(Megan Kennelly, KSU Plant Pathology)
Thanks to Jamie Hancock, Horticulture Extension Agent from Shawnee County, for sending these in. Check out the photos below. What do you think happened? You can post in a comment here or on Facebook, and we’ll share some answers. Full disclosure – we don’t know 100% what happened, but Jamie and I have some thoughts. Let’s see what you come up with, too.
For an initial guess, I would suspect a chemical burn. It would be easy for me to believe that someone spilled gasoline or fertilizer there. It also seems to appear to “runoff” from the landscape area, so someone could have filled the spreader there and then if there is slope (I couldn’t tell from the picture) perhaps it ran off with rain.
Looks like a non-selective herbicide running off of the landscape bed.
looks like a leaking or spillage of roundup from a hand sprayer.