Garden-Share
curate + share your passion
Horticultural Cornmeal--The Natural Way to Combat Fungal Diseases in Your Garden, Water Garden and in Your Shoes!
The Dirt Doctor, Howard Garret says it best but basically whole ground cornmeal or Horticultural Cornmeal is your garden's best defense against a number of fungal diseases. Having problems with the leaves on your tomatoes yellowing and dropping off? Is your St. Augustine ailing? Black spot on your roses? Powdery mildew setting in? Horticultural cornmeal is likely to be your new best friend.
As a soil amendment, it can stop the problems before you transplant your seedlings. To use it as a spray, put some in a bucket and pour hot water over it and let it soak then use the strained water as a spray to combat it on the leaves and stems of your plant. Broadcast on your lawn it fights fungi and fertilizes. Corn Gluten Meal can even be broadcast 6 weeks before your last freeze or six weeks before your first freeze in the fall to keep weed seeds from germinating.
If you have a water feature, HC cornmeal will work to control algae too. Put about 2 cups per 100 sq ft of water in a sock or pantyhose and submerge it in the bottom of your pond. Works like a charm. If you've got an icky pond you can add 150 lbs per acre of water, either in weighted cloth or burlap bags or even just scattered on the surface (but works better from the bottom).
I like Soilmender brand best--most garden centers with organics can put you in touch with a supply but if not order from Garden Choice Organics. If all else fails look for whole ground cornmeal at a grocery that sells whole foods--but try not to get regular cornmeal that you make cornbread with. It purposely uses only the inner kernel of the corn and discards the seed coat that has the best affect on fungi.
Whole ground cornmeal or horticultural cornmeal works as an anti-fungal foot soak too. Just put a cup or so in water as hot as you can stand it and soak your feet for 15 minutes a day for about a week. You'll notice a dramatic improvement in athlete's foot and nail fungus. Johnson and Johnson even makes a baby powder from whole ground cornmeal that combats diaper rash and is good to sprinkle in your shoes (but not on plants because of fragrances).
When you finish soaking your feet, strain your cornmeal "tea" into a sprayer and spray it on any plant with yellowing foliage in your garden. Put the mushy cornmeal you strained out right into the soil of the same plants or just dump out the whole basin in the soil.
As a soil amendment, it can stop the problems before you transplant your seedlings. To use it as a spray, put some in a bucket and pour hot water over it and let it soak then use the strained water as a spray to combat it on the leaves and stems of your plant. Broadcast on your lawn it fights fungi and fertilizes. Corn Gluten Meal can even be broadcast 6 weeks before your last freeze or six weeks before your first freeze in the fall to keep weed seeds from germinating.
If you have a water feature, HC cornmeal will work to control algae too. Put about 2 cups per 100 sq ft of water in a sock or pantyhose and submerge it in the bottom of your pond. Works like a charm. If you've got an icky pond you can add 150 lbs per acre of water, either in weighted cloth or burlap bags or even just scattered on the surface (but works better from the bottom).
I like Soilmender brand best--most garden centers with organics can put you in touch with a supply but if not order from Garden Choice Organics. If all else fails look for whole ground cornmeal at a grocery that sells whole foods--but try not to get regular cornmeal that you make cornbread with. It purposely uses only the inner kernel of the corn and discards the seed coat that has the best affect on fungi.
Whole ground cornmeal or horticultural cornmeal works as an anti-fungal foot soak too. Just put a cup or so in water as hot as you can stand it and soak your feet for 15 minutes a day for about a week. You'll notice a dramatic improvement in athlete's foot and nail fungus. Johnson and Johnson even makes a baby powder from whole ground cornmeal that combats diaper rash and is good to sprinkle in your shoes (but not on plants because of fragrances).
When you finish soaking your feet, strain your cornmeal "tea" into a sprayer and spray it on any plant with yellowing foliage in your garden. Put the mushy cornmeal you strained out right into the soil of the same plants or just dump out the whole basin in the soil.
Comment
-
Comment by Karolina on June 6, 2009 at 9:44pm -
Thank you for the info! I'll try it on toenail fungus since I can't take the pill treatment and the Doctor did not offer any alternatives for me.
I'll also try it on my tomato and bell pepper plants for the yellowing leaves that are dropping off. Thanks again!
-
Comment by Lisa Dent on June 2, 2009 at 3:22pm -
Thank you, this sounds like a wonderful idea. I will head to the local feed store for hard corn to grind. Many thanks
-
Comment by Victoria Rosendahl on May 26, 2009 at 3:26pm -
This is great advice that I've not heard of. Thanks!
-
Comment by Sherie M. Sindle z9a SE TX on May 26, 2009 at 1:53pm -
Awesome-Last year I lost my whole crop of cukes to powdery mildew and I tried everything I could find,I knew I could kill ants in the yard with grits but never thought of this -Many , many Thanks You may have saved my garden and insecticide bill.
-
Comment by Suzanne dos Passos z/6 eugene or on May 26, 2009 at 12:13pm -
I have a flour grinder .. I could get some hard corn and grind my own to.
-
Comment by shirley 7B NTX on May 12, 2009 at 10:16am -
Great Idea, we have had a bit of rain and I had to cut some things back and saw the powdery black mildew on the St. Augustine grass. We are doing an organic yard. MY husband is making fun of me becuase when we put the new grass in, we put cornmeal, moliasis and this year sugar. Its looking good.
-
Comment by Mairi Krausse z8 TX on May 12, 2009 at 10:07am -
Wow, I'm going to have to get my local organic gardening supply store and get some of this! Thanks so much for the info, Melody!
Latest Activity
Barbara Dereida Brown commented on Grant Meyer USDA zone 9's photo
Oleander self sown nice pink blooms May 2012
"This one was self-sown from a seed? Wow! Gorgeous color!"
Cynthia (Cindy) Zn 7B Tx commented on Janet Ruth Baron's group Vines"Barbara you already sent me seeds, so were even for now:) They were the only two packs left, so figured I better get them. I bought another giant zinnia pk, pink ones this time. They come up faster than most seeds. I need to stop buying seeds, such…"
© 2012 Created by Garden-Share.
You need to be a member of Garden-Share to add comments!
Join Garden-Share