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Ask The Yard Doctor

Cornmeal for fungus control

20 years ago

Ok. There's been a lot of debate on the lawn forum about whether cornmeal truly is a cure/preventative for lawn-type fungi.

The proponents point to a study of peanut fungus by Texas A&M. But I recently read an article by a Texas A&M professor who said that corn meal is not effective for lawn disease.

At this point, I'm not sure what to believe. Do you have any opinions on this?

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Comments (3)

yarddoctor
20 years ago
Trey Rogers
The Yard Doctor

Dear turf toes

Thank you very much for your inquiry. Corn meal as an organic fungus control? Yes I believe it is possible and that both people you are referencing could be right, but only to a point. My experience with most biological type controls is that they can be effective if a) the problem is not too severe, or b) they are put down consistently and persistently at rates that allow total dominance of a landscape. I have not read this particular article, but I will give you an example with corn gluten meal, a well established biological product in the area of preemergent herbicides for crabgrass. The original research articles from the early 1990Âs did indeed show that this product was effective in providing control against crabgrass as long the crabgrass pressure was not to severe (as in the case of most home lawns). If there is a bare ground area with heavy crabgrass seed pressure in the soil, the data showed this product was not as effective as traditional preemergent herbicides. This is the case with many of these biological products. They will perform well under moderate conditions, but not as well under extreme conditions. I suspect that this is the case in the corn meal you are referring and that is why both people are probably correct.

Finally, for fungus control in home lawns, remember this first. Fungus love water and fertilizer and will flourish in warm, wet, damp areas. Do what you can to mitigate these situations first, and your disease issues will be minimized.

Again, thanks for the question and let me know if you have more.

Respectfully

Trey Rogers
The Yard Doctor
lovesroses
20 years ago
We have had a local problem with brown patch for about three years now, and more seriously, take-all patch. Several golf courses had to be completely re-sodded, and multiple lawns, too, with take-all patch.

The only curative/preventative I have come across and that has been recommended time and again is if you have heavy fungal presence, use the recommended dosage for curative treatement, using granular Daconil in a broadcast spreader, following instructions to get to preventative dosage, if necessary.

I do not recall whether Daconil was the product recently discussed as being taken off the market; it could a completely different product at issue. It was still on the shelves early spring. At any rate, if it is not the product that is being taken off the market, granular Daconil is much more effective for lawns than the liquid base. Feed and Seed-type stores usually carry it. It has proven quite effective.

Dianne
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Its a lot easier to prevent than it is to stop once it starts. Once I have gotten it, the only thing that really stopped it was cooler weather. I've tried fungacides (hated them, but some improvement but no real cure) and cornmeal. My results were that nothing worked. Try to get the right grass and fertilize it (don't over-fertilize especially into the hot times) and water so it dries out for the heat of the day. Its the old adage, an ounce of prevention...
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Mellen, I can't answer your question on how to use the corn meal, but I have a question for you: When and how often do you water? All living things, plants and animals, have certain conditions in which they do best. Fungus likes moist conditions. You don't see a lot of it in deserts! If you normally water in the evenings, and frequently, you might be able to get rid of the fungus simply by watering as early in the morning as possible? That would give the sun, and any wind, time to dry out the lawn before nightime. Then if you didn't water again till the grass absolutely needed it, the area might simply stay too dry for the fungus' liking? I once got into a conversation with a guy who runs one of those "storage facilities" not far from my house. He had a whole bunch of huge brown areas in his lawn. The first thing I asked him was when and how often he watered? (Since it virtually never rains during the summer here in Sacramento, we have complete control over watering.) Predictably, he told me they watered in the evening, and every single day!!! I suggested they start watering only early in the morning, and at most twice a week. Within a month, all the brown spots were green. Oh, you can make a simple "water measuring device" form the bottom rung of a wire coat hanger. Cut it where it's straight on one end, but leave a bit of the curve on the other, so you wind up with something that looks like a tiny cane. After you've watered, stick the wire in the ground and it will tell you how deep the water's penetrated. It goes in easier as far as the soil's been wet. Most lawn grasses, with Zoysia being an exception, have roots about 6 to 8 inches deep, so that's how deep you want to water. Then say the soil dries out an inch a day, you wouldn't need to water again for a week. Oh, you could still use the corn meal, but just as a fertilizer. It's got a pretty good nitrogen content, as well as other nutrients. I've always believed that "the simplest solutions are usually the best."
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Fish emulsion has some nice nutritional and anti soft bodies insect properties. I like to use seaweed spray. I use the following mixture weekly. In 1 gallon of water. add 1 Tbsp fish emulsion (nitrogen and insect repellent) 1 TBSP seaweed( potassium and micronutrients) and 2 tbsp horticultural molasses. (More micronutrients, Sulfur and sugar) Once the plants are established I hold back on the fish emulsion and use a semi organic fertilizer known as Medina Hasta grow 6-12-6 in lieu of the fish emulsion in the mixture. I spray the top and bottom of the leaves and the stems weekly in the early morning when temperatures are still below 85f and the humidity is high to prevent burning as well as to have the greatest absorption while the Stomata of the leaves are open. Does it work?? I think it does but have not "controlled" plants with equal treatments without the foliar spraying. Other tricks I have tried and my plants have survived them is using cornmeal tea as the base. The cornmeal grows a fungus that supposedly competes with pathogenic fungi on the leaf surfaces. So if it's been wet I soak a couple of coups of cornmeal in a gallon of water the night before I spray this makes a milky water that I then add the weekly ingredients to. . The leftover solid cornmeal is later used as a side dressing. A few times this year I have added Spinosad to the mix for additional chewing insect and caterpillar control. The absence of these pest and presence of beneficial insects in my garden are completely anecdotal and I do not wish to waste the space not treating a plant for scientific verification. I have been happy with cornmeal for fungus control. You can also make a tea out of greensand for additional potassium and iron if needed. Foliar feeding is also a safer way of using inorganic blue water if you must. A light spray of blue water on the leaf surface is not going to damage the soil organisms and add as much in the way of salts to the soil. The boost the plant gets from any kind of feeding will enhance the symbiotic relationship the plants roots have with organisms in the rhizosphere. The plant will provide more sugars and nutrients and the organisms in the soil will return the favor with nutrients.
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carl_klmtel_net
15 years ago
Where can you buy Horticultural cornmeal in Missouri. Every where I try say that they have never hear of it!

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