Just for the fun of it I'm doing some test with cornmeal and st aug. I put 1 bag of top soil per container, 2 plugs, and a different rate of corn meal. All the plugs are from my lawn, and all the plugs have gray leaf spot. Also, curious to see the difference in growth and color.

Far right has 1.6 oz, which should be right at the rate of 20lbs per 1000sq ft.

Middle has 3.2 oz.

Left has 4.8 oz.

Container is 15inchx23inch - someone can check my math if they would like.

I had grey leaf spot and cornmeal didnt help. I had already put several hundred pounds down this year before getting the fungus, and more after. I found my watering schedule made a bigger difference than anything. How do you plan to water?

I'm a rookie - maybe someone can comment on why that didn't work. I water twice weekly - just cut my time in about half from 1hr 45min to about 1 hour.

What time of day do you water?

I was watering during the early evening, I know thats bad but hey with all the cornmeal I put down I thought I would be good. Ive watered in the evening for years (can only water during certain hours in drought) and never had a major outbreak, but I think Ive always had a little fungus holding the lawn back. Its looking better now than ever now!

I have three zones that start at 5 am. My front lawn is decently thick now, but the sides and the back are about 25% grass plugs 75% weeds.

haha

the front was planted dense - tried to save some money on the rest. I measured my yard and drew myself a little blueprint today - it's about 8,000 sqft

Trent do you have holes in the bottom of the containers? Assuming you do you still have the general headache of figuring out how much to water. Since the roots don't have the gigantic mass of soil to draw moisture from, you'll probably want to water briefly and more frequently.

This has been a bad year for me for corn meal, too. I applied it like normal and to attack gray leaf spot. Up until this weekend the grass has been noticeably thin. Three weeks ago we were cleaning out the garage and my wife applied all the broken open bags of fertilizer to the lawn. I don't know how much she applied but it was 3-4 bags. It's really looking good now. I'm running another experiment now with Actinovate. That will be over in 2 weeks. Then I have 80 pounds of greensand to apply.

I didn't drill any holes in the bottom, wasn't sure if I should or not. Will the soil still retain quite a bit of moisture?

You need holes or else you'll have mold in the bottom of the container.

How much moisture gets retained depends on the heat, direct sunlight, humidity, and the type of soil. Just like your real soil. It's an interesting experiment. You might not learn what you wanted to learn but you'll learn something. Please share your findings even if they are not what you expected.