Which of the following is an environmental management practice to prevent turfgrass disease?

• A. Maintaining proper drainage
• B. Planting an appropriate cultivar for the site
• C. Mowing at the maximum height recommended for the grass cultivar
• D. Keeping mower blades sharp

Answer: (A)

Managing the turf environment to limit disease starts with controlling moisture through good drainage. When the soil drains properly, water doesn’t puddle in low spots, and the root zone stays aerated. This keeps roots healthier and helps the turf canopy dry more quickly after irrigation or rain, reducing leaf wetness—the critical window many turf pathogens need to infect. In short, good drainage lowers the conditions that favor disease development, making it a powerful environmental management practice for disease prevention.

Other approaches touch disease risk but aren’t environmental management in the same sense. Selecting a cultivar suited to the site helps with host compatibility, rather than changing the environmental conditions. Mowing at the maximum recommended height and keeping mower blades sharp influence plant health and cutting quality, but they don’t actively modify moisture or humidity in the environment the way drainage does.