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I called BS on corn gluten meal for weeds until my neighbor in Ames tried it on his crabgrass
I have been fighting crabgrass in my front lawn for three summers and I always just pulled it by hand or hit it with the hose end spray stuff from the hardware store. My neighbor Dave, who has lived in Ames for 30 years and keeps a lawn that looks like a golf course, kept telling me to try corn gluten meal as a pre-emergent. I smiled and nodded every time because it sounded like one of those old wives tale garden tricks, like putting coffee grounds on your hydrangeas to change the color. Then this spring he gave me a 25 pound bag from the co-op on Lincoln Way and said just spread it before the soil hits 55 degrees, so I did it on March 28 with a push spreader. Six weeks later I had maybe four crabgrass clumps in the whole yard instead of the usual mess, and I have not pulled a single one by hand. The catch is the timing has to be right, if you spread it after the seeds sprout it does nothing, and it also feeds the grass a little nitrogen so the lawn greened up faster than usual. Has anyone else had luck with corn gluten meal, and do you reapply it in the fall or is once in spring enough?
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burns.thomas10d ago
The "soil hits 55 degrees" part is the whole ballgame, and Dave gave you good advice. Corn gluten meal only works as a pre-emergent, so once those seeds sprout it's just lawn food with extra steps. For fall, it depends on your crabgrass pressure and where you are. Down here crabgrass dies at first frost, so a fall app mostly feeds the turf and helps it thicken up, which crowds out next year's weeds anyway. If you're not overseeding, hit it again around late August, but skip it if you're putting down seed since it can mess with germination.
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