TestDIYOrganic

As you can see the Jonathan Green Black Beauty Grass I'm growing indoors in a container had gotten over 3" tall and was starting to look a bit ragged so I thought today would be a good time to trim my indoor lawn.



Obviously I can't use my lawn mower so I needed to come up with another way to get a nice, even, level cut for my indoor lawn.



I created a cutting guide and I'm using a pair of scissors to mow my indoor grass. I'll describe how I made the mowing guide and how I used it below.

Indoor Grass Cutting Guide

I wanted to cut my indoor grass at about 2.5". This would keep it at a height where it should be able to stand up on it's own, even when it starts getting thicker, and it would also be tall enough to give visual interest.



I cut 2.5" wide strips out of a hanging file folder. You could use other similar thin cardboard material. I then folded the cardboard at 90 degrees at the corners and sized it so it would rest along the rim of my container. I used staples to connect the pieces.






This gave me a guide all the way around the grass container that I could use to get a nice even cut and I could rest the scissors gently on the edge to establish my height.

Fiskars Cuts+More Scissors

Having a long pair of scissors makes it easy to get an even cut but I couldn't find an old pair of scissors I had that were long enough. Okay, maybe I just needed an excuse to by a new toy and the Fiskars Cuts+More Titanium Shear looked like a great pair of scissors that would not only be work well at cutting my indoor lawn but also be useful in the garden in many other ways.



The total length of the scissors is 9" but the cutting blades are only about 3.75" long. The titanium blades are sharp right out of the package and to help keep the blades sharp so they don't damage the grass tips there's an easy to use ceramic sharpening rod built into the plastic sheath that's included with the scissors. The scissors are backed by Fiskars Lifetime Warranty.



As the name implies, this is more than just a pair of scissors. The sheath also includes a tape cutting tool which can be used to open boxes. The back end of the scissors can be used to cut thin wire.



There is a sharp notch on the outside edge of one of the blades that is used to cut thin twine and larger rope can be cut with the scissors by placing it all the way down into the curved area near the joint.



When the scissors are closed the protruding tip is rounded over to keep you from poking things that don't want to be poked with sharp things but the other blade contains a sharp awl tip. By opening the scissors all the way you can separate the blades and use the black blade, with the awl tip, as a knife. It even has a small set of teeth (like one of those Rambo survival knives without the compass, matches, fishing line and hooks) that could be used for some very light duty sawing.



The plastic handles appear to be durable and firmly attached to the titanium blades anre are very comfortable. The scissors are designed for a right-handed person. They're usable if you're a lefty but the way the curves in the handles don't feel as comfortable. When using the scissors with my left hand my knuckles were hitting the top of the finger hole in a way that they weren't when using my right hand.



When you're done working on your landscape there's even a bottle opener to crack open a nice cold one while you relax.

Mowing The Indoor Lawn

Using my Fiskars Cuts+More scissors lightly resting on the cardboard cutting guide I worked my way around the grass to even out the height. Since the cardboard is thin I was careful to not distort it too much or push it so that it falls off the rim.






After the majority of the grass was cut I removed the guide and inspected the grass from a lawn from a low angle to see if there were any blades that were missed and I cut them freehand.



The Fiskars scissors gave a nice clean cut like a reel mower would give. Reel mowers are great for young grass and they seem to be recommended especially for tall fescue because the wider blades and stiffer plant appear to be damaged by rotary mower blades more easily. Jonathan Green claims their Black Beauty grass isn't ass susceptible as other tall fescues.



After I was done cutting I brushed the blades of the grass back and forth with my fingers to work the clipping down to the soil where it will eventually break down and return nitrogen to the grass. Fresh, new, healthy grass feels great. It almost feels like rubber.



The end result was a more uniform looking desk lawn :)

It's been 25 days since I planted the Jonathan Green Dense Shade and 9 days since I planted the Jonathan Green Black Beauty grass seeds in containers indoors. The Black Beauty is doing much better than the Dense Shade as can be seen from the photo on the left. Black Beauty is on top.



The Black Beauty stand almost reminds me of the decorative wheatgrass that is more commonly grown indoors.



The Dense Shade had a lot going against it. First I used seed that was a few years old but I did manage to get pretty good germination by putting a lot more seed down than recommended. There were some thin spots and I added more seed as well as more potting mix to raise the level of the soil because it had compressed a bit after watering. Over the past few days the new seeds have begun sprouting.



Next, I noticed an infestation of bugs in the Dense Shade container. After doing some research I determined they were likely fungus gnats. You can see a cool video of neem oil killing the fungus gnats and their larvae. The bugs appear to have stunted the growth of the grass. The new seeds are doing well but if the old grass doesn't recover it's just not going to look good.



The Black Beauty grass has been doing much better although when the Dense Shade was 10 days old it was looking pretty good too. I used fresh seed for the Black Beauty and it germinated a lot better and I have good coverage with no bare spots unlike Dense Shade. There are still Black Beauty seeds germinating.



The grass is also standing upright while the Dense Shade has slumped over. The Black Beauty is about 3" tall. In a couple of days I'm going to have to give it it's first mowing.



Both containers are getting some indirect light from north facing windows plus some additional light from the room lights. That seems to be enough. So far Black Beauty appears to be more shade tolerant than I thought.



