The corn meal is the only material you have tried that has helped me. The others are fertilizers. I have tried overdosing with organic fertilizers to help fight it off without success. Cornmeal has been the only thing that works reliably. When did you apply that?

Are you certain it was corn meal (about $10 per bag or less)? Could it have been corn gluten meal (about $30 per bag or more)?

dcall, its been raining a lot. Should I worry that cornmeal got washed away and i'd have to reapply? thx

My entire lawn looks like this. Fall armyworms hit houston hard this year, maybe they got you too?

Not army worms. I always look by laying down on the grass to get a closer look vs standing up. Just saying lol

Can you post a picture from 6 inches away? It might help to see what shape the blades are in.

Will be glad to as soon as I get home

That's what I get. Corn meal should be working. I know Houston gets a lot of rain, but have you gotten a ton more this year?

Now it looks like we're in for an El Nino winter with lots more rain. yay. At this point I would gladly trade our upcoming winter rain for snowpack in SoCal.

It's been raining almost everyday for the past 2-3 weeks. But not as much as last year w Harvey. Also I ended up raking out the dead yesterday and wow, filled up a 50 gal trash bag

I'm piggybacking on this thread since I'm in the same exact boat as you, James. I'm in Austin, but with all the rain the past couple of months, our situations are pretty similar. I put down corn meal the weekend after labor day, but so far it looks like all I did was waste corn meal. Does it pay to apply it again or is it a lost cause at this point?

Is that grass saint augustine?

Take a shovel and go to the worst part and take out a square spot and look under to see the soil. Then put it back in place when done. Doesnt hurt to look at the soil just to make sure its not grubs or something else?

I know in my case at least that it's definitely brown patch. It pops up every year about this time. I've tried the chemical route to no avail. Corn meal was pretty much my last hope. I sure wish we'd gone with Bermuda or Zoysia when we re-did our back yard a few years ago. :^(

Okay after looking at some other lawns and pictures, this lawn is different. Your grass is dead looking while others are simply getting top growth fungal pressure. You, I believe, have problems at the root level resulting in zero nutrients getting in or out of the grass blades. Without being there to tear into it, I suppose insects is as good a diagnosis as a fungal disease like a root rot. If it is not grubs, I would tend to discount chinch bugs because they are such heat lovers. They usually hover near concrete because it holds heat better than moist soil. But with our late summer weather it has been rainy and cooler than chinch bugs would normally prefer.

Is there any possibility you sprayed an herbicide on it this summer?

Does chinch bugs have wings and can fly? I noticed a few very small insects like that hovering around the area. I have used herbicide but only spot treating w/ pump up sprayer.

Here’s a couple of pics of my yard. Looks similar to yours, James.

To answer one question about corn meal: it is never wasted. Corn meal is, at its most basic, an organic fertilizer. I used it exclusively back in 2002-2004. It works and lasts longer if you get enough (15 pounds per 1,000 square feet minimum). The fact, if you want to call it that, that it also works as an anti fungal agent is yet to be definitively proved by anyone other than the many of us who have had repeated success using it.

For jameshtx, looking back at your pictures, those you posted a week ago are considerably worse looking than those from 17 days ago. But then the picture from today look more like the earlier ones. I'm looking specifically at color. The early ones and today's look yellow while the ones from a week ago look gray. Gray is much worse than yellow. Was that a lighting difference or do you have dark gray areas?

It’s the lighting. The yellow was taken in the mornings and the gray was taken on cloudy day. Every day the lawn worsens. It’s been four weeks since I laid cornmeal so I knew it was going to get worse well waiting for three weeks for the corneal to start working. Here's a picture from yesterday shot from inside looking out

I'm pretty certain we're dealing with the same thing, which is brown patch, IMO, James. My yard recovers every year, but it sure looks horrible around this time. I was really hoping the corn meal would do something. Unless someone comes along and suggests a silver bullet to knock it out, I guess I'll just learn to live with it. :^(

Perhaps I can save you money in the future?? I never disinfected my mower, never aerate, and never top dress with anything but fertilizer.

Any corn meal you use is not wasted. It might not work 100% this year, but it is a fertilizer and cannot hurt anything. I am confident that the biology will work for you over the winter.

If you get this every year, I would look at my watering frequency. I live in Bandera and only watered a few times this year. If I lived in the Houston area with the amount of rain y'all get, I might not ever water in some years.

If you could save me money, I'm all ears......

It sounds like you've had great luck with cornmeal, DC. How many applications/how long did it take for you to start seeing results? It sounds like another heavy application now isn't a bad idea even though it's getting late in the season? The healthy areas are still growing, albeit slower than a few weeks ago.

Cornmeal was the only thing that worked for me. My biggest problem was learning that St Augustine cannot be covered overnight by anything. For example, my wife likes to prune her plants and toss the clippings onto the lawn. I guess she thinks everything will be fine and I'll mulch the clippings in. However, I do not follow her around with the mower. If I as Johnny-on-the-spot behind her then no problem. But when the clipping sit on the grass overnight, there are fungal lesions the next day. Kids toys have the same effect. She uses cardboard to sit on instead of sitting on the dirt - can't have cardboard on the lawn overnight. So year after year I was getting the disease. I finally got her mostly trained, but old habits die hard.

Then there was that year when it rained 50 inches in 100 days all summer long. That year was the worst. The soil never dried out. I hit it with cornmeal a LOT, but it never completely cleared up. This year was the most like that since I can remember. My lawn looks okay, not perfect, but much better than the lawn back in the storm year. I think you are experiencing a really bad year. Don't give up on the corn meal because this is a very bad year. Next spring the lawn may not be completely free of this year's disease, but with the different circumstances that are sure to be in place, I would fully expect cornmeal to fix it all up. I would apply at the first sign of spots on the grass. That might be in March, so be alert.

One application has been normal to cure things in a normal year.

It sounds like it might be best to just wait until spring at this point. After the hard freeze a few weeks ago, the whole lawn looks like crap, so the affected areas aren't as obvious anymore, lol.

I would start corn meal in early to mid Feb. for Houston.

I'm guessing in Austin a week or two later then, dc?

yes. In San Antonio I applied on Washington's Birthday.

Wanted to give you all an update on my Brown Patch of 2018 with a picture taken yesterday

It looks like yours is recovering nicely. Mine has a long way to go yet. Of course things green up here in Austin a week or two later than over your way, so I'm not too concerned.

Here's another picture from today

Last year was over the top with rainfall. This year it looks like El Nino sent all the rain to California, so we're less wet (normal).

If you have read this post, you saw what this monster did to me last fall. I think I've won the battle but have feeling war ain't over.

My question is how would I know if brown patch is still very well alive? If it is, I want to attack it while it's in dormancy. However, nobody wants to spend money when it's not necessary..

Everyone please chime in and give me your thoughts

thanks

James

Being an organic kind of guy, I would use ordinary cornmeal at 20 pounds per 1,000 square feet every other month.

James , did you ever apply any fungicide besides cornmeal? Lawn looks like its recovered nicely.

The reason I ask it I haven been battling dollar spot in my bermuda for the last 2 seasons. Its not to bad like yours was, its just random small circles in areas of my lawn. My lawn has looked great this season and today while mowing I noticed some tiny dead/brown small circles starting to come back again. Ive used propiconazole and it hasnt done anything for me. :(