Q. I am interested in using corn gluten on my lawn to prevent weeds from growing. Can you provide some info on this, including which form is best to use, where to buy it, and which weeds it prevents (does it work on bind weed?). Thanks.
A. First off corn gluten does not work on existing weeds. Gluten is a protein which when it functions properly dries out germinating seeds thus killing them. Any plants that are growing in the application are will benefit from additional nitrogen. This means both existing weeds and the lawn. The original research was very promising but possibly over promoted by some distributors of the product. In addition I also believe that people were so happy to have an organic alternative for weed control (myself included) that they were willing to give it a shot. There have not been any thorough studies on what weed seeds it works on in the PNW and preliminary trials were less than stellar. If you would like more details Dr. Linda Chalker-Scott over at WSU Extension has written a great piece on this subject.