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| Hi,
I just wanted to share that I had Brown Patch Disease on my lawn for the past 10 years and even resorted to trying Daconil on the lawn last summer. This year I decided to try only organic on the lawn. One member from Texas, I forget his name, suggested I use nothing but Cornmeal monthly as a preventative through the end of May. I have followed his suggestions. This month I have applied the cornmeal to my 3,000 sq foot lawn every three weeks along with Dried Molasses. This day I am happy to report that my Fescue lawn has no Brown Patch Disease, and the grass is so long today, I have to mow again for the second time this week. In the past, by the end of May, the lawn was in pretty bad shape from the Brown Patch Disease and to me it is nothing short of miraculous. Also note we have had a lot of rain this spring in Louisville, Ky.--which normally makes the Brown Patch worse. Let me also say that this spring my two Dogwood Trees have had more blooms than ever before in the past 15 years, since I planted them. I started using Soybean Meal last year and I love that stuff too. For the one in Texas, who suggested monthly treatments of nothing but Cornmeal as a preventative for Brown Patch Disease---thank you again!!! Betty |
Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by garycinchicago Z5 Chicago IL. (My Page) on Sat, May 30, 09 at 18:35
| David, your CAT5 cable is ringing! |
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| Who was that masked man ? Why that was dchall_san_antonio. He is the author of the organic lawn care faq, the most widely read article on organic lawncare on the net. A must read for lawn enthusiasts. I have learned a bunch from him. Thank you David. Bill Hill |
Here is a link that might be useful: Organic lawncare FAQ
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| I owe him my thanks too, it certainly works |
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- Posted by dchall_san_antonio 8 San Antonio (My Page) on Sun, May 31, 09 at 0:29
| The corn meal "trick" is what converted me to an organic program. I used it for fungus on my roses and, like everyone else, it WORKED! Nobody was more surprised than I was. That year, and every year, I had a fungal disease that wiped out one certain spot in my yard. I tried corn meal and it worked there, too. I was less surprised that time but very impressed. For 8 years I had been unable to grow grass there and the corn meal fixed it. I know now why I got the disease all the time...my wife used that spot to pile up yard clippings every year. Her pile cut off the air circulation and allowed the disease to grow. Now I don't worry at all about where she piles stuff up because I know the corn meal will fix it. It is easy to jinx the corn meal solution. If you had used Daconil prior to the corn meal, it would not have worked. Other materials that make it not work include sulfur, sulfates (like ammonium sulfate), and baking soda. These are broad spectrum fungicides that may or may not work to kill the disease but they will work to kill off the beneficial fungi in your lawn soil. I get a lot of my information from forums, but the corn meal idea came from a local organic radio show. |
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| Hi,
I took this picture of my front lawn this morning and as you can see---NO BROWN PATCH!!! Thank you David for the great advice!!!! How much do I owe you? Just send me a bill. Betty |
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- Posted by dchall_san_antonio 8 San Antonio (My Page) on Mon, Jun 1, 09 at 14:52
| Nice looking yard. Posting the picture is all you owe me, LOL! |
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| Is the corn meal applied to the whole lawn or just the brown spots? Great lawn Betty! |
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| Question- what type of cornmeal do you use and how much do you put down? We have brown patch in our front yard and it is spreading like crazy! Thanks in advance! |
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- Posted by westchestergrower Lower NY (My Page) on Wed, Aug 5, 09 at 9:37
| Unfortunately, I put down a heavy cornmeal application around 3 weeks back and now brown patch is everywhere. Guess mother nature wins out sometimes. But beautiful pic and yard! |
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- Posted by dchall_san_antonio 8 San Antonio (My Page) on Fri, Aug 7, 09 at 3:02
