Watering too much. You should only be watering once per week, MAX, and only when the high temps are running in the 90s. With temps in the 80s you should be watering once every 2 weeks. With temps in the 70s you can back off to once every 3 weeks.

Infrequent watering will allow the surface of the soil to dry out completely between watering, and you'll likely never see fungus again. In some parts of the world they can back off to never watering. Even at my house at the edge of the Texas desert I did not begin to water until mid July. By that time you, in a much cooler climate, had been watering 2x per week for months.

Hey, thanks for the reply. That little water, really. Wow never would have thought that. I feel as if I was to water only once a week my lawn would be toast in the north east come summer time.

I can see what you are saying with the fungus. Being constantly wet has definitely lead to increased fungus on the lawn, but cutting down to once a week, or even once every two weeks seems difficult for me to understand.

You can't go cold turkey on watering. What happens is your grass roots don't extend very deeply into the soil because they don't have to. Then when the very surface of the soil dries out, those roots are literally high and dry. What you need to do is continue to water deeply but gradually stretch out the interval before you water again. Then gradually the roots will dive deeper and deeper to get to the water farther down in the soil. You just can't do this suddenly. Watch the grass for signs of wilting. As soon as you see any part of the grass wilt, water the entire lawn deeply. Then turn off the sprinkler and watch for wilting again.

Also you should do a watering test. 1 hour only gives me 1/8 inch. But 1 hour at my neighbor's gives him 3 inches. So, put out some cat food or tuna cans and time how long it takes to fill them. That will be your normal watering duration from now on. I would say, after reading and writing here for 12 years, most people's problem is with watering too frequently and keeping the soil too moist.

Something else I left out from above was about fixing your soil. You've left the soil damage with repeated fungicide and this year's insecticide. Those chemicals are damaging to the microbial life in the soil. If your soil isn't working, then the plants aren't going to respond right. Fixing the soil is easy with compost. You can apply now or any day of the year. Use no more than 1 cubic yard per 1,000 square feet. Scatter that around with a shovel. Getting a perfectly even coating of compost is impossible and unnecessary. Just get it out and shove it around with a push broom. The soil would have eventually recovered anyway, so this just speeds up the process by months.

There is an organic approach to fungus...not that you'll see fungus again. The organic solution is ordinary corn meal. That feeds the soil microbes and promotes the population of another, predatory fungus. The predator sweeps in over the corn meal and then proceeds to wipe out the disease fungus. I've used it successfully every year for the past 12. The application rate is 20 pounds per 1,000 square feet.

You are handing out gold! I'm very much thankful for your time.

Looks like I have some work in figuring out the watering schedule, but I'm confident with your guidance I will be able to zero it in.

THis weekend I intend on aerating, overseeding and top dressing. My only concern was where to get the compost. Do I go the big box route such as HD and purchase a whole bunch of those $2.50 yellow compost bag and sift it, or is okay to throw bits of mulch/pebbles along with the compost on the soil. Two nurseries I spoke to around here have compost but its mixed with mulch, maybe I should go that route and have them dump a yard in my pickup. My yard isnt large, maybe 3500sq ft.

Thanks for that corn meal tip too, I live on Long Island so most people around here just hire a landscaper, where as I enjoy getting out and doing it myself. Where do you get bulk corn meal?

You schedule must be a little more difficult as you only get an 1/8th of an inch an hour, I believe I get 1/4 maybe even .5 an hour, will need to check again.Since you get an .125 how long and how often do you water?

I

If I'm going to water a full inch, I run 8 hours all at one shot. My hose timer only goes 2 hours, so I have to reset it or set an alarm on my phone to turn it off. I have another timer that will go the full 8 hours, but it needs batteries (sigh).

Why are you aerating? Is your soil hard or are you doing it because everyone else is doing it? In either case you don't need to aerate. However if you were hoping to aerate and fill the holes with compost, then that's an okay excuse. If your soil is hard, then ask about shampoo.

