Is CGM needed for newly laid sod?

[nina norman]

We will be closing on our house on Monday (yippee! finally!!) and I need to know if I have to put down CGM ASAP? I mean, I intend to put some down for the good stuff it does do but I don't know if I need to be concerned about the weed control aspects on newly laid sod.

Thanks,
Nina

[Dchall_San_Antonio]

I would not bother on new sod. I would; however, be absolutely sure to put a little corn meal on the new sod to control fungus. New sod is quite often over fertilized with synthetics and ripe for fungal diseases. If you can afford it, you might put a cubic yard of compost per 1,000 square feet.

Be sure they roll the sod down or you might have some unexplainable dead spots where the roots try to grow through the air into the soil. They don't grow in air.

[nina norman]

Thank you very much for the information David, I truly appreciate it. For adding the compost to the sod - can I broadcast this? And, can I mix the corn meal and compost together and then broadcast it? I am planning on having playground mulch delivered from Soil Building Systems instead of putting grass under the childrens play area so I reckon I will have them deliver some compost at the same time. Oh, at the same time, my husband heard the DD mention that to put out seed for the grass (in the backyard) to use compost, corn meal and then the grass seed. Do you have any idea what ratios of compost and corn meal I should use?

Thanks a ton!
Christina

[Dchall_San_Antonio]

Hi Christina,
I read several lists on the Internet besides this one. On one of those lists there is a guy who has done a couple years of his own research using corn meal against fungal disease. One thing he found was that ordinary corn meal seems to have a preemergent effect against sprouting new seed. I trust that guy to be ahead of the general research done anywhere else, and I am sure Howard has not seen the research. So I will respectfully suggest an alternate to using corn meal with new seed. Here's what I would suggest.

Compost on new seed can be any amount that you can afford. As little as one cubic yard per 1,000 square feet is good. I'm not sure that more is better except to act as a mulch. If you can afford 4 cubic yards per 1,000 square feet, that's about where I'd stop. That's almost an inch of compost. You can spread it by piling it up around the yard and hitting it with a leaf blower. Or you can shovel it out of the piles and brush it around with a broom. One cubic yard per 1,000 square feet is only about 1/3 inch deep so you will appear to have bare spots. Just do your best to get at least some compost dust everywhere.

Instead of corn meal, I would mix in alfalfa pellets at a rate of 10-20 pounds per 1,000 square feet. The alfalfa will not give any fungal control but it will help to feed the microbes in the compost and help establish them in the soil. That is the ultimate goal here anyway.

THEN, after you have mowed the grass for the second time and you are sure you have sprouted all the seed you're going to sprout, then come in with corn meal at a rate of 10-20 pounds per 1,000 square feet. Corn meal will protect your lawn from fungal disease for at least 90 days.