Jonathan Green Claims Black Beauty contains endophytes which help make it more insect resistant. When I noticed the fungus gnats infesting the Dense Shade container I didn't see any in the Black Beauty container but I don't know for sure if the endophytes were the reason why.



The main reason I started the Black Beauty was to see how thick the blades get. Right now the blades still have a very fine texture but I can see they're begging to get a little wider. So far it's looking like it might be a good choice for my lawn renovation.



Here's a top view of both grass containers. Black Beauty is on the right, Dense Shade is on the left.

A quick update on the two grasses I'm growing indoors in containers. One's doing well, ran into a problem with bugs in the other used neem oil to kill them. Happened to catch it all on video which is included further down.



The picture on the left is the Jonathan Green Black Beauty at Day 6. It has germinated very well and some shoots are still popping up. Average blade length seems to be about an inch with some about 1/4" and half a dozen or so that have grown about 2" long.



Black Beauty displays significantly more phototropism compared to the Jonathan Green Dense Shade I have growing next to it. During the day the Black Beauty blades are pointing towards the window. After the sun starts to go down I turn on the room light so it can get a little more light and the blades start to stand upright fairly quickly. I'll be able to demonstrate this a little better in a few days.



So far it's looking pretty healthy. Germination was a lot better and more even than the Dense Shade and that's most likely due to the age of the Dense Shade. It was an old bag that was 3 years old. I should have taken the time to buy a new bag.



These are pretty ideal conditions for the lawn other than sunlight. Temperature controlled environment, good pH, growing medium rich in organic material, ability to keep the seeds moist throughout the day.  The grass is getting some indirect sun from a couple of North facing windows and I supplement that with some artificial light from time to time.



From the top it doesn't look as impressive yet but you can see how even the germination was.






In a week or so I think it will fill in much better. From the side it's already looking pretty good.



The Dense Shade on the other hand hasn't been fairing so well on Day 22. On Day 17 it was looking decent except for some areas with poor germination which as I mentioned was likely due to the age of the seed. I had topdressed with some additional organic potting mix, added more seed and another small layer of potting mix. I also switched to filtered water at that time.



As you can see it's filling in a bit but the grass has gone a bit limp and lost some of it's color.








The growth seems to have stunted although some of the new seed is germinating and filling in the bare areas. Some of the older grass tips have browned. It looks like insect damage and I did see a couple of small critters on the grass which I squished. Not sure what they are or how they would have come inside. They were tiny flying bugs. I haven't seen any on the Black Beauty which claims to be naturally resistant to some insects.



Uhm... since I wrote that last paragraph I found out it's definitely bugs! I'm doing a time lapse recording of the growth and what I thought was some sort of video artifact is actually little tiny things crawling around. I sprayed some Organica K+Neem on them which seemed to work pretty well. K+Neem is no longer made but other products like Green Light Organic Neem Concentrate are still available.  Neem oil is a contact killer and doesn't have any residual effects. In a couple of days if I still see any I'll spray again.



Here's a portion of the video. You can clearly see the white bugs (larvae?) crawling around on the potting mix on the bottom right. In the middle of the video I sprayed the neem oil which put an end to them. The bugs are really tiny so you might need to watch the video in HD and fullscreen to notice them.





Black Beauty is supposed to be naturally insect resistant. I'm not sure if that's why nothing is crawling on that side or not?



After some research and having a closer look at one of the adult ones, it seems they were fungus gnats. Some more Googling and it seems other people have complained about gnats in Jungle Growth Organic potting mix. Don't know if they came in the mix, found they're way through a slightly damaged screen came in the door or hitched a ride on a pet. I'm going to keep a close eye on it. Have noticed a couple of gnats since I posted this but don't see the gnat larvae crawling around on the soil like before.



I'm hoping that the Dense Shade perks back up soon. The topdressing might have stressed it, the bugs surely did and while the neem oil shouldn't harm the grass too much could cause it problems.



Here's a top view.






It doesn't look as good compared to the Black Beauty on the bottom but when the Dense Shade was young it looked much better too. We'll see what happens in the next few days.

Encap, the makers of the Fast Acting Lime which got a positive review from me a few years ago (because it helped green up my white grass!), is running 2 sweepstakes this year including 3 lawn makeovers and daily 3-in-1 Soil Meter giveaways. A couple other giveaways have already ended.

3-in-1 Soil Tester

I'm growing Jonathan Green Black Beauty grass seed in a container as a little experiment to get a better feel for it to see if it's a grass I'd like to plant when I do a lawn renovation.



It's been 4 days since I planted the Black Beauty grass seed in an organic potting mix.  I'm planting it in a container so I can better monitor and maintain it.



Yesterday I started to see signs that germination had started but today is the first I'm seeing little green shoots of grass emerging from the soil.



So far it looks like I'm getting pretty even coverage. 4 days is pretty quick for this type of grass to germinate but since it's sitting on my desk I'm able to closely monitor the soil moisture and add water when necessary.



One major difference I see compared to the germination of Dense Shade mix is that the blades of Black Beauty that are emerging are already leaning towards the sunlight coming through the windows. The Dense Shade on the other hand came straight up.

Black Beauty (left) Dense Shade (right)

One small section of the container is shaded by an obstruction and in that area the grass is coming straight up. I'm not sure if there's any significance to this observation but I wonder if the leaning grass shoots means Black Beauty wants more sunlight than Dense Shade?

