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Old 17-03-2003, 04:56 PM
Chris Campbell
 
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Default corn gluten weed killer in pellet form?

I'm trying to control the chickweed that sprouts up in my fescue lawn
every winter (Atlanta) without resorting to synthetic poisons. I am
unable to keep up with it just by pulling it up.

Several years ago the University of Iowa came up with research that
showed that corn gluten inhibited weed seed germination (specifically,
seedling root formation). Several products have now been brought to
market:

http://www.public.iastate.edu/~isurf...gmwebsite.html

I tried one of these (Fertrell Weedban) about 3-4 years ago. It came
in a 5-gallon bucket and was a yellow powder, like flour. Being in
this powdery form made it very difficult to spread -- it might be
spreadable with a drop spreader, but in the hand-spinning thing that I
use, it just made a cloud that blew away. I have a very small lot (and
limited storage) and don't want to buy/use/store a drop spreader --
assuming that would even work.

I figure that by now certainly someone has solved this problem and
come out with a pelletized version of the same product. Does anyone
know if pelletized corn gluten exists now for weed control purposes?

Thanks!

- Chris