I'm in NC, but will share my experience with finding CGM. I've been using it for about 5 years. The local nurseries do carry it, but I've found I can order it from a local hardware store (family owned place) for a whole lot less. The same bag would be over $40 at a nursery, under $30 at the hardware store, so it pays to shop around. The hardware store doesn't keep it in stock, but they order it for me. I use Espoma brand, but am pretty sure Safer makes it too (I know I used them when I was new to CGM). I would love to get it at a local feed store and spend less, but when I first researched CGM, I read the quality isn't the same and it may not have the same effectiveness. You might want to research that yourself, but here's a link that has some info: http://www.gardensalive.com/article.asp?ai=753 . I realize it's from a company that wants to sell you their product, but I did see similar claims in other articles as well.

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.

Jill, You're welcome. Dried molasses is one of those things that sounds "odd" until you understand how it works to improve microbial life in the soil, isn't it? I think the molasses sold as a cattle supplement could work as long as you know they haven't addded anything to it that would be bad for your soil or for stuff grown in that soil. From what I understand, when sugar beets or sugar cane are processed to make sugar, sugar is the primary product they're after. So, after they've made the sugar, the leftover syrupy stuff is made into molasses for human consumption and for use in the garden. Then, the lower quality stuff that is left over from that process is turned into cattle feed. Unless something peculiar is added to it for the cattle, I don't know why it wouldn't work to stimulate microbial activity in the soil too. I'm less certain about the corn meal sold as cattle feed. Do you know if it is labeled as "corn meal" or as corn gluten meal" because I think it makes a difference. Corn gluten meal is the one used on the soil. How wonderful that you getting some ripe tomatoes! That is when it really feels like summer! And your daughter sounds like she's on the road to becoming a gardener herself! One funny thing about SunGold is that a lot of people who grow it the first time will complain that it doesn't taste that great, and then all of us who grow it every year are saying "What????" After a while, we figured out that a lot of newbies were harvesting it too early....as soon as it went from green to gold and weren't waiting for it to turn that distinctive golden-orange. So, clearly your daughter knew to wait for the Sungolds to get to the "yummy" stage which makes her a pretty smart cookie! I have tons of tomatoes on the plants, and it is a good thing, because "cool and rainy" are a distant memory here. Since our temps are in the danger zone, and are cranking up even higher this week, I probably won't get much additional fruit set on the plants that produce large tomatoes. If I can keep the cherry, currant, grape and paste types healthy, though, they'll set fruit for months yet. I did a walk-through of every row last night, and I have a handful of plants that look really bad. One of them is Wapisipicon Peach, which has never looked very good--just stayed wispy and wimpy and off-colored the whole time, literally from the day it was transplanted into the garden. It wilted and died over a 3 to 4 day period, so I'll take it out today. Two others that just look really bad and have had early blight for weeks are Caspian Pink and Valena Pink. Both of them are about 5' tall and the early blight has just traveled from bottom to top of the plant very rapidly. I've been trying to baby them along, but think I'll take them out today as they are getting worse and not better. The Valena Pink has two huge tomatoes that must weigh a pound-and-a-half or two. They are some of the largest tomatoes I've ever had on a plant. Those two are far enough along that I can pick them now and I think they will ripen. There are about a half-dozen smaller ones that won't though. Caspian Pink often looks really bad but outgrows the blight most years, but I don't think it will this year. Considering I have 140 plants, taking out a couple is no big deal. I do everything I can to avoid foliar diseases, except I don't spray with a fungicide as a preventive measure, and this is actually the best year ever. Usually I have blight on quite a few of them, so only having a bad case of it on three of them is not too bad. Long ago, I had to give up on the idea of having "beautiful" plants and settle for plants that produce ripe tomatoes! However, this year a lot of them do look pretty beautiful. I guess it is hard for early blight to grow and spread when there is no moisture. : ) Keep looking on the bright side.....because the weather has been wicked this year and you can't let it get you down. I am sorry you aren't going to have a good spring corn crop. Mine went in so late due to the late freezes that I don't know if I am going to get good ears or not. The corn itself looks great and has just tasseled, but with these high temperatures, the pollen may be sterile. I guess time will tell. Sorry about your pumpkins and okra too.....thank God for the fall garden! For fall corn, I think I am going to grow shoepeg corn ("Country Gentleman") because it is DH's and DS's favorite corn. I have "Seredipity" for spring corn and will just keep my fingers crossed that it pollinates before the heat gets too bad. M okra is making a slow recovery from being nibbled to the ground by the deer. About 8 plants came back although the others died. I should get okra from those 8, but have replanted more to replace the ones that didn't survive. One thing about fall gardening that I love (other than the fact that we get a "second chance" with crops that underperformed) is that a lot of the pests' life cycles are geared towards spring and summer crops. I never have as much of a pest problem on fall crops as on spring ones. And, now that I have a fence that truly seems to be deer-proof, I can grow more cool-season crops in the fall. Our deer have always preferred all the cool-season crops to the warm-season ones, especially cabbage and broccoli. Sweet potatoes love heat, so maybe it has been too cool for them to grow and maybe they will kick into gear now that more summer heat has arrived. With all the rain some of you have had, especially in your part of the state, I am amazed you have any garden left at all. I remember last year when my garden stayed wet for weeks and weeks, and even in the raised beds the moisture levels stayed incredibly high, and everything suffered greatly. To think y'all are having that kind of mositure again is mind-boggling. It is hard (but not impossible) to give peppers too much moisure (or soil that is too rich). Are your peppers off-color and dropping leaves? That probably would be too much moisture OR a nitrogen deficiency because the water-clogged roots can't take up nutrients because they are so full of water. If your tomatoes and peppers are in beds with identical drainage, the peppers "ought to" thrive if the tomatoes are thriving. Of course, your tomato plants probably are much larger than the pepper plants, so they can and do use more moisture. So, thinking about it in those terms, I can see why the peppers might be suffering. Last year I just kept my peppers in containers all summer and had a really good harvest and I don't think they would have done well here in last year's moisture. Too hot and dry....too cool and wet....too much this, and too little that. I'd like to have one year, just one year, with AVERAGE temperatures and AVERAGE rainfall. Instead, we seem to swing from one extreme to another, which IS (unfortunately) normal for us. At least we aren't in poor, flooded Iowa or in the San Francisco area where they are having temps in the 100s to 110s instead of their usual 70s and low 80s. A lot of California gardeners on the Tomato Forum have been begging for "hot weather plant tips" and, as you know from living here, there's not a lot you can do about the heat except hope it cools off. Our weather may be odd, but it still is pretty much what we and our gardens are used to having. Dawn

