I am hoping to help anyone who has had an on-going problem with red thread. Believe me that I have tried it all. I struggled with an outbreak for over ten years on an acre of land. There is no way to explain how this took over my life at times considering the amount of lawn I had and the length of time I struggled with it. I have spent untold thousands of dollars. I even became friends with a research scientist for a company that produced a natural microbe product, in addition to the president of a company that produced a nitrogen product with beneficial microbes. I did a lot of legwork and made many professional connections over the years. While some of the more natural remedies might be helpful (rather than using commercial fungicides which sterilize the soil and seem to perpetuate disease because the population of beneficial microbes is disturbed), I eventually felt that only correcting the true crux of the problem would lead to a solution. In other words, to try and approach red thread with the mindset that you have to overcome, annihilate, kill ... will never work, or at least in my experience. You can try to do everything you want to kill it, but the only way to get to a true solution is to boost the health of everything involved (i.e., soil, plant, microbes, etc.)! It is no different than the immune system of a human being! You have to boost the entire system with nutrients and not just one or two or three. And shouldn't minerals and beneficial microbe diversity be the first line of defense for plant life, just as it is for us? For us, 80% +/- of our immune system is in our guts, and if we don't have the correct amount of good bacteria and the proper bacterial diversity, disease takes over and autoimmune diseases develop. I used this knowledge and applied it to my lawn. Yes, it is true that lawns low on nutrients will be more prone to red thread and other diseases. We all know that the general solution is said to be nitrogen. Well, I tried the highest nitrogen I could get for a couple of years. Still had red thread. I have spoken with university extensions who said that when it developed, one application of nitrogen should eliminate it and they had witnessed this. Still waiting on that. So, it may be true for some, but not for me. I think this could be because commercial nitrogen itself can possibly compromise the soil microbiome? That may be up for debate? Since I knew the soil itself was the problem, I started researching the basis of all life ... minerals. I came upon an article on the Net entitled, "Turfgrass Diseases: The Relationship of Potassium." Now I had already gotten a soil analysis which said my potassium was high. But I couldn't help feeling that perhaps this was a potassium problem? Perhaps there was potassium in the soil, but to get it into the plant is a different matter altogether? Could it be that getting it into the cells of the plant was the issue? Soil compaction problem? Root issues? So many possibilities, who could say. But again, it's the same for humans. You can take all the vitamins and minerals you want, but if your gut isn't able to assimilate them, you are going to develop a deficiency. Keep in mind I had tried milk, corn meal (both corn gluten meal and regular), natural fungicides with clove or beneficial microbes (which sometimes did help short-term, but the red thread always came back), chicken manure, compost tea (which I eventually realized could make the problem worse because tea has to be brewed and immediately applied or it may end up feeding the bad bacteria, or so I was told and seemed to experience myself), etc. Name something and I have tried it. In any event, I decided to take a shot and get some liquid kelp on the off-chance my soil had a compaction issue (which I knew it did) and had trouble getting potassium into the plant itself -- and would probably provide overall anything and everything I was missing ... like covering all the possible bases because kelp does so much. More than I could explain in a post. Well, here it is almost nearly November when I normally have a huge outbreak that takes out at least 1/3 of my acre -- and no red thread. In fact, I had no red thread from the time I first applied kelp throughout the rest of the summer. Any further nitrogen? No. Any other natural fungicides? No. I admit I did apply a bit of beneficial microbes one time made by Morgan Composting, Inc. (it is called Plant Protector and it has a picture of a cow on the container) which is an excellent product in itself. But the kelp I applied is made by Fertrell's. I did also apply granular chicken manure earlier in the season, but it never seemed to eliminate the problem permanently and it can also lead to a build-up of calcium in the soil if over-used for too long or too many years (so use in moderation within the realm of a rotational program)? Don't know if that's true, but just what I heard? I loved the chicken manure product made by Groganic and it helped tremendously, but let's face it, if your soil isn't right, nothing will help permanently for the long haul or lead to a permanent solution. The kelp is cost efficient and my lawn looks fantastically green, even approaching November. I do believe this is the end of my problem. Synopsis: if you want to get rid of red thread, at least try liquid kelp. If you want to do all you can to make your lawn look like a golf course, get kelp, granular chicken manure, beneficial microbes in the form of liquid like the one by Morgan, maybe a little bit of corn meal thrown in (some say corn gluten meal is better, some say regular is better ... it's still up in the air to me which one helps to grow the beneficial fungus more efficiently) ... Rotate these for a little while and I am confident you will be on your way to a permanent solution. I hope this helps!