It's day 17 of my project to grow grass indoors and it's been coming along nicely but not great. There were two main issues that were bugging me.



First, the level of the potting mix had fallen quite a bit after watering it a few days and I had wished that I added more potting mix to start out with. When I started my Jonathan Green Black Beauty experiment I made sure I had enough potting mix.



Second, while about 70% of the area had filled in nicely the other sections were very thin. This is most likely due my use of grass seed that about 3 years old. I tried using more grass seed to compensate but still got spotty results. Grass was still germinating, not all the varieties germinate at the same time, and those areas did have some new grass sprouting but I decided to ramp things up.



First I started by topdressing with about 1/4" of additional organic potting mix. I used my fingers to rake the potting mix down.



Then I added some more grass seed, concentrating mostly on the thin areas and topped it with about another 1/4" of organic potting mix.



Finally I watered it in but I've made some changes to my watering.



Instead of using water straight out of the tap and letting it warm up to room temperature I filled my spray bottle with filtered water from a Brita pitcher to cut down on the chlorine. Instead of using plain water I mixed in some Organica Plant Growth Activator Plus which contains a number of different beneficial soil bacteria and fungi as well as humic acid, seaweed extract, and some hydrolized soy meal.



The application of PGA+ was the reason I chose filtered water since the chlorine in my tap water kills the bacteria and fungi but I'm going to continue to use filtered water from now. Can't imagine the chlorine is good for the plants either.



The grass doesn't look as full as it did this morning because as careful as I tried to be, the top dressing did bury some of the blades of grass.



It's hard to tell in the photo because the color doesn't come through great in the photo but the color of the grass is starting to darken as well.

All the lawn geeks seem to use a blend of Kentucky Bluegrass to get a great looking, dark green lawn. At least that's what it seems like when reading different lawn sites and forums. I decided to check out Jonathan Green's Black Beauty Turf-Type Tall Fescue grass seed mix because I've heard some good things about it.



There are some people out there posting great lawn photos using other grass varieties besides KBG such as turf-type tall fescue (TTTF) and perennial ryegrass. I'm a bit weary of TTTF because there is some mixed into my lawn and it's thick bladed compared to my other grasses, grows faster and generally looks like a weed compared to my other grass.



From what I'm hearing though the new varieties of TTTF aren't as coarse and wide bladed as the old varieties of tall fescue and they're hard to distinguish from KBG. The tall fescue I have in my lawn is an older variety and possibly the K-31 I see so many complaining about.



Nothing I've tried so far has really reduced the tall fescue in my lawn. I haven't applied a broad spectrum herbicide to it but overseeding with more KBG and pulling out a few clumps here and there hasn't done anything. When I get heavy rains and forget or don't have time to apply corn meal other parts of my lawn turn a little reddish brown except for the tall fescue.



During the heat of summer when my finer bladed grass goes dormant if I don't water it enough, the tall fescue remains green and sticks out like a sore thumb being all green. That's when it dawned on me. Why fight it? The tall fescue wasn't always sticking out because it was bad, it was sticking out because it was good. It's also grows very dense and crowds out weeds.



That's when I decided to give Black Beauty a try. I've started it in a container indoors just like I did with my Jonathan Green Dense Shade Mix which I'm hoping will make a nice desk lawn :)



I don't know how well Black Beauty will do indoors so I'll likely move it outside at some point. What I'm really interested in with this little experiment is to see what the grass will finally look like. Hopefully it will grow enough that I can get a good feel for it before fall when I might do a lawn renovation. I literally mean feel. I want a grass that's nice to walk on barefoot. I don't imagine it will be as soft as shade type fine fescues but I'm hoping it will be good enough. The low maintenance and low water claims are really what appeal to me.



Where I live we get sufficient rainfall and most people in my town don't have lawn sprinkler systems except for some commercial properties and a small percentage of new construction. A lawn probably only needs about 16 or so inches of supplemental water around here. If the Black Beauty can do better without supplemental water compared to KBG and I can reduce some watering that could be a decent savings.



One often repeated rule of thumb is that lawns need 1" of water per week (not exactly but let's just use 1" for now). Based on that 1" of water turns out to be about 620 gallons of water per 1,000 sq ft of lawn. Multiplied by 12 is 9,920  gallons per 1,000 sq ft per year. That's about $80 per year per 1,000 sq ft and that's provided it's a year that I get at least average rainfall distributed fairly regularly, which doesn't always happen. That $80 is just for the water. My utility company charges me sewer fees based on water usage even if that water never goes down the drain. If you have a large lawn and don't get a lot of evenly spaced out rain watering your lawn would be hundreds of dollars a year.



The dollar savings isn't huge but soil microbes are very important to an organic lawn and applying chlorinated city water will kill some of those beneficial bacteria and especially the beneficial fungi you've worked so hard to build up or in some cases payed good money to apply! Rainwater is much better for a lawn and if I can get a lawn that needs almost no supplemental irrigation I'd be very happy.



This year I've basically let my lawn go dormant. Unfortunately weeds don't go dormant at the same time grass does which is why I'm seriously considering a renovation this year and trying to select the best grass seed.

About Black Beauty Grass Seed

Anyway, back to Black Beauty... I picked up a 5lb bag at my local garden center so I can test it out. It was $21.99 regular price but it was on sale for $13.20. When it's not on sale it seems a little cheaper to buy a 15 lb bag of Jonathan Green Black Beauty Grass Seed Mix online.



