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Pathogen: Clarireedia jacksonii and related Clarireedia species (formerly Sclerotinia homoeocarpa)

Common Names: Dollar spot fungus, dollar spot lawn disease, Sclerotinia dollar spot

Dollar Spot

Polka dots on a hungry lawn

Dollar Spot Quick Answers

Will my lawn recover on its own?
Yes, usually
The fungus mainly kills leaf blades, so grass that is fed and actively growing pushes out new leaves and the spots fade within a few weeks. Hungry or drought-stressed lawns recover slowly, and the worst spots can thin out.
Should I bag my clippings?
While it's active
Clippings are the main way the fungus moves around a lawn, so bag them while spots and morning webbing are present, then go back to mulching once it's gone. Send them to yard-waste pickup rather than a cool home compost pile.
Is it safe for kids and pets?
Yes
Dollar spot infects only grass and can't harm people or animals. The only precaution applies if you use a fungicide: keep everyone off until the spray has dried.
Should I water more or less?
Change the timing
Water deeply and less often, in the early-morning hours finishing by sunrise, so the grass isn't wet any longer than the dew already keeps it. Evening watering adds hours of wet leaves, and letting the lawn go drought-stressed also makes it worse.
Can it spread to my neighbor's lawn or my garden?
Lawns only
It can travel to another lawn on mowers, shoes and clippings, though most lawns already carry the fungus. It infects only grasses, so your flowers, shrubs and vegetables are safe.

What Dollar Spot Looks Like

From Standing Height

Dollar spot shows up as many small, round, straw-colored or bleached spots scattered across otherwise green grass, most 2 to 6 inches across on a lawn mowed at 2 to 3 inches. Early on, the spots can look like faint dark or yellowish dots from a standing view. Over several humid days, new spots keep appearing and neighboring spots merge into larger, irregular tan areas that can look sunken.

Up Close: Blades, Crowns and Roots

The close look is what confirms dollar spot. Pick blades from the edge of a spot, where green grass meets tan. A lesion starts as a small yellow-green or water-soaked blotch and quickly turns straw-colored or bleached.

The key feature is the hourglass band. The lesion usually forms partway down the blade and spreads across its whole width, pinched in at the middle like an hourglass, with a reddish-brown border separating it from the green tissue. On bermudagrass and zoysiagrass the border can look darker brown to purplish.

Because the band girdles the blade, the part of the leaf above it soon yellows and dies, so infected blades often show green below the band and a dead tip above it. Crowns and roots normally stay firm, which is why the lawn can regrow.

Signs of the Fungus

On dewy mornings, active spots are often covered with fine, white, cobweb-like threads that bridge from blade to blade. This is the fungus itself growing across the wet leaves. Look before about 8 AM: as the sun dries the dew, the threads collapse and vanish, so a lawn that looked webbed at dawn can look clean by midmorning. The fungus makes no spores, mushrooms or colored dust.

Could It Be Something Else?

Common Lookalikes

Identification Differentiators: How to Tell Them Apart

Brown Patch is the most common mix-up because both make tan patches in humid summer weather and both can show morning webbing. Brown patch patches are much bigger, usually 1 to 3 feet or more, and form on warm nights above about 65°F; dollar spot makes many separate small spots and favors cooler nights.

Red Thread shows up in the same underfed lawns and makes small bleached spots too. The giveaway is pink to red, thread-like strands sticking out from the leaf tips, which dollar spot never has.

Drought stress can bleach scattered spots in sunny, sandy or compacted areas. The blades roll up and fade evenly, with no banded lesions.

Billbugs make small pockets of yellow, dying grass that look like early dollar spot from a standing view. The damage is at the base of the stems, not on the blades.

Dollar Spot Diagnostic Profile

Check what you see against the full set of signs. The more that match, the more likely this is your problem.

What You’ll See

Symptom Color

Tan or Straw

Yellow

Brown

When and Where

Cool-Season Zone Timing
Warm-Season Zone Timing
Transition Zone Timing

Controlling Dollar Spot

Feeding the grass and fixing the watering time cure most home-lawn cases without any spray.

