Natural weed killer in your cupboard!

Discussion in 'Plant Pests, Diseases and Weeds' started by Tooty2shoes, Jun 11, 2012.

  1. Tooty2shoes

    Tooty2shoes Hardy Maple

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    Wow I am so excited I am jumping for joy. :smt026 Some of you who like to try and go as green as possible in your yard and garden. May all ready know of using regular vinegar from your cupboard to spray on weeds or grass to kill them.
    I had thought from articles I had read from Organic growers that you needed to us 20% vinegar which I can only find online. Then the expense of shipping it was not worth the cost.
    So 4 days ago I thought what the heck. I will try my regular vinegar and see what happens. Well yesterday I went out to look at my veggie garden to see if sraying around the edge had killed those bad weeds like white clover, creeping Jenny, ect.
    :eek: :D YA HOO! they are all shriveled up and had turned yellow. I am going to stock up on vinegar and have a blast, blasting all those bad weed. Next is Bind weed :twisted: he,he,he,he,he. I'll get you my pretty. Oh sorry I lost my head for a moment there.
    I am also going to spray an area 3ft by 10ft so I can transplant my one variety of Raspberry closer to the house. We have some berry loving turkey's that ate quite a few berries last year. I hope you will let me know what fun you have in killing all those pesky weeds in your yard.
    I had also cut off a thistle at ground level and poured some vinegar on that and it did not come back. Wow I am really impressed with what it can kill. Plus no bad side effects. Except your neighbors might think you have lost your mind as you go gleefully around your yard making it smell like a pickle. I would have never guessed one could have so much fun for so little money. Plus excercise to boot. ;)
     
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  3. CrisGzr

    CrisGzr In Flower

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    I heard of this too and tried it on a bunch of weeds in the dog's yard! I used cider vinegar and it killed all but one weed. And I just poured boiling water on that bad boy!

    I love that I don't worry about dogs and cats with vinegar! They wrinkle their noses and keep away.

    Honestly, is there anything vinegar can't do?

    Next week my order of Mosquito Barrier arrives -it is a concentrated garlic you dilute and spray, if I time it right after I use more vinegar, my yard will smell like a ceasar salad!
     
  4. Tooty2shoes

    Tooty2shoes Hardy Maple

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    Cris you are so right about vinegar. Yummm I love a good Ceasar salad. Interesting about using garlic as a mosquito barrier. Our mosquitos aren't to bad because we have had such a dry spell. Plus temps in the high 80's and 90's. UHG! We usually have low 70's at this time of year. I guess our summer is suppose to be warmer than usual. Thank God we do not have fires running rampant like some area's. :stew1:
     
  5. CrisGzr

    CrisGzr In Flower

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    Tooty I am obviously a big treat to mosquitos! The go right past my husband and chomp on me! I read somewhere that if I rubbed his sweaty T-shir ton me they would avoid me too. I also read that Mosquito Barrier worked to keep all mosquitos and ticks off your land. Having to choose between these two natural options, I chose Mosquito Barrier!

    It worked really well and a bonus, no ticks! I had a little left from last year. They insist you buy fresh and I guess they are right, it didn't work so well and the odor was pretty weak. So, I am ordering a new batch. Until then I am using nasty chemicals... sigh!

    Old-fashioned brown Listerine also works as a deterent but not nearly as well as the Mosquito barrier!
     



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  6. Jerry Sullivan

    Jerry Sullivan Garden Experimenter Plants Contributor

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    I think there may be a weed or two that are in for a vinegar bath. :) This should be interesting. I just love experiments.

