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Forum DIET & CARE Weedy grass – Corn gluten meal??

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    • Silwerkitty
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        I have a tiny garden that has been created to be bunny proof and bunny heaven. My four rabbits are indoors, but they get garden playtime once or twice a week if it’s nice out and it’s usually the highlight of their day, even though they’re free roam inside the house.

        I have more weeds than grass at the moment, I need to try to get it under control. I’ve read about Corn Gluten Meal today, it seems like the best solution so far but is it really safe? I’d wait at least two weeks after applying it to the lawn before letting the buns out, but will the grass be safe for them to chew? I do NOT want to accidentally poison them. If living with the weeds is the only option, I’ll do it, but if the corn gluten meal is safe, I’ll definitely try that first.

        I’ve tried pulling out the weeds, there’s too many and they keep coming back.


      • LBJ10
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          Short answer, yes. Corn gluten meal would not leave a harmful residue, but you would want to give it some time to incorporate itself into the soil. I only say that because bunny might pick it up on their feet if it is freshly laid. Corn anything isn’t good for bunnies to eat. Probably wouldn’t kill them, but it isn’t good for them.

          That being said, I don’t know if corn gluten meal will give you the results you want. What type of weeds are we dealing with here? And what time of year are you doing this? The reason I ask is because corn gluten meal only works as a pre-emergent on weed seeds. It will not work on already established weeds, perennials. Hopefully that makes sense.


        • Silwerkitty
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            That makes absolute sense, thanks so much, LBJ10! I know it only works as pre-emergent thingie, it’s springtime over here. I guess I’m hoping it will keep them from coming back up if I do one more big sweep, pulling every single weed out. It’s a massive undertaking, I just need some sort of plan to keep them from coming up again after going through all that trouble.

            I’ve been keeping my buns inside full time as we’ve been having heatwave upon heatwave, so keeping them inside a few weeks after applying the corn gluten meal to keep them safe would not be a problem.

            I’ve still got to find someplace that’ll be willing to import some to South Africa, anyway, so this is just preliminary research to know if it’s bunny safe.

            If you can suggest any other kind of solution, I’d be very happy to hear it. I’ve searched up and down and can’t seem to find any actual safe and effective weed solution. The weeds in question are small, but many. I don’t know what they’re called, there are different kinds but they all seem to find my grassy lawn the perfect habitat. So I’m basically going to have to dig up the entire lawn to get rid of them.


          • LBJ10
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              Ah, I see. Now it makes sense. It’s fall here. LOL

              Okay, so I would not be familiar with the weeds or grasses you have there in South Africa. Are these weeds not edible? For bunnies, I mean. A lot of people feed weeds to their bunnies here because they actually make good bunny food. Since you don’t know what the weeds you have are though, I suppose you would want to get rid of them. There are things you can do to lessen the amount of weeds without using chemicals, but it’s a long process that could take several years. I don’t know what kind of grass you have, but I can tell you what we do here if that helps?


            • Silwerkitty
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                This is the type of grass I planted when I moved in, LM Grass: http://www.krugerpark.co.za/africa_lm__grass.html

                I was so paranoid, I basically ripped the entire garden out and planted everything from scratch (two years ago) so I’d be sure that everything was safe for the buns, so I think that may be why I’m now so affronted at these weeds daring to intrude on our lovely bunny playpark, lol. I’ve watched the buns carefully, and though they don’t eat the weeds as voraciously as they do the grass, they don’t have any ill after effects after getting some in, so while I don’t know how healthy or beneficial they are, I at least know they’re not very toxic, if at all.

                Please tell me what you do for weeds, I’m willing to try anything as long as I know it’s safe. At the very least I’ll use your method on the little thorny kinds that have just started springing up and are really more of a pest than the other ‘benign’ weeds, lol.


              • LBJ10
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                  Oh wow, that sounds a bit like zoysia grass. It creeps and forms a mat. So this is good then for your particular climate? The website says it grows well in sandy soil. Is that the type of soil you have? We have heavy clay soil here, cold winters, and zoysia really isn’t a good choice here. It will go dormant and turn brown for the winter and people don’t like its slow return in the spring (other lawns will be green and the zoysia will still be brown). That being said, it is very drought resistant. So I suppose really the issue is an aesthetic one (it survives and needs little care, but it doesn’t always look good). In other areas of the country, where the winters aren’t so cold, the grass actually looks pretty nice year-round.

                  Okay, so I can tell you what people do here for fescue lawns (probably the better choice since it’s too hot and dry for bluegrass and natives like buffalo grass don’t hold up well to foot traffic). In late summer, you start doing weed control. This means hand-pulling of weed scattered sporadically. If there is a large patch of pretty much nothing but weeds you can use horticultural vinegar or horticultural soap. You have to be careful though because they are non-selective herbicides and will kill grass. You can also use boiling water. Again, it will kill the grass too so watch where you’re pouring it.

                  Next you want to aerate the lawn in early fall. You can do this because most weeds are done doing their seeds so there are less around to try to take over. Since we have clay soil here, it’s recommended that you spread a thin layer of compost over the lawn and then overseed it. When done in the early fall, it gives cool season grasses like fescue a chance to fill in rapidly before the growing season ends (i.e. winter comes). The idea is to give the grass a chance to fill in, leaving less room for weeds.

                  Then in the spring, you can do corn gluten meal as a pre-emergent. You have to do this very early, before weed seeds that may be present have a chance to germinate. The corn gluten meal is also a fertilizer, so don’t fertilize in the spring. This just causes excessive growth. Allow the grass to be taller by maintaining a mowing height of at least 3 inches. The taller the grass, the more shade down by the soil. You also want to use a mulching mower because the grass clippings being returned to the lawn act as fertilizer and they help block out the weeds too.

                  Anyway, this is what you do for lawns where I am. It can often take several years to get a big weed problem under control this way, but people do have success. It just takes a certain level of dedication.

                  I don’t know if this is helpful at all since I’m not familiar with the grass you have or what the conditions are like there.

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              Forum DIET & CARE Weedy grass – Corn gluten meal??