. Augustinegrass, the brown circles are more likely large patch, which is covered in our guide on large patch and take-all root rot. Several fungi cause it. NC State names Ophiosphaerella korrae as most common in the eastern United States and O. herpotricha in the Midwest. You do not need to know which one you have to start, but a lab can tell you if fall treatments keep failing. Your county extension office can point you to the state plant diagnostic lab.

Why some HOAs get it and others never do

NC State says spring dead spot is worst in the northern part of bermudagrass's range and after very cold winters. The fungus does not kill the grass directly. It weakens the roots and stolons in fall, and the winter cold finishes the job. That is why a hard winter in North Texas is often followed by a bad spring, and why the disease is much less of a concern in the warmest parts of the bermudagrass belt. It also favors well-kept turf. NC State says it usually shows up three to five years after a stand is planted and is most common on intensively managed bermudagrass. The conditions it lists are ones many HOA contracts create: - Heavy nitrogen, especially late in the season - Thatch and soil compaction - Poor drainage and overwatering - Anything else that limits root growth going into winter The Texas A&M handbook adds that careful nitrogen use reduces severity. A greener lawn in October is not a healthier lawn in April.

Map the patches every spring

This is the step most boards skip, and it decides what the fall treatment costs. NC State recommends mapping affected areas in spring so fall fungicide goes only where it is needed. Pick a week after green-up, usually April, when the patches stand out. Have a volunteer or the landscape manager walk the turf with a site map and a phone: 1. Mark each patch on the map and give it a number. 2. Photograph it with something for scale, such as a 12-inch ruler. 3. Measure the widest point and note shade, slope and any wet ground. 4. Add a buffer of a few feet around each patch when you draw the treatment zones, since patches grow outward. Keep the map in the grounds file. Next spring, compare it with the new walk. Patches that shrank mean the program is working. New patches in a new area usually mean a drainage or compaction problem there.

Fall treatment: timing beats product choice

Fungicides for this disease only work as prevention in fall. NC State's turf pathology program gives this schedule: - First application when fall soil temperatures fall to about 70 degrees F. Go by soil temperature, not the calendar. - A second application 21 to 28 days later. - Keep going on that interval until the soil drops below 55 degrees F. The fungicide has to reach the roots. NC State says to irrigate with at least 1/8 inch of water right after the application, or apply it in a high water volume of about 5 gallons per 1,000 square feet. Ask the applicator how they will do it, and make sure the irrigation zone over each patch is on that night. NC State rates dozens of products and notes that several are not labeled for home lawns. Leave the product choice to the licensed applicator, who has to follow the label for your site. The board's job is to ask what active ingredient they plan to use, confirm it is labeled for spring dead spot on bermudagrass, and get the dates and soil temperatures in writing. The applicator must hold the right license. In Texas, treating plant diseases on plantings next to homes for pay is structural pest control under Occupations Code section 1951.003, and section 1951.301 requires a business license. In Florida, the limited landscape maintenance certificate in Statutes section 482.156 does not authorize applying pesticides to turf. Colorado regulates commercial applicators under C.R.S. title 35, article 10.

Cultural fixes the board should write into the contract

Fungicide alone rarely solves this. These steps come from NC State unless noted: - Nitrogen. No more than 1 pound of nitrogen per 1,000 square feet in any one application, and none within six weeks of winter dormancy. NC State also found the nitrogen source matters by fungus: calcium nitrate suppressed O. korrae and ammonium sulfate suppressed O. herpotricha. - Thatch. Mississippi State Extension says to keep it under three-quarters of an inch. NC State recommends hollow-tine aeration at least three times during summer in badly affected areas, when bermudagrass grows fastest. - Potassium. The Texas A&M handbook and Mississippi State both say to keep potassium adequate. NC State's research found extra fall potassium had no effect, so test the soil and apply what the test calls for. - Mowing. Mississippi State suggests raising the mowing height toward the end of the season. - Crabgrass preventers. NC State says dinitroaniline herbicides, a class that includes prodiamine and pendimethalin, slow recovery and should not go on areas with the disease. Ask the contractor what pre-emergent they use. When the turf is due for replacement, ask about cultivars. UF/IFAS lists Latitude 36 as more resistant to spring dead spot, and NC State notes that some cultivars show partial resistance. None is immune.

A sample year and wording to copy

Sample calendar for a Texas HOA. Adjust the fall dates to your soil temperatures: - April: map and photograph the patches. - April to June: lightly lower the mowing height on patches to push runners inward, as Mississippi State suggests, and aerate or spike the dead mat. Control weeds in the patches. - June to August: hollow-tine aeration on the worst areas. Soil test. - Late summer: last nitrogen application, at least six weeks before the turf usually goes dormant. - September to October: first fungicide at about 70 degrees F soil temperature, repeated every 21 to 28 days until 55 degrees F. - November: file the applicator's records with the map. Mississippi State says the patches usually fill in by late summer. NC State warns severe cases can take the whole season. A motion the board can adapt: "I move that the association treat spring dead spot in the mapped common-area bermudagrass this fall, using a licensed applicator to apply a labeled preventive fungicide on the mapped patches and a buffer around each, starting when soil temperature reaches about 70 degrees F, with a second application 21 to 28 days later, at a cost not to exceed $____, and that the landscape contract be amended to stop nitrogen applications six weeks before dormancy." If you are bidding the work, our guide on hiring an HOA landscaping contractor covers how to write the scope.

Mistakes that keep the patches coming back

- Spraying in spring. The damage was done last fall. A spring fungicide is money spent on dead roots. - Treating on a calendar date. A warm October pushes the 70-degree window later. Ask the applicator for soil readings. - Spraying without watering in. Fungicide that stays on the leaves never reaches the roots. - Blanket-treating the whole property. Treat the mapped patches and their buffers. - Fertilizing late for fall color. That is how a contract invites the disease. - Resodding patches without fixing compaction and drainage. The disease returns to the same weak ground. - Losing the map when the grounds chair changes. Keep it in the association's records, not on one volunteer's phone.

Sources

These guides are general education for HOA boards and residents, not legal, tax, or financial advice. Rules vary by state and by your community's governing documents - check with a professional for your situation.

More on living with an hoa

Or browse all living with an hoa guides.