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Key West, FL

Has anyone tried this?? It's organic and it says it's safe to use in the garden once the plant has "true" leaves. I was thinking this stuff might work and not damage the plant??

7/26/2004 7:18:39 PM

In the shade - PDX, OR

Ben - I used some earlier this year.

Mixed results for me... It kept the weeds down for a little while but eventually more have greminated. Maybe due to additional weeding and vine burying. I think you'd need multiple applications w/in a couple of weeks for success.

Also be careful when applying. I didn't notice that I got some on the tips of a few young secondaries. These became really stunted and eventually were pruned off.
As long as the plant is established and you avoid the growing tips I think this would help.

7/26/2004 7:49:29 PM

[email protected]

Corn gluten is 10% Nitrogen & it needs to be applied at a minimum of 20 lbs per 1000 to have any real herbicide effect. 40 lbs is even better. So as if 2 lbs of N isn't a little too heavy for our already manure laiden soils, just imagine how much salad we'd produce if we applied 4 lbs of N.

7/26/2004 8:55:32 PM

Key West, FL

Ok, well my nitro is usually a little low in the spring so we'll see....

7/26/2004 9:45:56 PM

C N Y

but does this stuff affect the secondary roots that are trying to do their thing???
i saw a tape of a seminar out West and they were talking about Preen, and it was determined to NOT use it because it may prevent Secondary Rooting....i had thought i would do an experiment with this, by making about a five-foot section of my back patch that the plants (2 of them)
were about to grow across, where i have recently Rounded-Up.
mmmmmmmm.....nice, bare soil.........
i was gonna, and still could, treat that area with Preen and see if the secondary roots (in this case, from the main vine) would or would not form as usual. of course there would also be a few secondaries i could train to grow across this experimentarea also. i know, we're not talking about PREEN to begin with, but a good spot for my plug.

pre-emergent herbicides cause an imbalance of some sort in the soil that keeps anything from germinating, but it may also apply in the case of vine-rooting. so, beware---eric

7/28/2004 6:52:44 PM

[email protected]

Preen is aka Treflan & a raft of other pre-emergent herbicides whose technical name is Trifluralin. This is also part of the larger group of herbicides known as dinitro-analine herbicides. These are usually yellow or orange in color. The forma a gaseous barrier in soils. The gas is toxic to roots. The degree to which the gas affects roots is supposed to be based only on age. But wait...roots are constantly branching off into finer & finer parts as they explore new soils in search of nutrients.

So yes...all of the DNA herbicides do "root prune" very fine root hairs to some degree.

And the jury is still out (way way out) as to whether Corn Gluten really has much effect on germinating weed seeds. It has failed miserably in some trials. Somehwere I have some files of research data. I got them from the poatent owner via one of our vendors. I think they're online somewhere to. If I find the research papers, I'll try to post a link.

All this aside; if CG has trouble controlling weeds, it's not likely to demonstrate significant root pruning since this is HOW these products work.

In other words, if it worked well enough to want to use it, that's reason enough to not use it.

7/28/2004 7:04:56 PM

Williamsburg,KY

Williamsburg,Ky..Does anyone have a source for corn gluten meal??? Ive also use regular corn meal, not self rising in my turnip patch..worked..

8/1/2004 9:45:29 AM