| Ordinary whole ground corn meal, like the stuff you cook with, can be applied at a rate of 20 pounds per 1,000 square feet to get rid of several existing lawn diseases. It should be applied to the entire lawn to ensure you get all of the disease. Also, since corn meal is an organic fertilizer, if you only treat the patches, you will have very dark green patches of grass where you applied the corn meal. I buy agricultural corn meal in plain brown bags at my local feed store. A 50-pound bag costs me anywhere from $4 to $12 depending on market prices. westchestergrower, if you have not used any chemical fungicide, sulfate fertilizer, or baking soda in the lawn recently, the corn meal should work to stop the spread of the disease. It could be your lawn had already been hit and it took an extra week for the grass to show signs of being diseased??? In any case it takes 3 full weeks to see the results. Come back in a week or two and let us know if it seems to have stopped spreading and is coming back green. If you have a fescue lawn and that grass dies, it will have to be reseeded. If you have a Kentucky bluegrass lawn and it does not completely die, it will spread back in where it was once killed. The way corn meal works is by growing a predator type of fungus that will kill the disease fungus. Thus if you have used a fungicide, it will likely kill the predator fungus. |
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- Posted by westchestergrower Lower NY (My Page) on Sat, Aug 15, 09 at 21:03
| Hi dchall- To update, I actually believe the disease has stopped progressing, which is good news. A few dead spots but not as bad as I first thought. In a few weeks I will do the overseeding and milorganite and it should look beautiful in a month of so (if that plan works as well as last year). Thanks |
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| dchall, I too have successfully stopped the brown patch on my lawn with corn meal. Luckily, I was able to find a feed store that was able to mill feed corn into meal for me...cost about $15 for per 50# bag and was 50 miles away, but I bought six bags which should last for the rest of this season and next. My question is similar to the above poster...even though I've stopped the disease, I'm left with several large dead patches of lawn and some patches are even showing mostly dirt. I have zoysia grass and have not seen a very speedy recovery in the 3-4 weeks following recovery...and am left wondering if I should spot seed the dead patches even though I've read not to do so with zoysia. |
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| This is a bump, but I'll soon post some pics of the damage brown patch has caused to my lawn. |
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| New to the forum and have never posted. I have St. Augustine and there is a patch of Brown Patch Fungus that comes around every single year. Of course I made the mistake of fertilizing and applying a Scotts Fungus killer and haven't seen any results. I applied this about 2 weeks ago. How long will I need to wait before trying the cornmeal approach? Thanks in advance. |
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- Posted by zanegreywolf 8a (My Page) on Sat, Apr 24, 10 at 19:39
| Whenever you have a fungus problem NEVER fertilize until the fungus problem is sured, otherwise, the fertilizer makes he fungus grow faster. BTW- Scotts anything is about the worse stuff you can apply to a yard, espcially Bonus S weed and feed! |
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- Posted by kevingalaxy Central nj (My Page) on Thu, Apr 29, 10 at 21:22
| Hi all I really want to use corn meal and go organic can someone explain what 20 pounds per 1000 sq ft means? I just have a Scottsdale spreader 3000, how do I work out the correct rate? and am I right in thinking Applying this every month will prevent most diseses? Thank you! |
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| "Hi all I really want to use corn meal and go organic can someone explain what 20 pounds per 1000 sq ft means? I just have a Scottsdale spreader 3000, how do I work out the correct rate? and am I right in thinking Applying this every month will prevent most diseses? Thank you!" I never trust the spreader settings. I measure my lawn and calculate the square footage. Then I buy the right amount of what I need. I set the spreader at a low setting and make multiple passes in different directions until it's all gone. I've got 4k sq ft. So I'd use 80 lbs to get 20 lbs per 1000 sq ft. |
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- Posted by dchall_san_antonio 8 San Antonio (My Page) on Fri, Apr 30, 10 at 10:16
| I agree with bp on spreader usage. You are better off calibrating it yourself using his method described above. You might end up running it wide open. If you live where it is humid, organic materials typically clump up in the spreader and do not flow like synthetics. If you can find pelletized corn, it will flow, but I've only heard about it. I apply by hand like I was scattering chicken feed. I have a 1-pound coffee can. A pound of corn is close to a pound of coffee. I "measure" off 100 square feet (10 ft x 10 ft) and scatter the pound of corn inside that area. Then I refill and do it again. That gives me 2 pounds per 100 or 20 pounds per 1,000. If you buy a little more than you need, use it all. You cannot hurt anything by going to 30, 40, or even 50 pounds per 1,000. Applying corn meal once a month should cure your ills. I still get spring brown spots caused by fungal diseases. My wife likes to prune the shrubs and toss a pile of trimmings on the lawn for a week. This year I caught her early and explained how the cow ate the cabbage. So far so good, but I have a bag of corn meal on hand just in case. The problem for me is poor air circulation and high humidity. |
