While corn meal as a fungicide seems to be something many people tout it is not effective. The original study, at Texas A & M, showed some promise but it could not be replicated even by the same researchers and others in many different locations tried and also failed.

http://gardening.about.com/od/naturalorganiccontrol/qt/Cornmeal.htm

What are you trying to control

kimmq is kimmsr

Make sure there is nothing under the sod. I've seen in the past, landscapers that did not properly cleaned and removed rocks before laying the sod down. It has also been really dry and hot in the Northeast for the past several months. Brown patches could be lack of water, too much water combined with high humidity, dog urine, etc...

I used corn gluten in the past. And I used lots of it. I never saw any weed control while using it but lots of growth in both grass and weeds. In my opinion corn gluten does not control weeds.

Corn Gluten Meal can be an effective pre emergent unwanted plant control when applied properly. Corn Gluten Meal inhibits growth from newly germinated seeds but does nothing to control plants that grow from established roots, as some seem to think it will.

I think Jamie is interested in some kind of fungal control rather than weed control.

kimmq is kimmsr

Well in an attempt to avoid copper I successfully used aspirin on my squash to slow powdery mildew. 3 weeks later I had to spray again of course, but it worked. I underatand powdery mildew is a fungi of the sac fungi group which has 20,000 types, so there maybe be some crossover, but I suspect those fungi just do not like acids of any kind. A coke might work.

The spores that become Powdery mildew apparently need a very narrow pH range since both a milk solution and a baking soda solution, alkaline) will stop its growth as will sulfur (acidic).

Aspirin (2 350 mg tablets per quart of water) has been reported to have some good fungicidal properties.

kimmq is kimmsr

I had success with aspirin at the rate of one 325 mg tablet per quart, powdered in a coffee grinder and dissolved. I do not know if the quantity I used directly shortened the protected timeframe relative to more or less aspirin in solution.