> In Saturday's DM Register, there is an article about crab grass.  According
> to the article, corn gluten meal, a corn milling by-product, inhibts root
> growth of crab grass, dandelion, plantain, lambsquarter and other weeds.
> Additional information can be found on the Web at www.hort.iastate.edu
>
> Has anyone heard of this or tried it?
>
> Jane Clark

I haven't seen the DMR article & was unable to access the website this
morning, but yes, I've heard of it - it's worked for people I've spoken to
who have tried it, but only in a pre-emergence application.

In one's garden it can remain viable for a time and kill the plants you WANT
to grow, so it's preferable for lawn treatment or mulched areas around
established shrubbery as opposed to flower, herb or vegetable beds.

(If you harvest and eat your young dandelions &/or lamb's quarters you'd
want to do carefully targeted applications on your crab grass spots.)

As far as I know, Certified Organic growers cannot use it unless it's
Certified Organic corn gluten (ie: grown and processed without applied or
systemic herbicide/insecticide residue, Bt genetic or other GE residue), and
whether such a thing exists is a good question... the OMRI website would be
the place to check if they have tested and listed it.

Four years ago it was available at feed stores at a much lower price than
the brand-name packaged variety that came from the only company that
somehow controlled this particular use of corn gluten. (Ie: other companies
could sell it, but not advertised as or in packaging labeled for WEED
CONTROL.) This situation may be different now.

Ericka

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