>>Their recommendation has been to increase our watering (every other day, 30 minutes per zone at 5am and 5pm.) I think your lawn service is looking for business because that's a quick way to make red thread explode. Red thread is most active in cooler temperatures (70 degrees or below) with lots of water, and in underfed turf. There are exceptions. Cut back your watering frequency, but increase the amounts. Target, ultimately, would be 1" of water a week, delivered in one watering. For now, cut back slowly to avoid shocking the lawn--add an extra day between waterings. In two weeks, add another. Keep extending the time you water to put more water down. By the end of the season, you should have added 3 or 4 days depending on how much longer the weather holds. Fungicides are not recommended because red thread usually doesn't kill the lawn, it's merely extremely unsightly. Grass crowns aren't generally impacted and the grass will re-grow blades when the stress levels drop. Plus we really don't want to breed a fungicide-resistant red thread...

I'm not a red oak fan. I don't like its smell, its stringiness and its lousy burn. I much prefer white oak or choke cherry. I had a fire going in the Defiant, cherry from a blow down in the front yard last winter. I could smell it whilst car crawling. Smells like a maraschino cherry . I replaced the broken latch on the Defiant's side door with a bolt and washers. I caulked the door edges with gasket material and pushed it in as I tightened the bolt. This has restored a great amount of the stove's "airtightness" . I have more repairs to go, but that was the most bang for least effort. The stove was rated at 40,000 BTU and heated a 1200 sqare foot house. That was 40 yrs ago . Most of the plates are cracked. The inner baffle burnt out years ago I snapped off the worst of the warped piece, I intend to strap it roughly back into place with lots of slack built in to accomodate expansion. Heating oil is about 3.40 a gallon. I have a hot air system . Firewood is 275 $ a cord. Most of the house also has 220 Volt electric baseboard. The chimney was put in an enclosed porch. Then a few yrs later, I rolled the porch away, and put in a 28 x 28 , 2 story addition on a 20 X 28 with a 12x12 ell. Story and a half New England farmhouse built about 1870 from local pine. So the chimney is in a center of the house now. Thanksgiving of '85 I tended a mason who corbled the last 5 feet over 4 inches to clear the ridge pole Instead of splitting the ridge each course of brick was hung out about 3/8 of an inch.to the north. The masonry is great. It retains heat and heats the sheetrock plaster in the stairwell.

I've only tried spraying whole milk with an orhto sprayer at 3oz/gallon. I sprayed in the back as that was where it was the worst. The front has identical conditions but the red thread was less severe and I decided not to drag the hose and instead use that as a control. I have a red fescue/KBG lawn in a new development (not alot of shade). We've had alot of rain in MA the last two weeks and temps have been in the low 40's to 60's (sometimes a high of 70). The back is red thread free. The front has alot of red thread and areas that had a slight problem last year now have it again. I will spray milk as soon as I can until then I have done some soil drenching. I will also spray the back again as it can only help and NE springs are wet and cold. In my experience the redthread only attacks weak stands of grass. I am working on the soil in these areas with extra grains, UCG and some compost as it becomes available. I believe these areas also have alot of rock in it prohibiting root growth. I'm hoping that with a soft soil and hard winter freeze, the rocks will rise and can be removed. If I get sick of it, I may find a tool to dig out rock before it breaks my weedhound.