'I've researched this for most of the morning, and the only evidence I can find when applied to turfgrasses seems to be anecdotal. ... I would be interested to see a real turfgrass study as it relates to cornmeal, if anyone can find one. Might want to brush up on your researching skills :) See the link below. The discovery of Corn Gluten Meal as a pre-emergent started out as research into the use of natural methods to control Pythium in golf course greens. The Pythium didn't establish in the cornmeal treated plots. They also noticed that the fresh cornmeal plot had poorer germination which later research revealed corn gluten was 'The Pythium was cultured in the laboratory for several weeks on the commeal and then taken to the field area where it was placed on the surface and tilled 3 to 4 inches deep. Along with the inoculated cornmeal plots, plots of the same size were treated with fresh cornmeal that had not been treated with Pythium. The same total amount of cornmeal was used in the two separate treatments. In addition. a third control plot to which no cornmeal had been applied was established. Three cultivars of creeping bentgrass then were seeded in strips over the top of the plots. The attempt ro establish Pythium in the treated plots was a failure, and normal germination occurred in those areas. Normal germination also was observed in the control plots. However, in the plots that had received the fresh cornmeal, establishment was reduced greatly.' Here's a study on cornstarch against brown patch in st augustine with favorable results. http://agfacts.tamu.edu/D11/Victoria/AG/HomeHort/LANDSCAP/nbrwnpch.htm 'The cornmeal is claimed to provide food (starch) for the good bacteria in the turfgrass which themselves feed on the Brown Patch disease organisms. There was a trend for the cornmeal treated turfgrass to look better than the untreated check and even better than the terrachlor plots.' If you regularly treat your lawn with synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, it is possible that the bacteria cornmeal feeds won't be present? Here is a link that might be useful: Corn Gluten Meal Discover

Would it cost more to fill those 4 six gallon cans with gas than to buy the aerator? Would it be a tougher decision on which brand of gas to use than which brand of aerator to buy? maybe thats why you use water, but those gas cans were probably at least 6 bucks apiece. I wonder if those gas cans filled with water will have a longer life span than the aerator? Sometimes the simple just becomes difficult, whatda ya think?

Since soybean meal is so expensive, I would suggest an alternative. Safe and Simple lawn food is composed of soybean meal, alfalfa meal and fish meal and sells for $23.99 per 50 lb bag. There is a dealer look up on the site. Here is a link that might be useful: useful link

@strawchicago z5 Straw, I will get some pictures later today of my Jubilee's. We had torrential rains all yesterday and last night, so all of my plants are a little heavy right now including all the rose flowers that are blooming ;( Once they dry off and perk up from being so close to the ground I'll try to get some pictures, The 2 I have are looking really beautiful though with big fluffy magenta flowers. I took time to smell them all this morning for you. I'm not the best with scent descriptions, but I wanted to try for you- Olivia Austin rose- not very strong scent....can't comment Imogen - typical rose scent (to me) Carding Mill - Beautiful scent, fruity, almost tropical but not too fruity like my Westerlands. Jubilee Celebration - I really like this smell now that I got up close to them to sniff the flowers. It is fruity like Carding Mill, but with a strong kind of lemon zest scent to it. Lemon zest might not sound good, but this is my favorite smell of all the Austin's so far I think. If someone told me a flower smelled strongly like lemon zest, I probably wouldn't love the idea. So maybe that's not the best description of it but I'll try it again later and see if I can come up with a better description. I'm going to order some more of the rose though, I really like it :)