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.

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.

To wild acres: First, it has been interesting to review the sudden reappearance of the discussions re using 'cornmeal as a plant fungicide'. Thanks for your Liriope report and your desire "to really know how this (cornmeal) works"? To answer this question is to refer back to the original university studies with peanuts for a possible answer. They reported that cornmeal encourages the growth of Trichoderma fungus which feed on mycelium and sclerotia of Sclerotina minor, Sclerotina rolfsii and all Rhizactina species. Since that report we have received enough information to add Pyricularia grisea (gray leaf spot) to the list and now, thanks to your report, possibly Phytophthora palmivora (Liriope crown rot) to be trialed and tested. The bottom line to all this is: If cornmeal does control this or that fungus, we have to test for and identify the responding fungus using scientific methods. To date academia is sputtering around this subject mostly in a negative manner. Those of us who have been testing know that cornmeal does control certain types of fungus. This would be an interesting and badly needed doctoral project. My final thoughts...Got a plant fungus? Try tossing some cornmeal on and around the problem, misting it lightly with water. It may control the fungus, repeated monthly, or it may not. If it does try to figure out the name of the controlled fungus and if it fits into any of the varieties listed above. It is always interesting to read the comments of others on this subject as they use the 'trial method' experimenting in their own backyards.

I don't need to restate anything I've already said in the seven years since this topic was started. What year is this? 2016? Okay I've used cornmeal on my lawn every year for the past 14 years and it's worked for me. Your mileage may vary. It does not seem to work against red thread, rust, or whatever the fungus is caused by 2 weeks of saturation rainfall. But it does work against the disease caused by blocking off the air to certain grasses. Here's the entirety of kimmsr's link text. I had previously reported that cornmeal was being tested for use as a fungicide, siting a study by researchers at Texas A&M Research Station in Stephenville, TX that was highlighted by Howard Garrett, the Dirt Doctor. I tried it around a couple of tomato plants, but the results were very disappointing. The cornmeal first caked and later turned moldy - not an auspicious experiment. I was then notified by someone at Cooperative Extension in Washington State that the initial testing was for a specific problem under specific conditions, not for a general purpose fungicide. Even then, the cornmeal did not show any promise. It would have been nice if something as available and safe as cornmeal turned out to be effective to, but that is not the case. Cornmeal is not an effective fungicide. -Marie IannottiGardening Expert The Stephenville experiment was done in the 1990s. The specific problem and specific conditions were a variety of assorted fungal diseases on peanut plants. The suggestion was made that by using ordinary corn meal against a variety of diseases (which are common in all gardens), that a farmer would get the same effect as crop rotation. What that means is by using the corn meal a farmer would not have to rotate his crops every year, and he could plant peanuts year after year. That is a huge bonus for a peanut farmer. The paragraph on corn meal was buried in a very long list of possible attacks against disease in peanuts. Doing an experiment once is not considered to be scientifically relevant. Why it was not continued or picked up by other researches is beyond comprehension...unless someone with deeper pockets did not want the research done. TAMU was well known as deeply anti-organic in the 1990s and 2000s. From what I've seen the 2010s are only marginally better than previous decades. As Betty said in her original post corn meal worked for her. It worked for me, too, 14 times. I believe it was working for Ms Iannotti, too, but she did not recognize it as working. She said the corn meal turned moldy. That mold she was seeing, assuming it was the blue-green trichoderma, is exactly the fungus that works against her diseased plants. By not knowing what she was doing, she missed an opportunity to learn something.