Has anyone ever used corn gluten to help prevent weed seeds from germinating in their arena?
I have not used it in a farm capacity, but I use it at home on my lawn. It works great as long as you apply it before the seeds germinate. It’s one of those things your throw down when the Forsythia’s bloom, ie when the soil hits 50 degrees.
The Gardening Forums recommend using it in a line, a layer around a plant or shrub, so the ground has a solid cover of the corn meal. Folks reporting back say if the corn meal is disturbed, weeds come up there. They did apply it early in the season or on freshly worked dirt. I am not sure this would be helpful in your arena where all the surface is probably in use. Kind of like using Preen on weeds, where you can’t break the barrier covering or weeds appear there.
I have not used it myself, more into spray or working the dirt to remove growing things in the arena.
Oh good point about it probably needing to be undisturbed. I hate spraying, though do it when necessary. Obviously the answer is to drag more often, which is where I got into trouble. It’s just hard to drag often enough when there’s no rain and too much dust. Ok, so nix this idea probably.
[QUOTE=JB;8831883]
Oh good point about it probably needing to be undisturbed. I hate spraying, though do it when necessary. Obviously the answer is to drag more often, which is where I got into trouble. It’s just hard to drag often enough when there’s no rain and too much dust. Ok, so nix this idea probably.[/QUOTE]
This is me, right now. Weeds sprouting like a jungle, hard and dusty to drag, hate spraying.
ETA: I make myself pull a few weeds by hand every time I go out to ride. I tell myself it makes a difference anyway…
Yep, and the bad thing is once it starts, if you blink and let it get out of control even a little, you end up with 50 million weed seeds just waiting for even a hint of rain :mad:
Soooo true! I’m working nights so of course the weather is great for dragging on work days and then on days off, I have X hours of day light to ride and dammit I want to ride, not drag. Haha. At least I have a very good young horse who can sit for a month or two and be a saint when I hop back on. I’m considering the MagOx or whatever it is people use for ice, and see if it won’t cut down on weeds…
[QUOTE=TheJenners;8832582]
Soooo true! I’m working nights so of course the weather is great for dragging on work days and then on days off, I have X hours of day light to ride and dammit I want to ride, not drag. Haha. At least I have a very good young horse who can sit for a month or two and be a saint when I hop back on. I’m considering the MagOx or whatever it is people use for ice, and see if it won’t cut down on weeds…[/QUOTE]
But if you have your own ring and farm you must be able to ride all the time, right? :lol:
Last year at one point, I had this brilliant idea to throw a black tarp over a section of weeds that was popping up in the ring. I figured, if you leave a tarp over the grass in the yard, the grass all dies, so if you leave a tarp over the weeds, they’ll die.
No, that didn’t work either. :lol: I’d be interested to hear if the MagOx works!
