I am starting fresh with organic on 6 acres we purchased. I have a meadow area that I want to plant wildflower seeds this fall, but I also want to get the soil in shape and weeds under control. I am told that cornmeal gluten will act as a pre-emergent, which is great for the weeds I want to get rid of. However, I don't want to keep my wildflower seeds from germinating. When do I add the cornmeal (normally Oct) and when do I plant the seeds?

Hi Tammy. Welcome to the forum.

I'm afraid I don't have any good news. First of all we need to correct your product name. The preemergent is called "corn gluten meal." You might want to practice that a few times before you go anywhere to ask for it.

Corn GLUTEN meal (to distinguish it from ORDINARY corn meal) is used as a preemergent weed controller at a rate of about 15-40 pounds per 1,000 square feet. The more you use the better it works. The cost is about a dollar per pound...you have 6 acres x 43560 square feet per acre or 261,900 square feet. So you would need 262 thousands x 15 pounds per thousand x $1 per pound or $3,928 worth at the low rate to cover your 6 acres. Most people aren't willing to spend that kind of money for a pasture.

Also there is very little difference between the weeds you want to kill and wildflowers. Wildflowers usually germinate in the fall and lay dormant most of the winter. Then in the spring they pop up and bloom. The time to control the weeds is exactly the same time to plant the wildflowers.

What kind of flowers do you want to grow?

Tammy, perhaps you could you kill the weeds out this year and then plant wildflowers next year. Good luck.

Pat Akin

An inexpensive but effective way to improve the soil is to add molasses. Dry molasses can go out anywhere between 10 and 20 pounds per 1000 square feet.

Using just one gallon of liquid horticultural molasses (mixed in with water) per 5 acres has shown noticeable improvement for some folks.

There are other products out there for you to use. It just depends on the budget. Humate is a good product. Good quality compost is the next best thing to having animals on the land.