  • Feed a hungry cool-season lawn. If you haven’t fertilized in the last couple of months, apply 0.75 to 1.0 lb of nitrogen per 1,000 sq ft, mostly slow-release, in late May or early June. Faster leaf growth lets the grass outgrow the fungus, and mowing removes the damaged tips. Keep any midsummer feeding light, because heavy summer nitrogen feeds brown patch. A fall feeding helps the lawn recover and heads off next year’s outbreak.
  • Keep warm-season lawns on schedule. Fertilize bermudagrass and zoysiagrass only after they are growing strongly in May, finish by August, and don’t push extra nitrogen at spring green-up. Early nitrogen feeds large patch and weakens the grass going into winter.
  • Water before sunrise. Run the sprinklers in the early-morning hours so they finish by sunrise. The grass is already wet from dew, so you add no extra wet hours, and the morning sun dries it all at once. Never water in the evening.
  • Water deeply, not often. Soak the soil 4 to 6 inches down, then wait until the lawn needs it again. Deep roots handle stress better, and the surface gets time to dry.
  • Mow at the high end for your grass. More leaf means more food for regrowth and faster recovery; 2 to 3 inches suits most bluegrass and ryegrass lawns. Don’t mow wet grass while spots are active, since that smears infected bits across the lawn.
  • Bag clippings during outbreaks. Clippings carry the fungus from spot to spot. Send them to yard-waste pickup or the trash; home compost only if the pile reliably runs hot, above 140°F. Return to mulching once the spots stop spreading.
  • Let in sun and air. Limb up low tree branches and thin crowded shrubs next to the lawn so morning dew dries sooner.
  • Control thatch and compaction. Core aerate during active growth, and dethatch when thatch is thicker than 1/2 inch. This removes some of the dead tissue the fungus lives in and helps water soak in.
  • Overseed with a resistant grass. If a bluegrass lawn spots every year, overseeding with improved turf-type tall fescue changes the lawn to a grass dollar spot rarely touches.

Spraying is rarely worth it on a home lawn. Dollar spot mostly kills leaves, and a lawn that is fed and watered correctly grows out of it, so university turf programs consider fungicides rarely necessary on residential lawns. A fungicide also can’t turn dead blades green again; it only protects new growth.

If a lawn spots badly every year even after you’ve fixed feeding and watering, a preventive program can make sense. Start when nights stay above 50°F and before spots appear, or at the very first spots.

Check the active-ingredient panel. Many retail lawn fungicides contain only azoxystrobin, which has essentially no effect on dollar spot.

Active ingredientFRAC groupNotes
Propiconazole3Widely sold for lawns; the most practical homeowner option.
Myclobutanil, triticonazole3Same group as propiconazole; don’t rotate between them.
Thiophanate-methyl1Different group, useful for rotation.
Azoxystrobin + propiconazole; pyraclostrobin + triticonazole11 + 3Granular premixes from specialty retailers that perform close to sprays. The dollar spot control comes from the Group 3 partner.
  • Liquid beats granular. Ordinary granules leave gaps on the leaves, and disease breaks through. Liquid sprays cover the blades better.
  • Let it dry on the leaves. The disease is on the blades, so watering right after a liquid spray washes product off where it’s needed. Follow the label for granules.
  • Expect 2 to 4 weeks of protection per application, depending on product and weather.
  • Rotate groups. The dollar spot fungus develops resistance quickly, and resistance to Group 3 and Group 1 products is documented. Alternate Group 3 and Group 1 rather than repeating the same group.

Chlorothalonil, iprodione, fluazinam and the SDHI fungicides (boscalid, fluxapyroxad, penthiopyrad) are golf and professional products, and several aren’t labeled for home lawns. Biological sprays give mixed results and don’t control dollar spot on their own.

Frequently Asked Questions

These answers are synthesized from plant pathology research and diagnostic guidance published by university extension services and plant disease clinics.

Does dollar spot mean my lawn needs fertilizer?

Usually, yes. Dollar spot is most severe on lawns that are short on nitrogen, and outbreaks often follow the normal dip in soil nitrogen in late spring. A moderate slow-release feeding helps the grass outgrow it. On warm-season lawns, feed on the normal May-to-August schedule rather than adding extra at green-up.

Why didn't the lawn fungicide I used work?

Most often it’s the wrong active ingredient. Many retail lawn fungicides contain only azoxystrobin, which barely touches dollar spot. Other common reasons: the product was granular and didn’t cover the blades, it went on after the damage was done (it can’t revive dead blades), or the local fungus has become resistant to the group you used.

Why does it come back in the same lawn every year?

The fungus never leaves. It survives in thatch and dead grass between seasons and lives in most lawn soils, so it flares whenever dewy, mild weather meets hungry grass. Fixing feeding and watering, controlling thatch and overseeding with a resistant grass break the cycle better than chasing it each summer.

Do organic products or compost help?

Compost top-dressing can help a little. University trials have found that a thin layer of compost can suppress dollar spot, likely by feeding soil microbes and the grass. Biological fungicide sprays give mixed results and don’t control it on their own. Neither replaces correct feeding and early-morning watering.

Scientific Authority

This profile is built on plant pathology research and diagnostic guidance from university extension services and plant disease clinics. We prioritize accurate identification and cultural control first, recommending fungicides only where research shows they are justified, and naming them by active ingredient rather than brand.

Primary Resources