A 5lb bag will cover 1,500 sq ft when overseeding or 750 sq ft when seeding bare soil. A 15lb bag will cover 4,500 sq ft for overseeding 2,250 sq ft for seeding bare soil.



The bag had a zip closing top which was nice since I'm only using about a handful of grass seed and will use the rest this fall if I like it. If I don't do a full lawn renovation I might wind up just overseeding it.



Jonathan Green claims the following about Black Beauty:

• Waxy coating helps preserve moisture and increase drought tolerance.


• Contains endophytes for natural insect resistance.


• Shade tolerant and preforms better than fine fescues in fertile soil (maybe it'll be a better desk lawn than Dense Shade?)


• Used by sod farms (Seems to be true I found a number of sod farms that proudly sell it.)


• Dark green color


• Resists disease (due to invisible waxy coating)

Black Beauty Cultivars

All grass seed is required by the USDA to be tested for content and germination. The Black Beauty label lists the following cultivars:

• 49.25% Dakota Tall Fescue


• 24.65% Montana Tall Fescue


• 24.50% Dorado Tall Fescue


• 1.40% Inert Matter


• 0.08% Other crop seeds


• 0.02% weed seeds

If you haven't obsessed over grass seed for the past few years like I have here's something that might be useful. Grass comes in different grass varieties such as Kentucky Bluegrass, Fine Fescue, Tall Fescue, Turf-Type Tall Fescue, Perennial Ryegrass, Bermuda, St Augustine, Zoysia, etc. Within those varieties you have different grass cultivars which are different plants within that variety. Just like you have fruit, some of those are apple and a granny smith is a type of apple.



Previous descriptions have listed Black Beauty's cultivars as 50% Dakota Tall Fescue, 25% Taos Tall Fescue and 25% Tombstone Tall Fescue. I don't know if the mix has changed globally or just in my area. I do remember reading that Black Beauty might have had some issues with disease and the change in the two cultivars might be related to that.



I can't find any information on these varieties on NTEP.org which concerns me a bit. All I could find was this sheet about Black Beauty's drought ratings which contains NTEP data and says the tests were done on NTEP sites. According to that sheet Montana and Dorado perform significantly better than Taos and Tombstone and have a darker color.



Montana Tall Fescue and Dorado Tall Fescue also had a much higher texture rating. This experiment I'm doing is all about texture. Ideally I'd plant this outside in the same soil I'd be planting my grass to see how it performs there but my main concern right now is how the grass will look and feel.



Dorado Tall Fescue appears to have a pretty fine texture based on the ratings and photos on this tech sheet. It also has a very nice dark green color



The tech sheets are from Cascade International which is described as a sister company to Jonathan Green. Guessing here, but I think Cascade is the seed grower and possibly the supplier to sod farms while JG is more geared towards consumers when it comes to grass seed.



There is 0.08% other crop seed which area other types of grasses not listed as the main cultivars. These can be unwanted and even weed type grasses. The weed seed content is 0.02% which consists of non grass weeds. Ideally you'd want 0% of each but from what I read anything less than 1% is fine so 0.1% of unwanted seed might not be too bad.

Black Beauty Grass Photos

I've seen a number of different photos of Black Beauty grass and they look really good. This is a close up photo of a piece of Black Beauty sod.






The next photo was taken a year after laying the sod and the claim is that it hasn't been fertilized since. That's definitely a lawn I would be proud of!

KBG vs TTTF

I've been stressing out over this decision for a long time. It's why I haven't done my lawn renovation in prior years.



I spent a lot of time reviewing NTEP ratings for grass in my area, primarily for Kentucky Bluegrass but even though KBG lawns look so nice it seems they need a lot of care to look so good. When I'm lax in my lawn care it shows. Meanwhile I've seen lawns in my neighborhood that get very little attention and look decent. Those lawns appear to be tall fescue based on the blade length. I'm not great at identifying lawns.



When the tall fescue in my lawn doesn't get enough water it stays green but gets a little stiffer, almost crunchy when you walk on it compared to the finer bladed grasses that have turned brown.



In my heart I want to have a custom blended elite KBG mix but even though I care about lawns enough to blog about them it's just a lawn and I don't want to spend too much time doing things to it.



I've seen pictures of KBG lawns that stay green in drought while TTTF lawns have gone brown. I've also seen the opposite where TTTF lawns stayed green while KBG has gone brown.



Both can have a nice dark green color if properly managed.



TTTF is a clumping grass and KBG has rhizomes so it can fill in and repair itself while TTTF will need to be overseeded. Jonathan Green does make a Black Beauty Ultra which contains some KBG and some perennial rye so you can have a self repairing TTTF lawn. I went with the regular Black Beauty because I wanted to have one type of grass that would grow evenly. Right now I have some grasses that grow faster than others and it looks messy by the time I have to mow. They may have chosen cultivars that blend well together but right now I'm stressing out so much over KBG vs TTTF I don't even want to think about mixing the two.



Black Beauty germinates in 10-14 days compared to up to 21 days for KBG. That's a somewhat important factor as I don't want to babysit seedlings and have to hand water multiple times a day to keep the seed moist.



While the majority of lawn fanatics seem to favor Kentucky Bluegrass when planting cool season grasses, there are some TTTF and even PR diehards.



