On Mon, 24 Mar 2003 15:00:35 GMT, (Phred) wrote:


Or, more precisely:

http://www.iastate.edu/IaStater/1996/may/tech.html

which page turned up in the first 10 presented by Google when I search
for "corn gluten weed killer", so it wasn't hard to find. It's a bit
of PR blurb, but I see it's seven years old. So "A-Maizing Lawn" has
been around a while! It is claimed to inhibit root growth in
germinating grasses but does not affect established turf.

As to effectiveness, in one paragraph they say (bearing in mind we're
talking back in 1996 here):

quoting
The future looks rosy for the corn gluten meal weed killer. It's the
only natural pre-emergent herbicide in the turfgrass industry. In
addition, corn gluten meal contains nitrogen and acts as a fertilizer
for mature grass. On the other hand, A-Maizing Lawn costs more than
common synthetic herbicides and doesn't work as well. Research
indicates that after three years of use, up to 80 percent of the weeds
are controlled, compared to synthetic herbicides that kill nearly all
weeds.
/quoting

Iowa State also has a whole web page devoted to the product, with a
raft of links to published docs etc. (mostly bloody PDF files though):

http://www.gluten.iastate.edu/




Cheers, Phred.

Well, organic gardeners who would use corn gluten meal are also accepting of a weed
here or there. Speaking for myself, I don't freak out and pop a cork if a weed is
growing in the lawn. I control weeds by arduously hard work. I actually "garden."
I think with all the chemicals and fast works, we are getting fat and lazy, as
gardeners.