It depends on what you are using the corn meal for. You apply the corn meal dry and then water it in to activate it. If you don't water it in, it doesn't work. Here's the different ones available and how you use them: CORN GLUTEN MEAL: Corn Gluten Meal is a natural weed-and-feed fertilizer. Research done at Iowa State University in the early 1990s found that it inhibits root formation at the time weed seeds germinate. It also is about 10% nitrogen and feeds the plants at the same time. You apply it (down here in southern OK) between February 15th and March 15th at a rate of about 15-20 lbs. per 1000 square feet. You spread it at this time to prevent germination of crab grass, grassburrs and other annual weeds that sprout in late winter to early spring. You apply it (down here in southern OK) between September 15th and October 15th at the same rate of 15-20 lbs. per 1000 square feet to inhibit germination of cool-season weeds that germinate in fall and winter, which includes dandelions, henbit and annual bluegrass. IF you are overseeding your lawn with rye grass or fescue, you can't use the corn gluten meal until all your grass seed has sprouted and grown at least a couple of inches tall. CORN MEAL: Plain old kitchen corn meal has anti-fungal and anti-bacterial properties, so it is great as a natural disease control in the lawn and garden, and even in seed flats and pots. It is also a mild fertilizer. You apply it at the rate of 20 lbs. per 1000 square feet. It has been found to be effective on brown patch disease in St. Augustine, and many people have found it to work on various soil-borne fungal diseases, including those that attack photinia, Indian hawthorne, roses, and fruit trees. Corn meal works, by the way, by providing and stimulating existing beneficial microorganisms that feed on bad pathogens like bacteria and fungi. Corn meal can be scattered on the surface of your seed flats to prevent damping off. Spread at the rate of 2 lbs. per 100 square feet of seed flats. FOR ALGAE CONTROL: You can apply corn meal OR horticultural corn meal to your ponds at the rate of 5 lbs. per 100 s.f. or 150-200 lbs. per surface acre of water to control algae in ponds. The cornmeal's cellulose helps tie up excess phosphorus in the water which helps balance the water chemistry and kills the algae. Also, there is organic carbon in cornmeal which "feeds" beneficial bacteria in the water which enables them to flourish at the expense of the algae. You do have to be really careful about applying it to ponds though, because is can tie up so much oxygen that you have a fish kill. HORTICULTURAL CORN MEAL: This is just a stronger form of corn meal manufactured just for the horticultural industry. It contains the concentrated outer layer of the corn kernel. And, I want to emphasize that all the corn meal products work ONLY when used as part of an organic gardening program. They do not work if used in combination with chemicals. For what it is worth, listeners of Howard Garrett's weekend radio gardening show in Fort Worth have been experimenting with corn meal for several years, using it to combat various fungal problems like skin (esp. foot) fungal problems and nail fungal problems. A lot of them have reported success by soaking cornmeal and water and using the "corn meal juice" as a soak for feet or nails. Some of his listeners have used it on themselves and other people, and some have used it on pets with fungal skin problems. Dawn