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| Hi, I live in central NC and am having a problem with my lawn that I think is brown patch. I took a few pictures and will try to post them here. This just started a few days ago but the spots are getting bigger. It has been really rainy the past few weeks and hot with highs 80-90 and lows at night in the 70's. I want to try the cornmeal cure but would like advice on what to buy. |
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| Following are links to the pictures I just took. If someone could confirm this is in fact brown patch hopefully I'll be able to salvage some of my lawn by adding the corn meal. Does the corn meal need to be applied under any particular http://yqsmrw.bay.livefilestore.com/y1plf8dc3zBSS9VcOwdEFbP-jipENPv3oj GU8JVik8s8GE9YqesSXjb1bZGdsiQCfVzkZB7xqBp3X0TndA9mMMpxcHiu3xNPzXd/DSCF 0035.JPG http://yqsmrw.bay.livefilestore.com/y1pwEhKds-bhEPQsfG8RXlEyRJInRPdtQi fnZmD57j2KMuqA0OmQUTWFOc-KQ6m3-rFLcab1ChGBEbICdyeaJXH-lOgGsPzVfr5/DSCF 0036.JPG |
Here is a link that might be useful: Picture 1
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- Posted by Linda_Kay55 none (My Page) on Fri, Aug 12, 11 at 20:01
| I've read everyone's comments on brown patch and I'm anxiously awaiting the answer to Mikey99's question: When do you apply the cornmeal? Before rain? While it's hot and dry? That's an important point to know. Thanks so much for your assistance. I have brown patch in my new 1 year old lawn and would like to cure it if possible. Blessings to all. |
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- Posted by dchall_san_antonio 8 San Antonio (My Page) on Sat, Aug 13, 11 at 12:10
| Here is one of Mikey's pictures
Could be brown patch. Try corn meal anyway because it has the same effect on several lawn diseases. Corn meal can be applied any day of the year or every day of the year, rain or shine, day or night, Remember you are looking for ordinary corn meal or cracked corn. You are not looking for corn GLUTEN meal. |
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| Hello! My name is Amy, my husband and I recently bought a house in Texas. He is currently deployed to Iraq. I want the yard to look perfect for him when he gets home. How can I post a picture on here so anyone can see it and let me know if its brown patch disease? Thank you in advance |
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- Posted by dchall_san_antonio 8 San Antonio (My Page) on Sun, Aug 14, 11 at 22:19
| Hi Amy, I see you are new here. You will get more and better advice if you start your own 'thread' to ask your question. We assume you are organic since you posted in the organic forum. The only fungal disease advice we can give you is to use corn meal or to use used coffee grounds (available at any Starbucks and many other coffee shops). Apply at 20 dry pounds per 1,000 square feet and give it a full 3 weeks to see improvement. When you post your question in the new thread, the way you post pictures is to follow the following rules. 1. post the picture somewhere else online. That could be at Photobucket.com or Picasa.com (or whatever). 2. When the photo is posted there, right click on the image and scroll down to Copy Image Location. This will give you a URL for the photo similar to http://www.photobucket.com/your picture's name.jpg. The photo URL will always start with http and end with jpg. 3. Come back here and start your topic. Paste the URL for your photo into the text box just so you can see what it looks like. 4. Use the following code to make the image appear. [img src="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/324082/Tall St Augustine at La
Mirage.jpg"] note that the quotes are necessary.
Also a tip or two about starting your new thread. Texas is a big place. Tell us where you live and what kind of grass do you have? How long do we have to clean up the lawn before your soldier returns? |
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| We have brown spots that are spreading on our formally thick green lawn. The weather has been hot (upper 90's) and very little rain. We have a lawn service company that treated it with a fungicide & it has not helped. How long do we have to wait after the chemical application before we can use the cornmeal? |
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| We have brown spots that are spreading on our formally thick green lawn. The weather has been hot (upper 90's) and very little rain. We have a lawn service company that treated it with a fungicide & it has not helped. How long do we have to wait after the chemical application before we can use the cornmeal? |
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