Need help with diseased lawn patches

7 years ago

last modified: 7 years ago

Hi Everyone,

I live in central MA and 2 Days ago I saw a circular reddish patch in my yard. I thought maybe thats just something one-off, but this morning I saw that other spots/patches have appeared and the grass is dead from those spots. I did see a white web type of thing in another area, but I don't see any here. My guess is, its some kind of Fungal disease caused by excessive watering. I had recently seeded sections in the yard and was watering twice a day.

Can anyone help in identifying what this is and how to fix it. Based on what I've looked up online, could be pythium or Anthracnose. But, again, I'm new to this and not sure how to identify and fix this.

Appreciate any help.

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Comments (5)

Jeff508
7 years ago
It looks like Dollar Spot.
dchall_san_antonio
7 years ago
Since 2002 I have been successful using ordinary corn meal to resolve fungal disease in my lawn. It takes 3 weeks to see the improvement, but it has worked every time for me. The application rate is 20 pounds per 1,000 square feet.

Corn meal works by attracting a predatory fungus that feeds on the disease fungus. I would try that first and, at the end of 3 weeks if you don't see improvement, you could use a chemical fungicide. You cannot use a chemical and then corn meal, because the beneficial fungus gets killed off by the chemicals.
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Jeff508
7 years ago
last modified: 7 years ago
Hi David,

Following your advice, I put down cracked corn yesterday. But I still wonder, does cornmeal or cracked corn really work? I know you said it hundreds of times that it worked for you but is it possible that the disease could have gone away on its own? I know cooler temperature and lower humidity can stop fungal outbreaks.

Can you point me to scientific studies where one side of a plot is treated and adjacent side not treated with cornmeal that show a significant difference for various fungal diseases? That will make me a believer.

Thanks,
i Zee
Original Author
7 years ago
last modified: 7 years ago
Thank you all for your feedback.

Seems what I have is red thread (pink patch). The theory is all week of rain and frequent watering because of newly seeded spots, not only created moist conditions for fungus to grow, but the soil had nitrogen depletion as a result of this.

I have put down Scotts Fungicide because this thing was growing all over the place overnight like crazy. I cut my grass down to 2.5 inch from 4 inch and stopped watering with sprinklers. Now only hand-water the seeded areas. Will also put down low dose of nitrogen high synthetic fertilizer for temporarily giving the grass something to chew on. I have an organic fertilizer program that I wan to stick too.

Hopefully the dead grass and spots will fill up in the next few weeks.
dchall_san_antonio
7 years ago
Following your advice, I put down cracked corn yesterday. But I still
wonder, does cornmeal or cracked corn really work? I know you said it
hundreds of times that it worked for you but is it possible that the
disease could have gone away on its own? I know cooler temperature and
lower humidity can stop fungal outbreaks.

Only hundreds? Seems like more. I've never seen cooler temps or lower humidity affect my disease spots. I had it for several years in the same place before I discovered corn meal.

There are no scientific studies showing that it works, but for some reason there are scientists (Parsons and Chalker-Scott) who, without the benefit of studies of their own, claim that it does not work. At this point you would have to call it anecdotal evidence from around the planet. Anecdotal evidence is still evidence and it has peer review. It just does not have scientific peer review. It has peers through the other anecdotes you see posted here and other forums. What I've found here and abouts is that there are people who refuse to believe it works. Furthermore they refuse to spend $5 for some corn meal and try it. They will spend weeks arguing with me about it, but they will not try it.

Having said all that, I've been using successfully since 2002. Right away (2003??) people here at GardenWeb reported that corn meal had no effect at all on red thread or rust. I don't get those diseases. So when someone reports they have red thread or rust, I don't reply with corn meal.

Need help with diseased lawn patches

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Jeff508

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Need help with diseased lawn patches

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Jeff508

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Jeff508

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