    Jerry
     
  7. cherylad

    cherylad Countess of Cute-ification Plants Contributor

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    I've been using a 9% acidity of pickling vinegar... with a cup of salt added to a gallon. It does kills some weeds and grass... but I find it's not killing the roots and I have to keep spraying. I guess I could double-up on how much I spray each time?
    I will continue to use the vinegar and salt in certain areas, for instance near the back step where the dog's food and water bowl is.
    But it's just not handling really tough weeds and grass. For them, I've resorted to using Roundup. Over the weekend, I sprayed the back fence line with it. Still waiting to see "total destruction".
    Darn weeds!!
    :twisted:
     
  8. toni

    toni Mistress of Garden Junque Staff Member Moderator Plants Contributor

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    Cheryl, try the 20% vinegar, it's supposed to be strong enough to kill the roots of almost all weeds where the weaker stuff can not. I have much more luck with that than the pickling or the 5% vinegar.
    Lowe's and HD both carry it and most garden centers....maybe not Wally world though.
     
  9. Tooty2shoes

    Tooty2shoes Hardy Maple

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    Sris--Mosquito's love me also. I think maybe it's our blood type or we are just so Sweet those little buggers can't resist us. I think I will try and make some of the garlic stuff with the garlic I grew last year.

    Jerry I to love a good experiment. Let us know what your kill rate is.

    Cherylad I will have to look for the pickling vinegar
    I didn't know that there was such a product. DaH! I do make pickles but have always just used the 5% vinegar.

    Toni I looked last year at my local HD and Lowes and they had no idea what I was talking about. So I explained it to them and they just :rolleyes:. So I will have to look again. I even tried some of the local nursery's to see if they had. :'( So I will keep using the reg. vinegar and respraying stuff to keep it at bay.
     
  10. cherylad

    cherylad Countess of Cute-ification Plants Contributor

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    Toni.... didn't the "recipe" call for half gallon of 20% and half gallon of water? If I'm using undiluted 9%... isn't that about the same acidity level? If I can find the 20%.... I'd definitely use it full strength.
     
  11. toni

    toni Mistress of Garden Junque Staff Member Moderator Plants Contributor

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    Cheryl, I don't have a recipe for it, I just put some in a cup and pour it on the weed. I have read that an ounce of Orange Oil or Clove Oil will give the weed killing power an added boost.

    I haven't found any information less than about 5 years old but earlier when 20% vinegar was first being studied for it's safety and effectiveness as a weed killer, many states required it to be registered with them or it couldn't be sold in that state. You might check with your local county extension office to see if that's why you can't find it locally.

    In my local Lowe's it isn't in the garden center, it's in the area with the birdseed, other weed killers,...in the organic garden products section.
     
  12. cherylad

    cherylad Countess of Cute-ification Plants Contributor

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    To be honest Toni, I haven't really looked for it since I thought my 9% undiluted was good enough. Just one more excuse for me to stop in at Lowe's on the way home today. Wonder if there's some good stuff on the markdown rack? :-D
     
  13. lukeypukey

    lukeypukey In Flower

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    i thought vinegar was only good for dousing fish & chips with :-D time to give my horsetail a spritz . . wisful thinking though i think :-|
     
  14. Cayuga Morning

    Cayuga Morning Strong Ash Plants Contributor

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    Wow! I will try venegar on my !@#$%^&^%$#@ plantains that are taking over my lawn. I'll see if I have any luck. Thanks for the suggestion.
     
  15. Miss Liberty

    Miss Liberty Seedling

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    I love the thought of using vinegar in the kennel. We didn't want to use Round Up because of my husband's coughcoughstupidcough dog. He'll eat anything. I'd rather we made a weed Caesar salad than an herbicide salad. The weeds we really struggle with around here are goatheads (tribulus terrestris). The seeds are nasty little things.

    Has anyone tested the vinegar on them? I plan to today.
     
  16. Tooty2shoes

    Tooty2shoes Hardy Maple

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    So has anyone a good report of what they have killed with vinegar? So far all the weeds and grass still looks dead around my garden edge. The Bull thistle I dug out and poured vinegar on did not grow back. :-D
    I did talk to our local Ag. Dept. and the guy never heard of using vinegar to kill plants. Go figure. They are suppose to know this stuff. I then asked if he ever heard of 20% vinegar or where you could get it. Again he had no clue but did do some searching into it.
    I will just keep using my 5% vinegar and watching those pesky weeds die baby, die. He, he, he :twisted:
     

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