Where do you live?

What kind of grass do you have?

Did you take any pictures last summer?

Can you post current pictures? (best pictures are taken on a cloudy day or in the shade)

I am in central MA. I have KBG, not an elite type.

It looks fine now but here are some pictures from last Summer that show general thinning and browning. I don't have pictures of circular dead spots that practically appeared overnight one day. I would like to avoid what happened last year.

In comparison, here is a picture from a couple of years ago when my lawn didn't have fungal problems.

Any recommendations to prevent another fungal outbreak this year?

In the long run, employing proper turf maintenance techniques will pay the best dividends. Short of controlling the weather, there is not much that can be done to prevent an occasional outbreak of disease or insect invasion. Keep an eye on the lawn, have a fungicide on hand, and apply when needed. Unless you are very unlucky, this shouldn't be a seasonal problem. Attempting to be pro-active by "inoculating" the lawn with pre-emptive applications of fungicide will cause turf problems of their own.

Agree. I would put down at least one app of organic fertilizer this year to help recover the beneficial fungi that might have been set back with the 'throwing everything at it' approach. The soil is full of beneficial microbes including important fungi. After this much time has gone by, the good guys are coming back, but you can help with the organic fert. The app rate is 15-20 pounds per 1,000 square feet.

Lawn looks great from that altitude, historically speaking.

David,

I agree with your advice based on what I believe you intend to be the
outcome, but I wish you'd be more specific when advising application of
organic fertilizer if you mean to recommend grains or legumes and not
something like this.

I need to write up a blurb on organic fertilizer. I've tried but end up digressing.

What yardtractor is talking about is grain type fertilizers as opposed to manure types. The grains work by feeding real food to the soil microbes. The popular grains are soybean meal, alfalfa pellets or meal, and corn. Less popular are used coffee grounds, flax seed meal, and cottonseed meal. These are real food with protein, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, and enzymes. These grains must be decomposed by thousands of species of microbes, but in 3 weeks plant food miraculously appears in the soil. The manure based fertilizers are a more direct urea or uric acid type of plant food. These decompose into a direct plant food in a few days. Both are good in their own way, but I much prefer the grains. Some fertilizers mix the two. Those are good, too. YT linked to a Sustain product that has chemical fertilizer mixed in with a manure base. I'll never use that.

Unfortunately the makers tout it as the standard for organic fertilizer. Easy for people to be mislead in what they are getting. Big differences in organic products.

Had good luck with Senenade as a preventive

Ok, I will do at least one app of organic fertilizer. Since many have written about corn and its disease fighting benefits, I will probably go with corn meal or cracked corn. Starting in May, I plan to spray Serenade monthly. Is this safe/conservative enough?

I never used grain type fertilizer. Is it true that corn meal is a mess to put down? I only have a rotary spreader. Do I need to get a drop spreader for corn meal? If I go with cracked corn, won't it invite a lot of birds and other critters?

It seems that people who use chemicals and synthetic fertilizers have less problem with fungus. I wonder if we are inviting fungal disease by putting down too much organic matter.

I just use my hands to throw the corn meal. I also use Serenade weekly at 2-4 oz/1000. Or biweekly. Depending on the weather.

I scatter cornmeal by hand and it is quite messy. Make sure it is not a windy day! I have heard that cracked corn goes through a spreader so I will use that next once I use up the cornmeal I have. Cracked corn is cheaper for me too. Negatives of cracked corn is that it takes longer to decompose than cornmeal, may invite a few more critters to the yard buffet, and may sprout a few corn plants that die easily.

Sustane must be for those golf courses that like to say they are "50% organic". Like it matters that they prefer a cheap manure filler to go with the huge amount of junk they dump on their turf & into the local water table.

Jeff, there is corn flour, cornmeal and cracked corn. I have found that the cornmeal works beautifully in my spreader. I have also use the cracked corn but birds do eat it. At one point I counted 65 birds in one section of my backyard looking for cracked corn. If you can get either one and the price is not that different I would go with the cornmeal.