yes, I tried it awhile ago and forgot I had done it. Then I was looking at my roses and they looked great and I couldn't figure out why. Then I remembered the cornmeal.

Cher

I used it this year for the first time thinking it wouldn't work for the black spot I always have.........It did work. I had no signs of the black spot this year. It rained alot so I wonder if that helped too.....will do again next year.

what is cornmeal supposed to do for your plant,which plants,and how much and when do you apply????Do tell !!!
Thanks,
Kathi

Bumping this up, DO TELL how to use this????

Cornmeal is an antifungal and a mild fertilizer. You can sprinkle it directly on and around your plants for control of fungus. I have used it on my lawn. It works well.

Vicki

I tried it first half of this year and it was a total disaster: my roses have never ever looked so bad and disease ridden. Some of the roses completely defoliated due to blackspot and I had cancer, dieback to deal with as never before.
I was afraid that I lost a number of roses by using cornmeal instead of fungicide. In July we resumed the spray schedule and by now most of my roses recovered.

Would have been nice had it worked but it did not.

David, are you saying that A&M-Stephenville is studying the use of cornmeal against black spot of roses? I hadn't heard that.

I don't know about TX, but we had THE WTTEST SUNNER ON RECORD here in NC. EVERYONE'S roses got defoliated from blackspot--even the spray people. I have one rose bush--I don't spray--but it is a BS resistant variety. It was looking pretty sad by August--but has put out new growth--so should be fine next year. I'm going to try that cornmeal tea.

melanie

When writing about cornmeal used as a plant fungicide I always preface my thoughts by saying that we are still experimenting and learning. As of today I am comfortable saying that cornmeal scattered once a month, beginning in the early spring, around plants prone to fungus does appear to be effective. The key is to begin early treatment. Also, cornmeal does control lawn fungus problems such as brown patch and southern blight.
HOWEVER, based on reports here on GW and my own experiments cornmeal does not appear to control fungus problems on roses or tomatoes. However, it is a very effective fungus control for the majority of plants. A volunteer on the Organic Forum has offered to dig into on going research at Stephenville,TX. Our basic problem is that cornmeal is cornmeal. There is, at the moment, nothing that can be turned into a patent which would be a money maker for the researcher so there is little interest in studying the subject by the scientific community.

For Dchall's interest and my interest in finding an organic fungicide treatment for roses and tomatoes....I plan to trial another idea next year and some of you might want to try it also. Over the past few weeks I have been rereading Ewell (?) Gibbon's books. Haven't read them since they were first published. In several spots he mentions that the skin of very ripe bananas is a powerful fungicide. I know that tossing banana skins under roses does not stop black spot. Wonder what happens if I make a banana skin tea and spray it on roses and tomatoes? I know that many of you have success with the Cornell formula, milk and the like. Guess I just like to experiment.

we know that soil organisms break down organic matter when we work it into the soil. what happens to the basic nutrients in alfalfa, fish emulsion, kelp, etc. when we ferment the materials in water. do the nutrients become available to plants faster?

I also tried cornmeal for the first time this year, after reading some of the same kinds of stories. My St. Augustine got brown spot or St. Augustine Decline, or something, and it was just dying right before my eyes. It was already fall, and into early winter, so the grass was not in a growing state anyway, but over the course of a couple of months, I sprinkled cornmeal fairly evenly over the yard (mine is not that big). It has to be watered in. After the first application, I began to see a quick improvement - grass started filling in the bare spots, and everything got much greener. After three applications several weeks apart, my grass looks great, even in the middle of February! I won't swear that cornmeal works for everything mentioned in this thread, but boy, it sure improved my St. Augustine!

I read that for the 'good' fungus to multiply best on corn meal (for anti-fungal use), it needs to be watered in and then left dry for at least 3 days. (that could explain why some people had no luck at all)

I can't find a cite, this was something I jotted down, while searching for research information on corn gluten meal, well over a year ago.

Field,
Hope you come back to this. Talk about long time no see!! I got distracted and haven't been back here since my last post. Anyway...

No I'm not saying that A&M Stephenville is testing on roses. They tested on peanuts back in the 90s and found that when they used corn meal, they no longer needed to use any other fungicides and they could replant without rotating any other crops in. Mysteriously that research has dried up. Could it be lack of patentability?

Doesn't look like anyone has posted in a loooong while. Anyway for the cyber world out there, I think I have tried just about everything for fungus on tomatoes AKA fall blight. The only thing that has worked is covering with clear plastic in late August to early September before threat of rain. Never had a problem since. In regard to aphids, the secret is to get rid of the pesky little sugar ants first. You can easily do this by making an ant attracting bait from sugar water mixed with a little borax..not boraxo. Soak a little of this mixture into a few cotton balls and place in a dish out by your plants. Refresh once in a while until you now longer have the problem. Now use your cornmeal to get rid of the aphids.