An absolutely incredible weed killer...homemade

[L5Vegan]

Gee I have never seen the vinegar concentrate either! I'll have to look for it. I imagine the smell of heated vinegar would soon engulf your kitchen LOL!! Then we would all have the munchies for chips hahaha

i wouldn't heat the vinegar concentrate. You could add it last, in the sprayer if you wanted.

[Scott]

OK, I just went out and looked at the weeds that I sprayed today with this concoction..... and IT WORKS WELL!!!

Those suckers took a week to die with round-up..... but only a few hours with this witches brew......

Thanks again for the formula!!

[tnovak]

Ditto here on the gravel driveway

[gonecadd]

Someone told me this a few years ago: Pour your salt where you want to get rid of weeds then spray with the vinegar. It is suppose to make a cleaner edge if you do it this way. And no having to mix. But on the other hand you have to put 2 things down rather than just one mix.

[Taigen]

Well I am glad it is working for you guys....I can't beleive what it has done to our weeds. They are just totally dead...this brew really is great!! All the awful bugle weed is nicely shrivelled and brown Even wild strawberry plants growing in the lawn.

[emmalou]

Veggie that's the second time she hit it... it is old news LOL

What can I say....or not say

[allen42]

Cindy made some up today after i showed her this post , she couldnt WAIT !! SO I will update shorty lol i have every reason that it will work , Salt kills, the soap makes it stick to the foliage better , have no idea what the vigigar does besides making a smelly smell lol ,, update to follow soon !

[Roark]

This is neat. An environmentally-benign weed-killer! Who'd have thunk it?

This may be the answer to a long-standing problem. Savannah has chickens/geese/quail/etc and forbids the use of anything "chemical" on her properties. The weedkillers all have some toxicity problem at some level. So the fencelines tend to be a mess unless the Labor Party does a monthly weed-whack. Maybe tomorrow I'll load-up some of this stuff in the 25-gal tow-behind and see what happens!

Roark

[emmalou]

This is neat. An environmentally-benign weed-killer! Who'd have thunk it?

This may be the answer to a long-standing problem. Savannah has chickens/geese/quail/etc and forbids the use of anything "chemical" on her properties. The weedkillers all have some toxicity problem at some level. So the fencelines tend to be a mess unless the Labor Party does a monthly weed-whack. Maybe tomorrow I'll load-up some of this stuff in the 25-gal tow-behind and see what happens!

Roark

Ditto..will expound later

[aartwmich]

Pickling salt dissolves very readily.


I'll be interested to see if there is any indication of salt residue in the soil....it would really suck to contaminate your soil with salt, I wonder how much is too much??

[Taigen]

aartwmich....I don't saturate the soil...just the leaves of the plants. I'm sure some runs down the stem to the roots but it certainly isn't a great ammount that is sprayed on. I'm curious to see if anything re-surfaces, I am leaving the dead stuff there to see if it comes back but I have my doubts it will. Everything that was sprayed looks pretty much dead!

[N.F.Fishluver]

I only read the first couple of pages of this thread but I think I can clarify a few things as I've been using this "recipe" for years. The actual recipe is 4 cups of white vinegar, *1/4 cup* of regular salt and 2 teaspoons of dish soap. More salt won't hurt but as has been mentioned it won't dissolve either. A good friend of ours who happens to have a horticulture degree suggested I try this recipe when we lived on a farm that was certified organic. Now I use this around the ponds and on the gravel driveway. I just passed the recipe on to a neighbor over the weekend who is concerned about using anything where their dogs are...

[Taigen]

Bumping up for those that wanted the recipe

[jungleman9941]

You can use baking soda to kill crabgrass and it doesn't hurt the grass. I have used it on other weeds also with good results and it is cheap.

[aartwmich]

Hmmm I would like to hear more about how baking soda will kill cragrass and not the lawn

[jungleman9941]

you wet the crabgrass and then sprinkle the baking soda on it. it doesn't hurt southern grass not sure about northern grass, try a small patch first.

[luke-gr]

I looked at the ingredients on some total vegetation killer that I have and both the main ingredients are some kind of salt (salt prefaced witha really big word)

[Taigen]

Mine worked great on everything except the bugle weed....it came back But I also probably didn't spray as much where it was in the lawn and I didn't remove the dead stuff. The other weeds are still dead and it worked great.
I've heard more and more people locally using this recipe too, even local garden centers are advising it which is good to know.
Now we think there may be cinch (sp?) bug in the front lawn....anyone have any homemade recipes for them?????

[kntry]

Does anyone know how long after a hard rain you have to wait to use this? How many hours before a hard rain can you spray and still be effective?
HOW DO YOU DISSOLVE THE SALT????

[SunWolf]

I have been desolving 1 cup of salt in about 1 cup of HOT water (just enough to make a kind of salt paste), then adding 1 gallon of plain white vinegar...basic plain generic vinegar. Making the "salt paste" allows it to mix a little better with the vinegar, but doesn't seem to hinder its weed killing ability. Then I stir in 2 Tablespoons of Dawn Dishwashing liquid, pour it into an appropriate sprayer and have a go at the offending weeds. Crab grass HAS NOT grown over areas that I have been sprayed!!

Seems to last about a month or so between applications...however, if we get a heavy rain storm it seems to need reapplied a little more frequently, so I'm not too worried about lasting "salt burn" to the soil.

And it makes my brick patio smell like a wonderful salad dressing!!!