Corn Gluten Meal on New Sod after Tilling?

6 years ago

Hello,
I bought a home in Toronto Canada and we recently decided to replace the lawn (as it was pretty much 100% weeds).

I tilled my lawn two weeks ago and I plan on replacing it with new sod next week.
We did our best to remove as many weeds from the lot before tilling, but we still mashed up quite a bit of weeds with the tiller, then we raked and bagged the remaining weed roots.

Since there are likely a lot of weed seeds still in the soil, does it make sense to apply CORN GLUTEN MEAL onto the lawn prior to sodding (to prevent these seeds from germinating)?

I bought some Corn Gluten Meal, but on the back it says not to use on new sod (which doesn't make sense to me as it should only inhibit seed growth, and actually act as a fertilizer to grass, including new sod).
It is early October, and unusually warm, so I figure it's a good time to sod.

Any suggestions on whether or not we should apply the Corn Gluten Meal?

Or is this a pointless thing to do in the fall or with new sod?

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Comments (3)

dchall_san_antonio
6 years ago
CGM is an excellent organic fertilizer and a worthless preemergent weed controller. It is an excellent fertilizer because it has a high protein content which feeds the soil microbes.

A few years ago my wife wanted me to apply a preem in the early spring. I applied CGM. I repeated every month of the growing season at 20 pounds per 1,000 square feet. I saw no difference in weed pressure throughout the year. I applied both on the lawn and in the flower beds. If you read all the literature from Iowa State University, where the CGM as preemergent hoax began, you will see that the best results they could get with weed control was 80% and that was under very specific circumstances. The packaging on CGM weed control products never mentions this. The application instructions are vague - probably on purpose.

Are you allowed to use RoundUp? If so then here's what you should do: Water lightly 3x per day for a week. At the end of a week there will be some weeds sprouting. Spray those with RU. Then continue watering the same way for another week and spray the RU again. After that you can scatter the grass seed and get very minimal weeds sprouting up with your new grass. If you don't get many weeds, you could hoe them out on the weekends. I like a stirrup hoe for weeds.

If you can do that and since you will be watering every day, take note of where the soil settles. Rototilling was a bad idea and, yes, I realize the Scott's website promotes rototilling. When you rototill the tiller hits hard spots and heaves up out of the ground. When that happens the hard spot becomes an underground hill below the fluffy rototilled soil. When you level it off on top that leaves an uneven height of fluffy soil around the yard. As it settles over the next 3 years it will develop low spots where your mower wheels will fall into. The end result is the lawn gets scalped and it's no fun to mow.
dsfdsdsfdfsf
Original Author
6 years ago
Thanks..

But what do you mean by after applying the RoundUp that "you can scatter the grass seed and get very minimal weeds sprouting up with your new grass"?

I am re-sodding my entire property with new grass. Not re-seeding it.
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dchall_san_antonio
6 years ago
I skipped right over the sod part. I should have said, "you can apply the sod and get very minimal weeds sprouting up with your new grass." The idea is the same - to sprout all the weed seeds and kill them before you start the new grass.

Corn Gluten Meal on New Sod after Tilling?

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Corn Gluten Meal on New Sod after Tilling?

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