Wow...

I'm no expert, so someone may come in and disagree with everything I say, but if it were my lawn, I would absolutely NOT aerate or dethatch right now. I think that's going to do much more harm than good at this time. I'm in MO, so pretty close to you, and I know we've had a stretch of 90+ degree weather, and are just in for more. I'm sure your climate is pretty similar right now. Dethatching is just going to stress the hell out of that lawn, especially if it already has a fungus.

I think your best bet is to let it dry out and apply corn meal a 20lbs per 1,000 sq ft.

In my opinion, getting the fungus under control is much more important than trying to get the brown lawn to turn green again. It sounds like it's already gone dormant this year, and you're probably better off just letting it sit dormant this year while you take care of the fungus. In the fall or next spring, then you can dethatch.

Believe me, I know how difficult it is to see part of your lawn brown. I have an absolute fit if I see anything turning brown in my lawn -- I insist on thick, lush, green all spring/summer/fall. So, I know it may be difficult to just let the brown stay brown this year, but if you try to get it back to green, you may end up causing more harm than good.

Just my .02

Thanks for the comments, habiem. I will probably avoid mechanical activity until the fall.

Check out my pix...horrid.

I found a feed store that is going to make me some corn meal. Will have to drive a half hour to get 6, 50# bags to cover my 12,000 sq ft+. I hope to heck this works.

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I'm in North Central Iowa and I had some nasty brown patch 3 years ago. I over fertilized my lawn for several years with the Scott's 4 step plan.

I stopped it cold turkey and now use Milorganite and/or alfalfa pellets. Even though I live a half mile from a huge Cargill soybean processing plant...soybean meal is not available at retail here in my small town. I could buy a train load from Cargill but, not a 50# bag. (sigh) So, I use alfalfa pellets. They work well in my garden and flower beds too.

I used some corn meal I purchased from a Wal*Mart food store in 5 lb bags on my fungus. I applied about 20#s per 1000 sqft just on the affected areas. I made 2 applications about 30 days apart and I bagged the grass in the fungus part of the lawn for the duration. The lawn recovered fairly fast once I put the corn meal on and stopped adding too much synthetic fertilizer.

The next growing season I used some cracked corn on the area that had the fungus as I could buy it locally. I had a lot of happy birds but no more brown patch.

You can buy a hand de-thatching rake at most Menard's or Lowe's. I have one and have use it now and then to take care of some areas of my KBG that seem to accumulate some thatch. It's a chore to use but, it will not tear up your turf like a power de-thatcher. It will also allow you to rake the brown areas of your lawn to remove the dead grass for over seeding.

I'll second the dethatching rake. I got one at a local farm & home store. It was $30, is definitely a chore to use, but WELL worth it. I had a huge mess of thatch on my hands in April after 2 1/2 years of synthetic fertilizers and way too much water. The dethatching rake is great for getting the bad areas. You'd kill yourself trying to do the whole lawn. Mine is about 2 feet wide. It's one of the greatest hand tools I have. Although, I hope to not have to use it much more after this year...

Thanks for your comments, iowa50126 and habiem. Since late June, I have put down my corn meal for the fungus, and put down soybean meal to improve the soil microbe activity. I also purchased a dethatching rake at Home Depot, and put it to use on a few problem areas in my yard. I picked up large amounts of thatch, but the grass in those areas hasn't really improved much. It is getting hotter here in Eastern Iowa (90s this past weekend) so I may not see much more improvement until next fall. Many of the unwatered KBG lawns here are going dormant.

I also started watering more, about 3 times per week, but I think I need to start watering fewer times, and greater quantities each time (like an inch, once per week, to hear the experts tell it). The increased watering has helped the yard a lot (except in the worst spots, which still look pretty bad), but extra water helps all problems and I don't want to water 3 times per week, forever.

We'll see what the rest of the summer brings. So far I am on the road to recovery but it looks like I will have several large dead patches that I may need to overseed in the fall. I will probably need to aerate in the fall too, and possibly do a power dethatching.

Glad to hear your lawn is recovering somewhat. You have some repair work to do this fall. Aerate and power -dethach if you feel the need before overseeding. Neither will ever be necessary again if you establish an organic lawn care turf. Cracked corn may be easier to find than corn meal. It is just as good, easy to spread, and should be used in the spring and early summer as a fungus preventer. Corn meal or cracked is a mild fertilizer and a good source of OM to feed the beneficial fungi in your soil