Question
QUESTION: I live in Arizona.  My Bermuda lawn has thick, yellow patches in the back yard (not on front lawn).  The patches are thicker than the grass and can be easily removed -- almost like a carpet.  Grass does not grow back in the bare spots -- even though I have re-seeded the areas.  The rest of the lawn is green -- but it seems the patches are slowly spreading.  I water for 30 mins. 2x a week.  I spread Ironite on lawn a month ago.  HELP!

ANSWER: Hi Madeline;
I would say stop putting chemicals on the lawn.
Chemicals cause problems, they don't cure them.
Some are temporary bandaids that really do more harm than good.
It took me over 45 years of struggling with a lawn to learn that.
I thought organic meant settling for a field, rather than a neat, well manicured lawn.
I switched to organics about 10 years ago, and my lawn has consistantly improved ever since, ith much less work and expense on my part.
It sounds like that is a fungus. I haven't seen one that causes thick yellow clumps, but that is all I can think of that could cause it.
A fungus in the soil would keep other seeds from germinating.
The best treatment for fungus is horticultural corn meal. Apply about 10 pounds per 1000 sq.ft.
If you can't find that, a good substitute is 4 heaping teaspoons baking soda per gallon of water, sprayed on the infected area.
With an organic program, the soil is naturally balanced out with beneficial micro-organisms.
There is one other possibility for your grass dieing and the soil being contasminated so that it won't grow anything.
If you have bird feeders and put out wild bird seeds with black sunflower soeeds in it. The hulls of the black sunflower seeds contain a toxin that stops growth of any vegetation.
After osing half the grass in our back yard, I learned this was the cause.
It took years for the toxin to get out of my soil so that it would grow anything again.
If you would be interested in starting a healthy, organic program, this is what I have used, and am using. I would never go back to chemical lawn care products again.
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You will constantly improve your soil if you go on a totally organic program, and don't use any chemicals at all.
I have beenm on such a program for the last 9 to 10 years, after breaking my back and ruining my body trying to maintain a decent lawn, with only mediocre results.
the organics has freed me from about 90% of the physical work, about that much of the expense, and the results are a think, beautiful yard with no weeds or harmful insects.
Man!!! Wish I had known all this 50 years ago !
The corn clutem meal is an organic product.
If you use organics, and then use chemicals, you will cancel out the organics.
Chemical fertilizers kill all the beneficial microbes, nematodes and other beneficial insects and critters that work around the clock improving your soil.
Beneficial microbes enrich the soil. Chemicls do NOT.
If you put a little too muchj chemical products on the lawn, it will burn your grass, and do a lot of other damage.
If you put too much organics on it, all you do is waste a little time and money.
Sugar does absolutely nothing but nourish the beneficial micrebes. THEY do the work.
Weeds will not grow in rich soil. If they cme up, they will start to die out right away.
The first time I use sugar was in the spring. I had not put any chemicals on the yard since the fall feeding, so they were all worn out of the soil.
I had a lawn about 50% full of dandelions, crabgrass, johnson grass, clover, dollar weed and some other shallow rooted weeds like chickweed etc.
a couple of weeks after I put down the sugar and watered it in, I had about half as many weeds. Nobody had pulled a weed or anything. My husband had just mowed.
I went nuts, like a school of sharks in a feeding frenzy, and ran out and bought more sugar, put it down and waterewd it in.
A couple more mowings, and there were so few weeds. In a few more werks they were all gone.
The next spring about half as many weeds as before came up, but in a few weeks they were gone.
All I had done was the sugar in the spring, and I did that again in the fall.
I used baking soda disolved in water for black spot on my roses and powdery mildew n my crepe mytrtles. That works much better then the chemical fungicides I had used before.
I started getting a nice herd of lizards, toads and grass snakes in my yard.
I had a BIG grub problem every year. I haven't had that since, nor do I have those nasty tent catapillars dropping on my head from the trees.
I see lizards running in the trees and along the fence. I never see the grass snakjes, which is fine with me. I seldon see a toad, but they are all there.
Sugar; I use 4 or 5 pounds per 1000 sq.ft. I just broadcast it by hand, and water it in well. If you spill a blob in one spot, no problem. No burning or other damage.

Watering; I always water to a depth of at least 6 inches. Deep watering like that encourages a deep root growth. That protects from heat, cold and drought damage, and prevents thatch. I water with soaker hoses, and run them till the water is close to the edge and is about to start running off the yard. then I turn it off and wait an hour or so for it to soak in, and turn it on again. I keep doing that until it is wet down to a depth of 6 inches at least. Even here in our Texas heat, I water only once a week, unless it stays well above 100 for a week or more, which it sometimes does. then I look at the grass, and if my St. Augustine is folded up, lengthwise, I know it needs water. It folds the blades up to reduce the area exposed to evaporation. Burmuda, when it gets thirsty, bends it's little blades a little, like it is bowing.
My earthworms and cock roaches etc tunnel through the soil, and that keeps it aerated. Their castings add nourishment. Cockroaches are beneficial. They normally live in the soil and feed on other harmful insects. We put down pesticides, and kill their food supply, so they come in our houses to get food and hide from the pesticides.
I use fresh rosemary to keep them out of my house.

Baking soda disolved in water, about 2 TABLESPOONS per gallon of water, sprayed on top and underneath all the leaves, prevent molds and fungus on plants. You can also use it for fungus in the soil, or you can apply agricultural corn meal and water that in. About 10 pounds per 1000 sq.ft.

Corn gluten meal is an organic fertilizer and weed killer.
It won't interfere with the sugar.
None of the organics calcel each other out.
Alfalfa meal is another good food to add. Just sprinkle it on in about the same thickness the sugar goes on, and water. It is full of nutrients. So is lava sand. Yopu can add it to the top of the soil, dig it into the soil, or add it when you are adding soil, or putting soil in a comntainer for a plant.
Alfalfa meal, as well as generally nourishing the soil, helps promote larger and more blooms in blooming plants and house plants.
You can also make a tea of it for foliar feeding or for watering house plants.
Put 1 cup alfalfa meal in 5 gallons of water and let steep overnight. Still and use to water plants, or strain it and put it in a garden sprayer for foliar feeding.  Be sure, if you strain it, to dump the dregs on the soil somewhere, it is still full of nutrients.
You probably won't need more fertilizert than that. I didn't use anything but sugar for about 8 or 9 years, and last spring, I leartned about the alfalfa meal and lava sand, so I use them.
If you have more questions, write to me.
I am very happy to share what I have learned, and am learning.
Charlotte


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank you, Charlotte!  
I will definitely try your suggestions. Cannot find any stores in Phoenix area that sell Gluten Corn Meal  Spread baking soda by hand the other day and watered it down.  Would regular(cooking)corn meal (like Albers) help in any way???

Answer
Corn meal that you use in cooking won't work.
Horticultural corn meal is the outer husk of the kernel that is processed off during milling. Gluten Corn Meal is the whole kernel ground up.
Charlotte
It would be better to disolve the baking soda in water, because you only use  heaping teaspoons or 1 heaping Tablespoon er gallon of water.
I broadcast the sugar bu hand and then water it in.
Charlotte