My husband has been trying to abide by my organic wishes but wants to have a beautiful green monoculture lawn. The last issue we face is lawn fungicides. Right now we have something commonly called red thread. Does anyone have any organic solutions to this?

Hi eschroeter!
Welcome!
What kind of grass seed have you choosen?(Kentucky bluegrass or a mix)
Is the red thread(?) in the entire lawn or just the shady areas?

Sight unseen...this is my suggestion
>leave the grass length at 3"-4" when mowed.
>fertilize till late fall and again in the spring.(cottonseed meal/sterilized steer manure combo.)
>mulch 1/4"-1/2" with compost or top soil/steer manure mixture now. (Whitney Farms has great bagged manures etc...here in Oregon)
>is it getting enough water or to much?
>the soil might need to be aerated or the ph lowered(?)

...GOOD LUCK (with your lawn)!

purplebean

Ordinary corn meal applied at a rate of 20 pounds per 1,000 square feet of turf is the universal organic fungus killer in all kinds of turf. According to the Texas A&M University, it works on all the usual turf fungi. You can apply it any time of any day of the year. Expect to see results in 3 weeks.

You can get corn meal in 50 pound bags at feed stores for about $6.50/bag. Don't be confused with corn GLUTEN meal. It doesn't do the same thing and it costs 6x more than ordinary corn meal.

Corn meal works by attracting a different fungus to the problem. The secondary fungus acts like a disease to the red thread and will kill it. The secondary fungus is otherwise harmless to the plants.

Corn meal is also an organic fertilizer, so use it over the entire lawn or you will have tall, dense, green spots.

The corn meal works and I've had really good luck with Blood Meal. The high Nitrogen seems to knock it out. You can also make a corn meal tea. I think it was a cup of corn meal for each gallon of water. Then spray it on your lawn.