Anyone have any experience with corn gluten meal for weed?

I am thinking of trying to find some locally in a decent size bag, not a 2 lb. or 5 lb. bag, to spread on one particular area of my garden that is infested with crab grass. But I don't want to spend the money and do the work if it doesn't work very well. I'm not interested in chemical pre-emergent herbicides. Thanks.

Corn gluten works great, you just have to get it on before the seeds germinate. After the initial application you repeat every six weeks throughout the season or as long as the weeds are throwing off seeds. From what I understand, crabgrass is an anual so you should be able to get good control of it this year. Worms Way carries it in good sized bags.

I too have used corn gluten meal as a pre-emergent with good results. I spread the CGM, then cover with thick brown wrapping paper (since I cannot find newspaper with little or no colored ink anymore!!), then a layer of shredded paper or mulch. I did only one application, for bermuda grass, along the alley fence-line. Did not repeat the application and it controlled the weeds for about 2 years. Needs a new application now.

Hi, we've been using corn gluten on our front lawn for several years. We've significantly reduced the weeds and it greens up the lawn really nicely in the spring. We've only used it once a year so far even though we keep planning to do the fall too. I've never tried it in garden beds but I'm considering it. It is a wee bit expensive.

Thanks for all the input. It is expensive. Not sure if I will try it or not. I may go with a heavy mulch and just not plant that area this year. Just try to smother it out.

Just wondering what effect it has on grass burrs and wild flowers?

I've used layers of newsprint with a mulch on top. After a few months there's some nice pliable soil ready for turning, but I'm sure there are viable weed seeds. Once we used black plastic for a whole year (understand half a year here is too cold to solarize the soil) which is supposed to kill the seeds. Should be easy to do down south. Wet the soil first.