Update #2 - Re: Using cornmeal as a plant fungicide
nandina
21 years ago
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Field
21 years agoRelated Discussions
Synthetic Fungicide Used- Now What?
Comments (10)Lou- The grass was here before I moved in seven years ago. It's St Augustine, but I don't know if it's the Floratam strain. If the grass is dying, wouldn't the new die too? BTW, bermuda grass has taken over most of the lawn, and the fungus doesn't seem to bother it. If you think soybean might help speed up the grass' recovery, I'll give it a try. Gyrd- No one at the nursery center knew what to call it, and "all around" may just be my friend's description. It is certainly accurate! jeannie7 - Funny that you should ask about fungus on fruit trees because my next door neighbor's wild olive tree gets a fungus every year about this time. Pretty nasty stuff but he doesn't do much about it, and it clears up each mid-spring. I hadn't considered that the fungus could be airborne. I put down corn meal right before a half inch rain. Gee it was hard to get it watered in well. After the rain, I ran the sprinkler for over an hour and could still see corn meal on the blades afterward. At least I'm popular with the neighborhod birds- I'm getting a little fertilizer in return. As soon as I can get a week day off from work, I'll get a load of compost. Here's a couple of pictures of the grass, one close up of the blades and another of area of mostly dead grass. They're small thumbnails, but I hope details will be clear. Thanks for everyone's input....See MoreSeeds starting and using cornmeal to prevent mold?
Comments (9)I doubt it would do much good indoors for such a short period of time. I used corn meal to combat dollar spot fungus in my lawn and it takes a month or more before anything happens. The idea seems to be that corn attracts trichoderma fungi and these are mycoparasitic (they kill [some] other fungi). Not really an ideal scenario for indoor seed starting. For this year you can try bottom watering if it is feasible for you. By keeping the top layer dryish after germination you may be able to reduce or eliminate the mold growth, but that's iffy. Something you can do is lose the peat. Maybe not this year as you probably already have your supplies, but in my experience anything with peat gets the white fuzzy mold as well as green algae like stuff on the mix surface. Not everyone seems to experience this, but some do. I have a fan on my seedlings so I don't think air circulation is the problem. Well, it might be given that it is inside air that is circulating. Nothing I can do about that. What I have been using for seed starting is 100% vermiculite. I like it as it is completely inorganic and doesn't seem to support the growth of anything other than the seedling....See MoreThis year I am going to experiment with.........
Comments (19)Field, Well, the sugar experiment was not really an experiment on my part as I have known the results for many years. I learned the trick of using granulated sugar to discourage nematodes/root nematodes from an old-time grower many years ago. Certain parts of the country, especially the warmer climates, can suffer severe plant damage caused by nematodes. This is why I plant every type of annual/vegetable and perennial with a handful of sugar mixed into the planting hole. Then, add more scratched around the plants about every six weeks during the warm months. I now have a number of people who have never been able to grow the southern lawn grasses, due to ring nematodes, spreading granulated sugar over the entire lawn every eight weeks using a drop spreader set on its lowest setting. They are buying the 40# bags of sugar at discount stores such as Sam's. No, this treatment does not attract unwanted critters. When trying to identify possible nematode problems it is always wise to pull an ailing plant with its roots and take it to your county extension office for identification of the problem. Two of the many plants that root nematodes attack are tomatoes and Clematis. You ask about my cornmeal experiments. As you know, I have just started a thread on this Forum titled 'Update #2 - Re: Using cornmeal as a plant fungicide'. On that thread I am hopeful that gardeners will report their cornmeal trials this year. I have more questions than answers re cornmeal as a fungicide. Is it more effective in the warmer climates than in the colder ones? Does cornmeal work if a gardener is using chemicals to treat insect damage? To date I feel very comfortable suggesting cornmeal as a fungicide on all lawn fungus problems such as red thread, brown patch and the like. I have seen enough experiments that convince me it does work. Some people are suggesting cornmeal will also discourage mushroom growth and fairy rings in lawns. I do not know at this point if that is true. But, I would encourage those dealing with such problems to sprinkle cornmeal on fairy ring areas several times during the summer and report their results. Yes, I believe that cornmeal is going to be a useful plant fungicide for the organic gardener. We just have to keep sprinkling it on the ground around our various fungus prone plants such as tomatoes, roses, hostas, etc. once a month and report observations to this Forum. Those reports are very important to our understanding of the situation....See MoreUpdate on using cornmeal to prevent blackspot
Comments (108)Ye gads! I wonder why some of this stuff stays around. There is a difference between corn gluten (not gluton) meal and cornmeal; the corn gluten meal is the (somewhat effective) proteins plus other materials milled off whole cornmeal, and which actually contains no gluten. It does work as a pre-emergent herbicide in some situations. Do your research to find how, and rather than doing it the lazy way on most organic gardening forums, read abstracts from university research papers and university horticulture forums (I suggest the WSU Extension forum from Puyallup, WA). You can also find whole grain cornmeal at some better grocery stores. It has the corn gluten intact, if you want it. Corn meal is good food for snails, some rodents and insects. Cornmeal and corn gluten meal are both good substrates for growing some kinds of fungi for research purposes. Just get some moist, perhaps on a pot of wet soil, leave in the shade, keep it moist and/or covered, and see what grows. As a pre-emergent herbicide, cornmeal is not so effective, and under just the right conditions (look up elsewhere how to do it right) corn gluten meal is a good pre-emergent herbicide, even if a bit $$. There is not much guarantee that your corn gluten meal would be OMRI certifiable, for most of it is made from GMO field corn. After all, since most of it goes into animal feed, and the feed producers care mostly about the bottom line, why ask for non-GMO corn sources? net-net: do better research in finding the papers and abstracts, and read critically. Then you won't be panicking about where to find cornmeal or corn gluten meal for your garden. As for tomato spot disease, just try to find supporting studies on cornmeal for preventing that...you'll likely only find anecdotal reports from some home gardeners who have been successful one season, and attribute that success to the cornmeal, but have no control against which to compare....See MoreField
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nandinaOriginal Author