Even Paul Tukey of SafeLawns.org had good things to say about it in this Boston Globe article:

"I like the Jonathan Green Black Beauty Mix," said Tukey. "Blue grass was originally imported as cattle feed because it's so fast growing. So if you want to mow your lawn every four days, go ahead and plant blue grass and knock yourself out."

I'm still undecided and fall is fast approaching. I'm really hoping this experiment gives me some more perspective one way or the other. I think it's going to come down to less maintenance/water but slightly wider grass blades or more maintenance/water but finer blades. I think maintenance/water will win out.

Planting Black Beauty Test

I followed the same procedure as I did for my other container grass. Some of it can bee seen in the top of the photos. I think I had poor germination because I used an old bag of seed. This new bag was bought today.






Filled a well draining planter about 1/4" from the top with organic potting mix. I filled it up more this time because after watering a couple of days the mix compressed a bit and sank too far below the top than I would have liked.






Evenly spread a handful of Jonathan Green Black Beauty grass seed over the top. This was a much heavier application than necessary.






Mixed the seed by hand to spread it out and get good seed to soil contact. I'm going to check in a little bit and possibly cover with a little more potting mix if there's enough room. I didn't do that the last time and saw plenty of seeds germinate that were just sitting on top of the potting mix.






Covered with coffee filters and added about a cup of water. Will be watering with a spray bottle 2-3 times throughout the day until seeds germinate at which point I'll carefully remove the coffee filters (seeds sometimes stick to them). These planters are near a North facing window so they get some indirect sun throughout the day. I've occasionally moved the top planter to a south facing window so it can get some more direct sun.

Is Using Cornmeal to Treat Lawn Disease a Myth?

Not only does Dr. Linda Chalker-Scott consider the use of cornmeal as a fungicide a myth, an article from 2010 claims the myth is busted. Dr. Linda Chalker-Scott is the author of The Informed Gardener and numerous articles on horticultural myths



When I discovered Dr. Chalker-Scott's myth articles online a few years ago I read threw them all and found myself mostly agreeing with a lot of the content and was able to find corroborating work in other studies from what I remember. I even referenced her when I was asking myself... does SuperThrive work?



In this case however I find I can't agree with everything she says. Sadly, from the time I first started writing this piece, some of the links I originally quoted are now broken but I've tried to find similar research. The original article wasn't meant to be a rebuttal to Dr. Chalker-Scott but I tried to incorporate her opinions in the new version.



Note I actually started writing this article one or two springs ago which is why I have reference to all the rain. Right now it's the middle of summer and there hasn't been much if any rain but I'm leaving that verbage intact to illustrate what I was seeing at the time. I decided to finish it after seeing Dr. Chalker-Scott's article recently.



Well, it's been raining here for quite some time and it's going to continue for another week it seems. I've touched on the issue of lawn disease recently and it should come as no surprise considering the wet weather.



In the few breaks in the rain, I've managed to get in a few bike rides and there are plenty of brown, yellow or orange tinged lawns throughout the neighborhood. Brown and yellow could just be a result of lawn crews waiting too long to cut the grass as they try and squeeze what they can in between downpours but most likely a good bit of it is due to fungus caused by all the moisture and landscapers that are mowing the grass when it's wet because they can't afford to wait for dry weather.



As I look over my lawn and compare it to the neighbors there is a vast difference in color. Mine is a nice dark green, theres is a mixture of light green and orange (grorange?) Part of the reason for that is a much discussed organic fertilizer that tends to make people laugh or look at me funny when they hear what it is.



In the early morning when other's are mixing up cornmeal for muffins, I'm out spreading it on my lawn. Plain old corn meal that you can get from the supermarket. (Not corn gluten meal.) I've posted about corn meal recently (where to buy big bags of corn meal, how to get organic corn meal delivered every month or two) but with so many grorange lawns out there I thought it might be good to explain it a little more about how it works and how to use it as well as some other organic fungicides.

How Corn Meal Cures and Prevents Lawn Disease

Well the truth is, corn meal doesn't kill fungus. In fact, it does the opposite. I can hear you now saying "But you said...." Hear me out.




With organic lawn care, you're not usually solving the problem in one step. Instead you create a condition where beneficial organisms can thrive and/or add beneficial organisms. Such is the case with cornmeal.



The beneficial organism in this case is trichoderma, a family of cannibalistic fungi that kill other fungi. When you apply cornmeal to your lawn you're not killing lawn disease, you're supplying the troops of trichoderma so they can multiply and wage war on lawn disease.



The video isn't in a language I speak but I'm pretty sure based on the title and the footage that this is a video of trichoderma killing sclerotinia. A form of sclerotinia occurs in lawn and is commonly referred to as Dollar Spot.







Trichoderma are found in most soils and grow well on corn meal. Corn meal, like everything else that hasn't been sterilized, also harbors bacteria and fungi and trichoderma is a common fungi to find on cornmeal (I think from what I read). Even if it's not on the cornmeal it's a fungus that's commonly found in soil.



Three of the species of trichoderma that are used to fight plant and lawn disease are trichoderma harzianum, tricoderma viride and trichoderma hamatum. They are parasitic and feed off other fungi in a variety of ways. Trichoderma harzianum for instance can excrete and enzyme called chitinase under the right conditions. Chitinase breaks down, hydrolizes, digests, whatever you want to call it, chitin which is what the cell walls of fungi are made of. It basically disolves other fungi.





