I want to reply to the lessons you believe you have learned, because I you may have missed some things.
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1. Aerate the yard early in the year, especially if the soil is difficult for the water to penetrate. This alone probably would have prevented the take-all-patch. Frequent watering and a continually damp or wet surface is an invitation to the fungus and a good aeration will go a long way toward solving this issue.
Core aeration has problems. You can achieve the same result with none of the issues by spraying with any clear shampoo at a rate of at least 3 ounces per 1,000 square feet. This is a poor man's version of the surfactant that the pros use (called Cascade - not the dish soap). Spray it, irrigate with an inch of water, and repeat in 2 weeks. You may repeat as long as you want to. You can prove to yourself that it is softening the soil by sticking a screwdriver into the soil to see how deep it penetrates.
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2. Probably a good idea to acidify the yard once or twice a year if the soil and especially the water is a bit alkaline.
The best way to acidify the soil is a good organic program. Healthy soil microbes produce humic acids which work at the surface in the root zone. There is no way to really acidify the soil because the limestone is hundreds of square miles in area and hundreds of feet deep. Any acidity you gain is fragile because the first heavy rain will wash it away.
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3. Corn meal as a preventive would be a good idea if the surface will remain wet for an extended period of time or the season or area necessitates more frequent watering (temps around 105 for a few days and full sun, newly planted sod, thin yard, etc).
First part of that is correct. If the surface will remain wet as in several days of on and off rain or a hurricane, then stand by with the corn meal. However, if the temps climb high with plenty of sunshine and low humidity, then you may be watering every 5 days or even 4. But unlike the rainy days, the typically the low humidity and sunshine will dry the soil surface quickly. If that is the case you should not need apply extra corn meal.
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4. Mulch or plant new sod over thin or bare spots.
If the spot is thin or bare due to the disease, then apply corn meal before you do anything. The disease will take out new sod just as fast as established sod. I would never use mulch on turf. I don't even use compost.
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5. Once the fungus is there, it is not easy to stop, but it can be done. I applied cornmeal at 30lbs per thousand, but probably waited too long (more than 4 weeks) between the 2 applications. I also applied Greensand and sulphur at the recommended rate. Previous to these applications, the soil PH showed to be well over 7.5, and probably approaching 9 or so. The fungus apparently does well in alkaline environments. The area of my yard that has some survivable St. Augustine left was mulched w/ a somewhat acidic mixture (see previous posts), and this seemed to help, but it also covers up the St Augustine runners, and seems to impede their growth.
Here lies your most serious problem. Sulfur has been used as a fungicide for centuries. But the corn meal approach relies on healthy fungi for it to work. When you apply sulfur, I would not expect corn meal to work.
I guess I would be surprised if the mulch helped your cause, but I have an open mind on that. Perhaps it soaked up the moisture that would have otherwise helped to grow the disease??? In any case I would rake that mulch off now. As you have perceived, it does seem to impede the new growth of St Aug. I believe the same to be true for compost and even live oak leaves if you cannot mulch them.
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6. Don't attempt to use the rose rosette mixture without the biowash. It will kill grass that gets full sun. I got a little desperate as the fungus was spreading from the backyard to the side and front yards, probably carried there by my mower, and the the biowash hadn't arrived in the mail yet.
If you cannot get biowash, any soap will be better than none at all. Otherwise the recipe has oils in it which can act like magnifiers and increase the intensity of sunlight on the plants. You need to add enough shampoo to cause the orange oil to go into suspension. I would be surprised is there is much difference between biowash, plant wash, and shampoo. Apparently there is some difference - I'm just saying there is likely not much difference.
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7. If you have the fungus, mow uninfected areas of the yard first, the most infected areas last and then disinfect all yard equipment used afterward. This little tidbit of information was given to me by a local organic nurseryman and would have saved me more grief had I considered it sooner. I used a mixture of bleach and water.
I never babied my lawn with disease. You can do this if you think it makes a difference. Be absolutely sure you do not mow wet grass, though. There are several reasons for this but the idea of spreading disease brought it to mind.