kathyga........I've written about it a few times here. Basically, the grass - and a couple weeds - in the corn gluten meal containers grew like crazy, telling me that it is an awesome fertilizer and not so great preemergent. I didn't get any crabgrass in that container, but I recall getting a really weird weed that I had never seen before and have never seen since. The most striking thing was the difference between the corn gluten meal and non corn gluten meal containers. When I dumped out the corn gluten meal container, the roots were REALLY deep and thick, causing the whole thing to come out in one giant clump, which was pretty interesting since I didn't spread too many seeds in there originally. The one with no fertilizer was pretty sparse in terms of root action.

Yes it is perfectly safe to use both at the same time. In fact it is safe to use any of the grain type fertilizers at any time, day or night, rain or shine, all together or separately. There are no interactions among any of them that we know about. You can use them in amounts up to the smothering the grass stage (more than 50 pounds per 1,000 square feet). You will get some bad odors if you use more than 30 pounds per 1,000 square feet but if you are using corn and corn gluten meal at 10-20 pounds per 1,000 square feet, you should be fine. Where it might get dicey is if you used blood meal or fresh manure in large quantities. Personally I would never use fresh manure without full composting first. Blood meal is probably best used by mixing it with grains so that no more than 5 pounds per 1,000 square feet of blood meal goes out. Blood meal can get stinky fast and it can burn your grass roots. It is hard to control very light applications of it so mixing it in with something else is a good idea.

It depends on what you are using the corn meal for. You apply the corn meal dry and then water it in to activate it. If you don't water it in, it doesn't work. Here's the different ones available and how you use them: CORN GLUTEN MEAL: Corn Gluten Meal is a natural weed-and-feed fertilizer. Research done at Iowa State University in the early 1990s found that it inhibits root formation at the time weed seeds germinate. It also is about 10% nitrogen and feeds the plants at the same time. You apply it (down here in southern OK) between February 15th and March 15th at a rate of about 15-20 lbs. per 1000 square feet. You spread it at this time to prevent germination of crab grass, grassburrs and other annual weeds that sprout in late winter to early spring. You apply it (down here in southern OK) between September 15th and October 15th at the same rate of 15-20 lbs. per 1000 square feet to inhibit germination of cool-season weeds that germinate in fall and winter, which includes dandelions, henbit and annual bluegrass. IF you are overseeding your lawn with rye grass or fescue, you can't use the corn gluten meal until all your grass seed has sprouted and grown at least a couple of inches tall. CORN MEAL: Plain old kitchen corn meal has anti-fungal and anti-bacterial properties, so it is great as a natural disease control in the lawn and garden, and even in seed flats and pots. It is also a mild fertilizer. You apply it at the rate of 20 lbs. per 1000 square feet. It has been found to be effective on brown patch disease in St. Augustine, and many people have found it to work on various soil-borne fungal diseases, including those that attack photinia, Indian hawthorne, roses, and fruit trees. Corn meal works, by the way, by providing and stimulating existing beneficial microorganisms that feed on bad pathogens like bacteria and fungi. Corn meal can be scattered on the surface of your seed flats to prevent damping off. Spread at the rate of 2 lbs. per 100 square feet of seed flats. FOR ALGAE CONTROL: You can apply corn meal OR horticultural corn meal to your ponds at the rate of 5 lbs. per 100 s.f. or 150-200 lbs. per surface acre of water to control algae in ponds. The cornmeal's cellulose helps tie up excess phosphorus in the water which helps balance the water chemistry and kills the algae. Also, there is organic carbon in cornmeal which "feeds" beneficial bacteria in the water which enables them to flourish at the expense of the algae. You do have to be really careful about applying it to ponds though, because is can tie up so much oxygen that you have a fish kill. HORTICULTURAL CORN MEAL: This is just a stronger form of corn meal manufactured just for the horticultural industry. It contains the concentrated outer layer of the corn kernel. And, I want to emphasize that all the corn meal products work ONLY when used as part of an organic gardening program. They do not work if used in combination with chemicals. For what it is worth, listeners of Howard Garrett's weekend radio gardening show in Fort Worth have been experimenting with corn meal for several years, using it to combat various fungal problems like skin (esp. foot) fungal problems and nail fungal problems. A lot of them have reported success by soaking cornmeal and water and using the "corn meal juice" as a soak for feet or nails. Some of his listeners have used it on themselves and other people, and some have used it on pets with fungal skin problems. Dawn

Please tell us where you live and what kind of grass you have. Also if you could include a couple photos of your yard, that would help. One photo should show the yard from the middle of your street. Another should show the weeds you have now from a distance of 6 inches. In general liquid lawn fertilizers are a big waste of money. You can never get the pounds and pounds of nutrients necessary out of a 7 pound gallon of anything. A 2,000 square foot lawn needs 30-40 pounds of corn gluten meal over a period of 4-5 months to be an effective fertilizer. If you did have real liquid corn gluten, you would have to spray it once a month to get a fertilizer effect. If you think corn gluten meal, even real corn gluten meal, is an effective preemergent herbicide, I think you will be disappointed. A few years ago I tried using it at 20 pounds per 1,000 square feet, once a month, beginning in April and ending in October. I had weeds the entire time. If you read the Iowa State research, the best they could do under their test conditions was to get 80% effectiveness. If you do not apply exactly as they did in their tests, you are going to have less than 40% effectiveness. Is your goal to be 100% organic? If so I wonder why? I fertilize only with organics (alfalfa pellets and ordinary corn meal), but if there is a weed invasion, I will pull out the chemicals once a year. Some weeds seed so rapidly you cannot keep up just by pulling them out. Some weeds spread so fast you cannot keep up with them. As far as I know there is no effective organic weed control that will not also kill the lawn.