There are (were?) ongoing university studies that have shown promise using corn meal to treat plant diseases such as this study on controlling fungi in peanut fields with corn meal (link no longer works but is available on archive.org referenced here). My emphasis added.

It is known that certain fungal species in the genus Trichoderma feed on
mycelium and sclerotia of Sclerotinia minor. Sclerotium rolfsii and Rhizoctonia
sp. All peanut fields in Texas tested to date have a natural population of
Trichoderma. For several years, tests have been conducted in Texas using corn
meal to stimulate Trichoderma development as a way to control the major
soilborne disease fungi. When yellow corn meal is applied to fields in the
presence of moist surface soil, Trichoderma builds up very rapidly over a 5 to
10 day period. The resulting high Trichoderma population can destroy vast
amounts of Sclerotinia, Sclerotium and Rhizoctonia. This enhanced, natural
biological control process is almost identical to the processes that occur when
crop rotation is practiced. The level of control with corn meal is influenced
by: 1) organic matter source 2) soil moisture, 3) temperature, and 4) pesticides
used. Seasonal applications of certain fungicides may inhibit Trichoderma.
Testing will continue to determine the rates and application methods that will
give consistent, economical control.

The above quote is the reason why some of us started using cornmeal on our lawns in the first place. Dr. Chalker-Scott calls it "research" (with quotes) indicating it wasn't really following the scientific method. It's hard to say without being able to see the original report but from what I remember it seemed to have been conducted using sound principles. From what I recall, they didn't just guess that trichoderma populations increased, they actually examined the soil.



Dr. Chalker-Scott also claims the study just proved that crop rotation is a beneficial practice that can prevent disease. That's not what I'm reading here.



I'm not much of a conspiracy theorist but I do find it odd that the original paper and some of the others I linked to below are no longer online.



The study that led to the discovery of corn gluten meal as a weed control also had an interesting observation regarding corn meal and lawn disease. The original study was regarding pythium on bentgrass. Pythium was cultured in the lab on corn meal, which is a common growth media for such fungus. There were three plots observed. A plot which received the pythium and corn meal, a plot which received fresh corn meal without pythium grown on it and a third control plot which did not receive any pythium or corn meal. Pythium failed to establish in the treated plot where the pythium grown on corn meal was applied. It seems Dr. Nick Christians Ph.D. focused more on the lack of germination in the corn meal plot as I can't find any documentation that he tried to determine why the pythium may not have established.



The previous quote from Texas A&M doesn't say anything about lawns or common lawn diseases does it? Hmm... OK this is the problem with organic research. While it has been studied for a long time, it unfortunately hasn't been that long and you may not find direct evidence of exactly what you're looking for. So this is what we do, or I do at least. I'm not the type of person that likes to waste money and see if something works just because someone said it does. I want to see something that justifies the claim. Sometimes you can't get to it directly so you have to find corresponding research and peice it together without getting so convoluted that it looks like a Chewbacca defense.



Now that we know it's not actually cornmeal that's curing the lawn disease all we have to do is look for research that indicates trichoderma is effective at killing a particular diesease. That shouldn't be too hard because according to the Wikipedia article there's a strain of trichoderma that can kill almost any other fungus and trichoderma is found in all soil. Maybe not in soil that has been treated with some fungicides such as chlorothalonil (Daconil) but some species of trichoderma seem to be resistant to copper based fungicides.

Lawn Diseases That Corn Meal Can Treat

Well theoretically treat that is. I'll be updating this list as I have time but here's a quote from a Cornell publication on trichoderma:

So far as the author is aware, different strains of Trichoderma control every pathogenic fungus for which control has been sought. However, most Trichoderma strains are more efficient for control of some pathogens than others, and may be largely ineffective against some fungi. The recent discovery in several labs that some strains induce plants to "turn on" their native defense mechanisms offers the likelihood that these strains also will control pathogens other than fungi.

These are common lawn diseases that trichoderma attacks. If you can get trichoderma to grow on your applied cornmeal then there's a chance for corn meal to treat the following:



Sclertinia (Dollar Spot) - See video above and this paper found trichoderma provided up to 71% control of dollar spot and was able to delay disease development by up to 30 days.

Botrytis (Grey mold) - An interesting study at Cornell (link dead) using bees to disseminate Trichoderma harzianum to protect strawberries from Botrytis was effective. Here's a working link that discusses using trichoderma to suppress Botrytis of Begonia in a peat/compost potting mix.

Pythium - A nasty lawn disease can be controlled with trichoderma harzianum and trichoderma virens according to this PSU paper. There are even two products that contain trichoderma that are EPA registered for treating pythium. The link to the paper is gone but this PSU fact sheet indicates Trichoderma harziamum, Trichoderma virens as well as Bacillus subtilis, Candida oleophila, Gliocladium catenulatum and Streptomyces griseoviridis are biological controls of pythium.

Fusarium - There are a number of documents indicating trichoderma is effective against fusarium including this Colorado State study on trichoderma against fusarium on tomatoes.

Necrotic Ring Spot - This publication indicates trichoderma hazrianum is effective against necrotic ring spot in laws and that there is an EPA registered product.

Drechslera tritici-repentis (Leaf Spot) - In vitro study showed Trichoderma "inhibited significantly the mycelial growth ofD. tritici-repentis between 50% and 74%"

Rhizoctonia solani (Yellow Patch) - This in-vitro study showed that various strains of trichoderma were up to 81.8% effective at inhibiting mycelial growth of Rhizoctonia solani.

