Rather than watching the calendar, I would wait until the summer night time temps have started to cool noticeably. That may have already happened in your area.

Removing the dead grass is a good idea. The slit seeder will do that for you. Run it once without seed and rake (or blow) it all away. However, the fungus will still be there. I would apply ordinary corn meal at a rate of 20 pounds per 1,000 square feet. Corn meal prepares the soil in many ways but it also might slow down germination of new seed. With that in mind, I would apply the corn meal ASAP and do the overseeding in at least 3 full weeks.

You're the guy that had Pythium, right? While not a proponet of cornmeal, I would certainly heed DCHALLS advice. The Pythium pathogens will remain present in your soil if not treated. Not only will it re-appear in the same spots next year, but Pythium Root Dysfunction will develop. Then you are really screwed. Put the cornmeal down. Also, I hope you have a large dump truck to remove the thatch that the slit seeder will bring up. You are in for a mess of monumental proportions. Those rental seeders are NEVER calibrated right and have clogged tubes, etc. If I were you, I would use the aerate/overseed approach.

It was not determined whether or not it was pythium or not but I did have some sort of fungus.

I put down some corn meal on two separate occassions about 4-5 weeks apart. It must have worked because about 90% of my lawn is green,its just a small area that is dead. Do I need to put more down again?

My next question is how do you know if the fungus is still a problem?Is it just dormant now or do you think the cornmeal worked?

When you said wait til the temp at night is cooler, how cool?

I can see how this fungal problem came about,the areas that did not drain well were the spots where the damage was done. I hope by aerating twice a year this will help with the water just sitting on the lawn.

Reelfanatic, your saying I should aerate and overseed with a drop spreader instead of renting a slit seeder?

If you have irrigation you can re-seed right now, you don't have to wait until the nights cool off.

If you have shade in your lawn, you can definatelly re-seed now.

I dethatched and re-seeded my backyard on July 29 with Bluegrass and Fine Fescue because of the shade. I have seedlings already and they are doing fine despite the heat wave... (it's 94 F right now)

Grass seed loves warm soils, they germinate much quicker.

I'm going to overseed my front yard tomorrow afternoon, I'll be posting shortly with pictures.

BTW, I'm down in Raleigh, NC.

I aerated again today and plan to overseed tomorrow. The problem is I am concerned if I rent a slit seeder It will do alot of damage. I was thinking of just using a rotary spreader instead. Will it be as effective since I did aerate?

How heavily did you aerate? At least 20 cores/sqft? The more the better for overseeding. Many times, I have seen overseeded lawns after modest core aeration and the results weren't impressive. After proper soil prep by dethatching or core aeration or verticutting, you should see a good amount of soil by casual inspection. It should look a mess. You should overseed with the best seed you can get and you want to give that seed every possible opportunity for success.

To answer your question, Hogan...Yes. If you aerated heavily, you can broadcast seed over the turf at a heavy rate, and have good results. For overseeding, Aerating AND using a slit seeder is ridiculous in my opinion.

Had my soil analyzed and turns out its brown patch. I bought a fungicide today called lebanon eagle .62 g specialty fungicide(myclobutanil 1H,1,2,4 Triazule propanenitcile .62%) what ever that means.

I hope it works fast,today I went out to prepare to overseed and i raked up some dead grass and it pulled up like I was removing carpet,a 1x1 peice of turf just pulled out and all that was left was the soil.

The gentlemen at the landscape store told me to apply 50lbs for 5000sf and lightly water in. Also said I can overseed right away,no need to wait.

Do you think I would need a maintence dose of fungicide every year? I was really hoping to go the organic route but can't get these issues under control organically.

Two answers to this question.... If you start a Fungicide maintenance regimen, you may never get off of it, and end up adding more and more products. Such is the case with me, but I don't mind. I am currently on a seven day rotation with two fungicides. Just when I consider cutting back, the thought of disease scares me back to the regimen. This becomes costly and time consuming. The other avenue is to be certain you have eliminated the conditions that prompted the disease to begin with. Make no mistakes next year and hope the weather co-operates and you can use disease control "as needed" to eradicate any outbreak that may occur. I'm just not brave enough to use this approach. If it costs me 700.00 a year to ensure I will have no disease, the piece of mind is worth it to me. For your situation, I would recommend keeping a contact fungicide like Chlorothalonil on hand. If you happen to get alot of rain, humidity, the nightime temps start creeping up, and you have applied Nitrogen, you can put some down to stop a disaster, but don't neccessarily have to get on a strict regimen.

I just would like to know what the caused was. I was laid off this spring so I had plenty of time to do research on the internet.

I got some good information,like cutting my grass to about 2-2 1/2",having my soil tested,soil was good,ph good,all I needed was a 39-0-0 fert.

Later around momorial day I added some soybean meal.The grass looked great,but then the rains came along with the disease(fungus).So I am hoping the rain caused the problem because that was the only thing I had no control over and I did everything by the book.

The other frustrating thing is my neighbors have the same soil conditions and their lawn looks great. I know all they do is fert two-three times a year and no problem.

Our area has a heavy clay content thats why I bought the tow behind aerator so it will drain alittle better.I hated to use a fungicide because like reelfanatic said once you start theirs no going back. I also hate the thought of overseeding every year.

Am I making a mountain out of a molehill,is it because of the large amount of rain this year or is it something else?