You won't hurt the soil by over-applying :-) It is totally organic and will breakdown like any other type of organic matter and feed the soil. CGM is actually a decent organic source of nitrogen (NPK 9-0-0), so the only drawback to over-applying is that your plants may produce more lush, leafy growth, including any weeds that were not removed prior to application. What you are smelling is the natural process of the meal decomposing in somewhat anaerobic conditions because of the mulch cover - water and warmth will encourage and speed up this process but exposing the meal to air should dissipate the smell rapidly. Maybe rake off the mulch, leave the CGM exposed for a few days, then recover with the mulch.

Tiemco wrote: "I don't even consider it for use in a yard unless you just want green coverage, and don't care about color or texture. Most of the yards in my neighborhood are about 4,100 square feet, but there are some yards that are half an acre. Half an acre is a lot of turf to cover. I would guess some folks might want to seed inexpensive K-31 on much of that half acre, but leave 5,000 to 10,000 square feet close to the house for the higher quality fescues, whether tall or fine. Of course, you and I both mean "Pennington" when we said "Pendleton." Pennington also sells uncoated K-31. Would I plant K-31 in my small 4,100 square-foot yard? No. But I was happy to see a big box carry grass seed that wasn't either from Scotts or Pennington. The more competition, the better for the consumer. Walmart is selling all those bags of K-31 to somebody. And every year I see K-31 in other big box stores too. So I guess those bags are going to buyers in more rural areas with large pastures, and maybe to suburban buyers with half an acre or even a full acre to care for.

No they are NOT the same. Straight corn meal is used to eliminate fungal problems primarilly in bodies of water and in aquaculture/fish farming. This was first worked on at Texas A&M. Corn gluten meal is the by product of the wet processing of corn to produce corn syrup and corn oil. CGM has been used as cattle feed for decades. However, the University of Iowa discovered that CGM could be used to control the germination of annual weed seeds if applied at the correct time and under prime conditions. It does nothing to prennial weeds except to fertilize them. Since CGM is about 65% protein, it also performs as a decent fertilizer with an analysis of 9-0-0. Straight corn meal has some benefit in controlling some types of fungal problems in lawns. It has no effect in treating take all root rot in St. Augustine lawns.

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.