Organic Products With Trichoderma

In researching the topic I found a number of different products that contained trichoderma that were EPA registered fungicides.  The first time I used cornmeal on my lawn I did it without adding anything else and I found the application of cornmeal was beneficial to my lawn. It may have been the tricoderma, it may have just been that my grass needed fertilizer and the extra boost it got from the cornmeal allowed the grass to grow out of the disease or make it healthier so it could resist it. I'm not a horticultural specialist and I don't have the tools to know the difference.



These days, when I apply cornmeal to my lawn I also apply Organica Plant Growth Activator Plus using a pump sprayer that I filled up 2 days prior to allow the chlorine to outgas. Chlorinated water can kill the beneficial fungi I'm trying to spread. Humic acid and ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) are also said to reduce chlorine in water.



Organica's Plant Growth Activator Plus contains a number of beneficial bacteria and fungus some of which have been shown to prevent or control plant and lawn disease. It contains:

• Trichoderma hazianum 2,000,000 CFU per gram. 


• Bacillus subtilis 10,000,000 CFU per gram. 


• Bacillus licheniformis 10,000,000 CFU per gram, 


• Bacillus megaterium 10,000,000 CFU per gram, 


• Paenibacillus polymyxa 10,000,000 CFU per gram, 


• Streptomyces lydicus 2,000,000 CFU per gram, 


• 30% natural sugars, 


• 10% hydrolyzed soy meal 


• 4% humic acid (derived from leonardite), 


• 3% seaweed extract (derived from Ecklonia maxima). 

I can't find a link to the original Rutgers study but it's referenced here. Application of PGA+ every 2 weeks was able to control around 90% Summer Patch (Magnaporthe pose) on Baron Kentucky Bluegrass which is similar to the control rates of the other commercial chemical based fungicides. Even after application stopped the PGA+ test plot continued to provide effective control.



Organica's PGA+ is a product I looked into quite a bit and is something I apply in my garden regularly. The kelp and humic acid seem to work well together to reduce plan stress from what I've read.

Compost Helps with Plant Disease

So Does Cornmeal Cure Lawn Disease?

One comment Dr. Linda Chalker-Scott made which I do agree with is that there hasn't been enough scientific research to definitively prove if it does or not. She also stated that she can't prove a negative (that it doesn't work) and that it's up to those that are making the claims that it does work to prove it does.



I thought that's what the original Texas A&M group was doing and can't figure out why that link no longer works.



Here's what I do know:

• Various strains of trichoderma (as well as other fungi) are grown on corn or corn agar when researches need to cultivate a given quantity of the fungi. It is a good growth medium for such.


• Various strains of trichoderma have been shown in different studies to have effective control of various plant pathogens including ones that are found in lawns.


• Trichoderma are found in nearly all soils.

Here's what I assume:

• Since corn meal is a good base to grow fungi adding cornmeal to moist soil should be able to increase the population of those fungi.


• Since trichoderma is some sort of predator fungi that kills other fungi it's understandable that the population of trichoderma would outcompete the other fungi growing on the cornmeal medium since it will attack those other fungi. 

I think there's enough evidence related to using cornmeal and trichoderma to control lawn and plant disease that further research is warranted.

So what's the problem? Where's the research?

OK, it's time to put my tin-foil hat back on. Research isn't cheap. It takes time, resources and money. University research labs need to have funding to carry out their experiments. Who pays for that research? Some of it comes from government grants but I believe most of it comes from companies that are developing and patenting products for eventual sale. They work with university researches to determine if their new product works or not and try to improve it. They are willing to pay to have that research done.



Who is going to pay to research cornmeal? It's not patentable. It can't be sold as a commercial product.



You also need to be EPA registered if you claim your product is a fungicide. That's not free either.



More research needs to be done as fungicides are some of the more toxic things applied on lawns, but just because she can't verify the claims doesn't mean Dr. Chalker-Scott can call this myth busted.

So Does Cornmeal Cure Lawn Disease?

One common complaint I've seen regarding the Gilmour Sprinkler on Metal Spike is that the hose connector breaks. Once it breaks you can no longer attach a hose which means you can't use the sprinkler.



I haven't had mine fail but I've come up with a solution that will reduce strain on this connection which will make it last longer. It will also make it easier to use the sprinkler.





The hose connection is the black plastic nut on the right side of the photo. This is where the male end of a hose connects to provide water to the sprinkler. The green plastic on the left is a cap. If you have enough pressure and water flow to connect multiple sprinklers you can unscrew the green cap and connect the female end of a garden hose to it, and then the male end of the garden hose to another sprinkler input.



If your Gilmour Sprinkler hose connection has broken I think the only thing you can do is buy a replacement Orbit 58197N Zinc Step Spike Base and unscrew the Impulse head from the old spike and screw it onto the new one. The Orbit Spike has a sturdier construction than the Gilmour spike. The threads are metal and not plastic.



If your hose connection nut is still intact, you can buy a Orbit Brass Hose Quick Connect Set 58117 and attach the male part (right) to the sprinkler and leave it attached permanently. The female part (left) attaches to the male fitting on your garden hose.