Black Kow compost, in the yellow bags, is usually good stuff. It has a little sand filler, but compared to the others, it's good. Good finished compost smells good and has no recognizable materials in it. You should not see leaves, sticks, or twigs. You'll see some, but you should not see a lot. Large chunks of material (mulch) should be screened out. Look around. You can likely get it cheaper in bulk from a materials supply. Look in the yellow pages for landscape supply or materials supply. People who sell rock and soil usually have compost of some form or another.

Bulk corn meal or soybean meal comes from your local feed store (yes, there are some near you). Search Google Maps for "Feed stores near (your town here), NY" and it will give you the locations and list their phone numbers. Call first.

Top dressing? Soil or compost? The only acceptable answer is compost. Top dressing with soil or sand will change your drainage. Unless you have a low spot that fills with water all the time, keep away from top soil. Compost works because it "evaporates" over time. It completely disappears and does not change the drainage.

My soil isnt compacted at all. For the most part it is quite manageable, I can easily get a screwdriver six inches down. My thinking (probably flawed) was that the holes created would allow seed to germinate better vs the seed not making contact at all if I were to just throw it down. That is really the only reason I wanted to aerate, and also the compost would enter the holes as well. So I guess I can save some time and just throw some seed, a touch of starter fertilizer, some top dressing and call it a day? WIll this approach allow for most part most of the seed to germinate? Once again thanks!

Hear you on the batteries. Have my kids thermometer and a few other things that take off the run/ hard to find batteries, been too lazy to buy them off amazon!

I'm jealous your sod looked good for 4 yrs before looking like that. Mine took one.

"Watch the grass for signs of wilting". So you mean when it starts to look a little brown?

Thanks

>>My soil isnt compacted at all. For the most part it is quite manageable, I can easily get a screwdriver six inches down. My thinking (probably flawed) was that the holes created would allow seed to germinate better vs the seed not making contact at all if I were to just throw it down.

Skip the aeration. Your back and pocketbook, as well as the soil biology, will thank you. Aeration suddenly injects oxygen into deeper layers that don't see it. The reaction of the soil bacteria isn't what I'd call positive; most, over-oxygenated, simply die.

The only remaining reason would be to even out a ripply or slightly uneven lawn by raking cores into the lower areas. That also doesn't seem to apply here.

>>So I guess I can save some time and just throw some seed, a touch of starter fertilizer, some top dressing and call it a day? WIll this approach allow for most part most of the seed to germinate? Once again thanks!

Rolling it might be called for, although stepping on it in smaller areas is certainly perfectly fine. Even if you don't, it's going to turn out fine (I neither rolled nor stepped and have a lovely lawn).

As long as you water the seed correctly--twice a day to keep it damp--it'll grow just fine.

As usual, I disagree on the use of aeration, but it should never be used for injecting compost or green/organic fertilizer into the soil. Adding brown or black carbon (humates like brown coal or peat moss) or fertilizer is fine, but compost can create a mess and will pull too much N. And I agree to disagree on the benefits of oxygen and roots. I doubt that there are many anaerobic organisms in the top 4" of soil unless the soil is compacted. Light sensitive organisms are another story. As always, aeration is a tool for resolving specific issues, it should not be a ritual.

>> I doubt that there are many anaerobic organisms in the top 4" of soil unless the soil is compacted.

Under normal circumstances, there should be exactly zero anaerobic organisms in the top four inches. However, oxygen tolerance isn't an on-off thing (or why composting happens very well around 4% oxygen saturation).

Wilting means when the blades of grass fold together. Brown is a sign of dormancy or death depending on what type of grass you have.

>>> Under normal circumstances, there should be exactly zero anaerobic organisms in the top four inches. However, oxygen tolerance isn't an on-off thing (or why composting happens very well around 4% oxygen saturation).

Now I get ya.

Thanks for all the comments. This past weekend I busted my butt. First I mowed my lawn real short, second lowest setting, would have gone lower by mower was stalling because grass was too thin and my weak toro motor couldn't handle the added load.

Then I put down a yard of compost (which I sifted by hand! to remove all the undesirable's) over the yard. Overseeded with seed I purchased from All Pro, consists of mostly Rye ( probably did a bit more then I should, used about 30lbs for ~2800 sq ft. Then I racked it in, that was fun.
Will water twice a day till it germinates. Let you guys know how it turns out.