Featured Expert
Marry Meyer
Extension Horticulturist/Associate Proffesor
Minnesota Landscape Arboretum
Chanhassen, MN

Q: Is it true that you can put corn gluten meal on your lawn to kill weeds?

A: Yes. Corn gluten meal is a new organic weed control that can make you have a beautiful lawn like you see here. There are a couple things to remember about corn gluten meal. The first one is that it is an organic byproduct of the corn milling process, and you need to look for just that product when you go to purchase corn gluten meal. It is a piece of the corn granule, so when you put this down it's going to smell a lot like cereal does, because it's really just a piece of the corn kernel. It's fairly expensive, it needs water to activate it, and it gets better with time. When you put it on in the springtime you want to put it down early. It's a pre-emergent, so it makes a film across the soil, and it's a barrier for little seeds as they grow. It does seem to get better with time, so by two or three years you'll have 80% pre-emergence weed control. It's especially good for crabgrass, and as I said, it's activated when it gets wet, so it works once it rains or it gets watered in. But it's a great new pre-emergence weed control for a beautiful lawn.

images: corn gluten | label | corn

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Last updated: Tuesday, February 01, 2005