Using the quick connect will make it easy to attach your garden hose to your sprinkler so you can set up your sprinkler faster. Since you won't be screwing and unscrewing that plastic nut all the time will reduce wear and strain on the plastic nut which will extend it's life.



These quick connect fittings also make it easy to switch between different wands. You can buy multiple Orbit Brass Quick Connect Male fittings to attach to different hose end sprayers. Put one on your sprinklers, one on your spray head, one on your wand sprayer, one on your Dial-n-Spray and you can quickly switch between them. There are some cheaper plastic quick connect fittings but I like the brass ones. They are very sturdy and last a long time without leaks. I have had one on my pressure washer for years without issue.



When not using your sprinkler try and keep it indoors or at least in the shade. Sunlight also degrades plastic.

I've been wanting to completely renovate and reseed my lawn for a long time and I think either this year or next year I finally will. While coming up with my lawn renovation plan I tried to come up with a list of tools that would be required to make the lawn renovation easier.



Lawn renovation doesn't require a lot of tools and I have most of them but there are a few that I will need to purchase.

Garden Sprayer

The first step in renovating a lawn is killing the existing grass and weeds. The easiest way to accomplish this is to use a glyphosate based herbicide like Roundup or one of the organic weed and grass killers. A pump sprayer is the best way to apply this herbicide because it gives control over the application rate and helps you prevent overspray. I had a nice Craftsman metal pump sprayer but I can't seem to find it anymore. I'm considering getting the Smith 2-Gallon Max Contractor Sprayer because it has very good reviews, is heavy duty and comes with a shoulder strap which will make it easy to use.



It's great that it comes with the shoulder strap because that allows you to have one hand free to carry a large piece of cardboard to shield other plants from overspray when you're killing the lawn around the edges.



If you have a larger area to cover you might want to consider a 4 Gallon Backpack Sprayer. You wear it on your back and there's a lever on one side that is used to add pressure to the system. Or you can use a small pump sprayer for the edges and an Ortho  Dial 'N Spray Hose-End Sprayer to cover the center area away from plants, trees and shrubs you don't want to harm.



These sprayers are useful to have to apply different amendments to your lawn throughout the year. Some of the organic amendments I use contain live bacteria and fungi and using a pump sprayer allows me to dechlorinate the water before spraying. Using the Dial 'N Spray chlorinated city water would mix with the amendment and greatly reduce the effects.

Leveling Rake

Have high and low spots in my lawn which causes me to have a bumpy lawn. This makes it a pain to mow. When I do my renovation I plan on evening out those areas. There are special rakes used to do this.



Professional landscape contractors use something like this Truper Tru Pro 36-Inch Aluminum Landscape Rake. It has a wide 36" rake head which makes it easy to level a large area.



Not as wide but I believe sturdier is this Ames True Temper Kodiak Forged Level Head Rake. The rake head is 14" wide which is nice for smaller areas. The head of the rake is one solid piece of forged steel which makes it more durable than some other rakes that are welded or riveted together.



If you're spreading compost a leveling rake will be more useful than a flexible leaf rake.



To use a leveling rake to level soil, use the tine side to loosen and distribute soil and then flip it over to the flat side to smooth out and properly grade the soil

Shovel, Spade, Mattock

A round point shovel is useful if you have to do any digging and to help move material such as topsoil, compost and mulch. I'm becoming more partial to Fiskars tools, their Long Handle Digging Shovel looks nice. I have an old wood handled shovel that works fine. If that ever goes I'll likely get the Fiskars.



A garden spade is a square tipped shovel that is also good for moving material and great for creating edges around beds and transplanting. It's also nice to have a long handled shovel as well as a D-handeled shovel. If you don't mind spending a little more the Ames True Temper Pony Garden Spade is one of the best garden spades I've seen. A good garden spade is something you'll wind up using often but if you want to save a little money Fiskars 9667 Garden Spade is a good second choice.



I used to use a garden spade along with a mattock/cultivator on a long handle to create the edges between lawn and garden beds but I'm considering getting a heavier mattock/pick combination like the Ames True Temper Pick Mattock with 36-Inch FiberPro Handle if I need to do any bigger digging.

Wheelbarrow

When I do my renovation I'm going to need a bit of topsoil to level out some areas and if I topdress with compost I'll need away to move that around too. I didn't realize wheelbarrows were so expensive. The cheapest one I found online was Ames True Temper 4 Cubic Foot Steel Homeowner Wheelbarrow. I saw some cheaper ones locally but I have concerns about the durability. This is a bulky tool that takes up a lot of space and I'll probably never need again I might rent one so I get something durable. Unfortunately I don't know anyone that I can borrow one from.

Spreader

Finally a spreader will be needed to spread the grass seed. I have an older Scotts Accugreen drop spreader because I don't have a huge lawn and have to deal with some odd angles. The new Scotts Drop Spreader doesn't seem to have many great reviews. If you have a larger area to cover the Scotts 76121 Turf Builder EdgeGuard Mini Broadcast Spreader was my second choice. A broadcast spreader spreads seed or fertilizer over a larger area than a drop spreader which makes things go quicker. The edge guard blocks the spray on one side so you don't get grass seeds in your garden beds or walkways.



Most homeowners will have all or at least most of the above products if they do any gardening themselves. If you don't, the cost of a lawn renovation can be quite high but all these tools are going to be useful in maintaining your landscape and a lot cheaper than hiring someone to do the work and maintaining your home's lawn and garden.