Is anyone using corn gluten meal as a pre-emeragent in shrub & flowers beds if so what are your results.
I am interested if any one has tried this. Please respond and tell us your results with corn gluten meal
Good idea on reviving this cause guess what, I tried it. umm... I think it worked a bit. Not much of an answer as far as making purchasing decisions is it. The problem is I havnt been a gardner for that many yrs so although I definately have less weeds in the beds than i did in the spring, I have less weeds in All my beds. bottom line I guess is that I still have weeds in the beds where I used this product. Ok, I still have a lot of CGM left, Ill start another experiment tommorow in a long bed in my own front lawn. Ill use it at rec rate in half the bed and see, when the Sept rains come, if that half of the bed has less weeds. I really wanted to sell this as part of my lawn care programs. I didnt get much interest in it and cant really hard sell it till I have proven to myself that I works well.
I attended a workshop this month sponsored by Wash. State Univ. An Oregon State researcher named Dr. Tom Cook, I believe, did field tests on c.g.m. in beds. His conclusion was they had no preemergence activity at all. The weeds just grew better. Same results on lawns with c.g.m. purchased at a local nursery. His guess is that Dr. Nicks work at Ohio State was done with freshly ground corn meal which must have been active on seedlings. His tests were conclusive in my eyes...don't waste your time or money on c.g.m. unless you grind it yourself (and dry it and store it, etc.). I stopped recommending it on my website after listening to Mr. Cook. It is very expensive anyway with the high rate running about $60 p.t.s.f.. Neal
I have been using cg in pelletized form all year. As a test I created two 12"x12" patches of bare ground in my back yard. I then applied some new top soil and seeded the patches. Then I added the cg to the entire property at a rate of about 20-30#'s per ft2. I did this in May and to this date nothing is growing in these patches (no weeds and no grass). I did apply another 15#'s in mid July, as I was told the cg is only effective for 4-6 weeks.
Did you seed with weeds or just grass? I don't remember any claims the cg would control grass seed. Have you treated any customers lawns or beds yet and what results did you get? Neal
corn gluten meal doesnt stop all weeds from germinating,,,,,and i havent found anyone who is getting good results from it on crabgrass which is the only thing that has been university documented as having some results on! the problem with universitys,,,,,many results can be purchased! cgm proves that with good marketing a spray company can make good money off of anything even if the results dont warrant it!
I seeded with grass seed. And I am just telling you what I see. No grass seed and no weed seeds germinated!
