Question
QUESTION: I want to believe that there is a way to eliminate weeds without resorting to chemicals. But I am very skeptical about this. I was hoping that you might be able to address some of these concerns I have.

Is the organic way of weed control just to pull out the weeds? I simply do not have the time to do that and I cannot bring myself to hire anyone else to do it.

Is occasional use of "chemicals" permitted?  I was thinking that if I could just eliminate the weeds, I would be able to do everything else "organically".

I would love to hear your thoughts on this.  Thank you very much for your attention.
ANSWER: Have you heard that Intelligent Gardeners are using Corn Gluten to zap new weeds?

You can get it on the Internet.  This is safe enough to eat.  No one knows why Corn Gluten works.

Gardens Alive! (www.gardensalive.com) has several shelves' worth of PERFECTLY SAFE weed killers.  I purchase my Corn Gluten from them as WOW! which stands for "With Out Weeds".

If you are like other gardeners and you have a terrible problem with Dandelions, put down a few applications and make sure you don't miss any spots.  But so far, elbow grease and the old fashioned Dandelion Rooter is the only way I know to get these little monsters right now.
Corn Gluten won't work on this common weed.  To make matters worse, Dandelions are Perennials.  Any weeds you missed last summer will be back again soon.  So if you don't get one them year, you will have to get them next year.

A teenager with a Dandelion fork can comfortably yank out 10 per day after school, plus  any fluffy seedheads she notices.  Make sure you tell the kids not to pick those fluffy seedheads -- they love to make wishes off them.  If you pay 25 cents per Dandelion, I think you can kiss them all goodbye.

Thick grass will also help you win the Weed War.  Healthy lawns with a good pH and lots of Nitrogen (the first number on a bag of fertilizer) don't make happy homes for chickweed.  Treating your lawn with lime and a good Nitrogen fertilizer is the best prevention for weeds including chickweed.  Milorganite is one of my favorite fertilizers.  

Between stones, you can use a hand held blow torch and zap weed seedlings in the spring.  But my favorite weed killer in my bluestone driveway: Sour Milk.  

A Florida retailer called Crabgrass Alert Company (www.crabgrassalert.com/contact.html) offers an organic weed killer.  I am not familiar with them but anything beats turning your house into an EPA Superfund Site.

Best regards from Long Island, NY, USA,


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: I admit to not quite buying into most of these claims, this one about corn or cornmeal or corn gluten, another about coca cola and sugar to kill weeds, I'm not even sure I believe yet that there's much wrong with malathion. I had a neighbor who worked with his own chemicals for *decades* and he's a ripe old oldtimer now. He didn't get any "weird diseases".  This is not to say I don't *want* to believe I just am not convinced and not by a longshot.  You seem like a fairly educated individual to me. So tell me, Long Island Gardener, where do you personally draw the line?  And was there a point where you changed you mind and became an organic minded gardener?

Answer
First thing you have to learn here sir is that "organic" means many things to many people.

I would not put Coca-Cola in my refrigerator and I sure as heck wouldn't put it on my lawn.  That's a Jerry Baker routine.  The man deserves a lot of credit for getting our fellow Americans to think about gardening techniques and creative solutions.  I give credit where credit is due.  But just like you, I am not impressed by the attention given to "sugar" coating grass for "feeding" microbes or killing weeds.

But I beg to differ on the matter of Corn Meal Gluten.  I have read the research - university sponsored work, patent approved, and proved in the field tests.

Corn Gluten Meal's Pre-emergents properties were found quite by accident at Iowa State University while researchers studied the value of Cornmeal as a growing medium for certain turfgrass fungi.  The fungi was cultured on Cornmeal and applied to a plot where grass seeds had been planted.  Raw Cornmeal was applied to control seedbeds nearby.  What happened next was a complete surprise: None of the grass seeds in the Raw Cornmeal plot germinated.

Stumped, they separated parts of the Cornmeal -- corn starch, corn germ and corn protein -- to identify the reason.  Further tests pointed to the corn protein -- the CGM -- as the key herbicidal ingredient.  As they looked closer, they found that the doomed seeds could not grow roots.

They also learned that as it decomposed, this same corn protein became a slow-release, High Nitrogen Fertilizer.

As Turfgrass Trends (http://www.turfgrasstrends.com/turfgrasstrends/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=1281) points out: "Tests performed on areas with high populations of crabgrass indicate that the crabgrass will be reduced by about 60 percent in the first year," with subsequent annual applications yielding even better results -- up to 90 percent effectiveness by the third year.

Continued studies were able to trace the organic chemical reations that yielded these results.  They isolated 5 "Dipeptides" -- pairs of Amino Acids -- that stop seedlings from forming roots: Glutaminyl-Glutamine, Glycinyl-Alanine, Alaninyl-Glutamine, Alaninyl-Asparagine, and Alaninyl-Alanine.  You may never have heard of these before -- but this is legitimate, scientific research that I think must be taken seriously.

Note that CGM works only on new sprouts.  It does not destroy established weeds.  But on germinating weed seeds, it is lethal for up to 6 weeks.

What's the best way to use this stuff?

Annual Weeds sprout when soil temperatures reach around 55 degrees F.  Notes Turfgrass Trends: "On warm-season turf like Bermudagrass, it can be repeat applied through the weed germination period and through the summer."

Your neighbor with the dyi lawn was one of the lucky ones.  Any idea how his wife fared?  What about their children -- and their grandchildren?  And do you really know whether this man got a clean bill of health -- or is simply hiding it from his old friends?

Chances are, if he had the chance to grow grass today, he would be doing things differently today.  There is no turning this trend around.  The facts are in, and more surface every day.  Just don't expect to see them on the evening news -- it's not a way to make your advertisers happy.

Thanks for writing.