I canÂt help you with the fungus ID. It is a turf fungus, no doubt. I would say that you are on the right track using cornmeal to control it. Spring is a tough time to seed a lawn. Your watering may be responsible for your fungus disease. Overseeding and renovating is best performed in the fall. Starting now, water deeply but infrequently. Cut your lawn high (three to four inches). Fertilize with organic fertilizers. ItÂs hard to tell from the picture but I think your lawn is a mixture of unimproved perennial rye, fescue and unimproved Kentucky blue grass.
Bill Hill

Here is a link that might be useful: Organic lawncare FAQ

While aerating compacted soil can help some in the short term the reason the soil is compacted, lack of organic matter, needs to be addressed and corrected because even after core aerating the soil will simply compact again unless something is put into the soil to keep the soil particles apart.

Thanks for the input.

I forgot to mention that this area was almost completely covered with clover. I used some Bayer Advanced weed killer (before I started learning about organics) and I just thought the area needed to be filled in and didn't think about a fungus until recently.

I overseeded last fall but it didn't seem to take and I thought I might have done something wrong which is why I did it again earlier this year.

I did the cornmeal and milk since I wasn't sure what type of fungus it was. I thought it might have been rust since the lawn looked orange when wet. But now, after seeing another lawn in the neighborhood that really looks red, I'm not sure that was it. I wish I would have realized it was a fungus earlier.

So I'll try applying some more corn meal this weekend. Is there any hope for getting it under control and the lawn looking better before the heat comes in?

I mow at about 3". That blade was unusually small, probably because of the cut damage and by the time I stopped staring at it and took a picture it shrunk even more.

This looks like Gray Leaf Spot:
http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/3000/3083.html

I have the same problem but it is caused by large downpours in South Florida and poor drainage in my yard. When we have these heavy downpours, the water can sit at least 4 inches during the downpour and then for several hours after. I can say I have very nice looking lawn until June arrives which causes the lawn to root due to these rain falls. Again I have this yearly. First you need to control your water since it will only get worse. I have used chemicals in the past to get rid of this, but wasn't the best. I am actually looking for cornmeal to use this instead and see if it controls it. Hope this info helps...

That could be it too. The problem is, every other picture I see of lawn problems I say "That's what I have!" until I see the next one and then that's what I think I have. :(

I was hoping to narrow it down to a cornmeal treatable problem or a milk treatable problem. I'm going to try some more cornmeal and hope that helps. Not so sure the milk was working on this one.

Thinking of maybe trying neem oil but wanted to see if I could narrow down what I might have before I do anything else.

I guess the compaction I have isn't so bad. Mainly I need more organic material. I don't get standing water like that or even puddling but there's been a lot of long slow rain lately.

Work on the soil, and forget any Bayer product which are not acceptable to any organic person, and once the soil is good and healthy that problem most likely will go away.

organicnoob, contact your local extension office to see if they have an active plant pathology 'clinic'. Many states offer laboratory services for the ID of plant pathogens. Having your grass tested is important, I think.

If your state provides this service, your local extension office will explain how to collect and package samples. They might even mail them for you. There will be a fee, though it's usually small.

It's starting to look better. Going to put down some more cornmeal soon but I had a question.

Does applying milk along with the cornmeal negate the fungicidal effects of the cornmeal?

I should have thought of this before. It seems that milk is more of a non selective fungicide while cornmeal develops a fungus that fights other fungi. So would the milk kill the good fungus on the cornmeal?

So I wake up this morning and as I'm scratching the crud out of my eyes I look out my bathroom window and see something that took me by surprise.

My lawn was the darkest compared to the neighbors I could see from there. Before the first application of cornmeal I was the worst. When I first posted the pic I was second best just because one neighbor really screwed up their lawn. Now the other neighbor that had a good lawn seems to have lightened and oranged up a bit with all the rain we've had and I took a pic to compare and mine definitely looks better that it was a little over a couple of weeks ago when I took the first photo posted above.

Looking closely, it still needs a little more help but on the right track. Since the last pic I've pulled some weeds, applied a little more milk, noticed I could raise my mower up another notch (thought I had it up all the way), replaced the mower blade but only was able to mow once because of the rain and I applied some more cornmeal yesterday. This time at 20lbs per 1,000 sq ft maybe a little heavier. The light colored grass is where I didn't water the corn meal enough. Only 2 dry days before it starts raining again so I tried to be stingy with the water.

Not sure what did the trick. Probably a combination of everything and maybe the overseeding finally started to come in? I'm going to overseed again in the fall to try and even out the texture and color a little more.

Can still see some problem areas up close but this is a big improvement.

By the way... Has anyone had success with corn meal in a drop spreader? I've heard mixed results but I was too worried to try it.

{{gwi:1103411}}

SURPRISE! Corn meal works!! People all the time call it a mild fertilizer but that doesn't look mild to me.

I used corn meal in a drop spreader until I broke the spreader trying to get the corn meal to fall through it. The problem is corn meal attracts moisture from the air and forms clumps in the spreader. Those clumps don't fall unless you bounce the spreader. The plastic spreaders apparently aren't made to bounce along so the hopper broke off.

I don't think milk negates the effect of corn meal. The mechanism as to how corn meal works is better understood than milk.

Yep big surprise. My first thought was wow I never saw my grass this dark before. Glad I took a before photo. The big indicator was comparing it to the neighbors. By the way, there is a dramatic enhancement in color but the first photo was taken in full sun and the second on a cloudy day. I didn't want to wait a week to take another photo.

I have a cheap plastic drop spreader so I guess I'm out of luck. I was hoping to get it more even across the lawn and less on me.