Has anyone had any experience with Cockadoodle DOO Organic Weed Control.
Cockadoodle DOO Organic Weed Control
Thanks, rw
____________________________________ rw -
Good day Ryan, I have not personally used the above product (could they of gotten a better name..?), but I am familiar with the use of corn gluten meal as a pre-emergent. The short answer is yes.... it does work. The long answer is it may not be the cheapest route to go though. As far as I can tell, these organic weed control companies are marking up a rather cheap product ( corn gluten meal ) and selling it at a very inflated price. The meal they sell is 'pearled' unlike what you can get at a food/bakery supply store, but they are both the same.
Application rates will be much higher than one would expect for satisfactory results. The Cockadoodle DOO company (O' how it pains me to type that name!!) recommends 100 pounds per 5000 square feet. That's a lot of corn meal. Even at .50 cents a pound that's still 50 dollars per application and your lawn will have a yellow look to it for a few weeks.
Don't get me wrong, I'm really not trying to talk you out of the corn meal. I've read many positive data sheets on the use of corn meal. You can rest assured that your not killing the planet and the corn meal does offer a small fertilization at the same time. My mother-in-law is a baker and she used plain old corn meal gluten in a few flower beds with good results.
Clover is a sign post in your lawn. It's telling you that you may have : compacted soil low soil fertility (low nitrogen) too low of a mowing height
Your first step is to remove the clover. You can do this in a variety of ways. How you do it is really up to you. Chemical or mechanical, the choice is yours. After the clover is gone, improve the soil with aeration and fertilization. As far as your mowing height goes, try to keep the lawn areas mowed at 3" high. This will inhibit weed seed germination and help keep new weeds from taking root. Good luck and good day.
I'm in MA, too. Clover used to be desirable in lawns. But then broad-leaf weed killers came along, clover went away and our values changed to "grass-only". I apply liquid broad-leaf control very selectively each year. This keeps it out of the environment in general and off of our garden plants.
Cockadoodle Doo probably works but I believe it is less concentrated than ordinary chemical fertilizers. Being "natural" does not make it "good" (cocaine, arsenic, alcohol etc are natural).
That's basicly the approach I take too. There are two extremes. One is the folks that buy the 4 Step program concept and put chemicals down whether they are needed or not. And too frequently it becomes a 7 step program, because they put down herbicide again over the whole lawn and the first sight of a couple dandelions. Or insecticide because the lawn looks bad, whether they have a real identified problem or not.
The other extreme is to try to do everything organicly. That's fine if you can get it to work for you, are willing to pay the much higher cost and incur the extra work. Using corn gluten is a good example. It will work, but it takes a whole lot of it and it's expensive. Eliminating weeds that do germinate or insects is much harder.
I put down a pre-emergent/fertilizer combo in Spring, (late April here in NJ), then use a small tank sprayer to spot treat any weeds during the rest of the season. In fall I apply fertilizer twice, early Sept, then again about 5 weeks later. I only apply insecticide if I have a specific problem. I think this is a reasonable approach that minimizes the amount of chemicals, while achieving a balance.
If you have a lawn that is a real mess, my approach is to use whatever chemicals it takes to get it right. After that, a good thick lawn will need a lot less to keep it that way.
I use corn gluten on my asparagus patch, but it is very expensive.
snipped-for-privacy@>> rw wrote:
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