Tuesday, December 15, 2020

Does Corn Gluten Meal actually work as a Preemergent natural herbicide? Yes but it's tricky

 Graduate student Dianna Liu began this work in 1989.
Liu eventually determined that five individual dipeptides (combinations of two amino acids) had the ability to inhibit root formation of germinating seedlings. These dipeptides were glutaminyl- glutamine, glycinyl-alanine, alaninyl-glutamine, alaninyl-asparagine and alaninyl-alanine.
References

Christians, N.E. 1993. "The use of corn gluten meal as a natural preemergence weed control in turf." International Turfgrass Society Journal 7: 284-290."

So I contacted Professor Christians and he recommend we apply 15 pounds per 1000 sq. feet for our northern area. So you wait until the soil is 55 degrees Fahrenheit which is when the annual crabgrass starts to germinate.

So then a follow up "graduate student" study at Oregon could find NO results but said it maybe that the quality is lost during storage over winter. Corn Gluten Meal - we grow corn in the Midwest so we can assume Iowa got fresh harvest from the previous winter? Oregon maybe got old stuff?

Cornell University says that it works but only if you do TWO applications a  year. So the issue here is that if you have too much water then the "dipeptides" wash away. And ONLY the real 60% protein CGM works.

So that means the dipeptides are part of the protein chains?

 l-Alanyl-l-glutamine (AQ) is a functional dipeptide with high water solubility, good thermal stability and high bioavailability. It is widely used in clinical treatment, post-operative rehabilitation, sports health care and other fields.

 hmmm

 l-Alanyl-l-glutamine (abbreviated as AQ) is a dipeptide of glutamine and alanine, which is more stable and water-soluble than glutamine.

 Oh ok so it's just two amino acids of protein COMBINED...


Ok so it's what BINDS the amino acids...

Averaged over application rates, green foxtail and common lambsquarters aboveground dry biomass were 40 and 25% of the nontreated control, respectively, in CGM-amended soil.

So this person says most people do not have a spreader than can handle 20 pounds per sq. feet needed for effective herbicide concentration - vid 

Professor Christians said this far north only needs 15 pounds per 1000 sq. feet.

So then it HAS to be 60% protein CGM and bonded with sugar - not something stronger - so that it breaks down easily.

 When yellow corn meal is applied to fields in the presence of moist surface soil, Trichoderma builds up very rapidly over 5 to 10 days. The resulting high Trichoderma population can destroy vast amounts of Sclerotinia, Sclerotium and Rhizoctonia.

If you happen to have pathogenic species in your soil, cornmeal will feed them too.

http://gardenprofessors.com/deconstructing-the-cornmeal-myth/

https://pubs.extension.wsu.edu/cornmeal-and-corn-gluten-meal-applications-in-gardens-and-landscapes-home-garden-series





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