Vinegar as weed killer question........

[patandchickens]

That's really odd, WZ, have you asked for it by other names (acetic acid, which is what it is chemically; or by brandnames such as Burnout etc?)

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?/topic/132057-reducing-vinegar/ contains a lengthy exchange about trying to concentrate vinegar for cooking purposes, and seems to conclude that you cannot concentrate it very well by boiling on account of it having pretty near the same boiling point as water.

Most home gardeners are not going to want to get into distillation, leaving freezing as a possibility I suppose but I do NOT know whether it works (dunno what the freezing point of vinegar is, but some things can be concentrated by freezing and then you remove the ice when it is mostly-frozen and what remains is concentrated stuff-with-lower-freezing-point or water-with-more-solutes-in-it)

Honestly, though: boiling water.


Pat

 

[Wifezilla]

Same experience I have had using that same formula. It is better than narsty chemicals that don't work any better and cost twice as much.

 

[Marianne]

I'm like Calendula, I'm more interested in getting rid of weeds that have stickers.

Boiling water does work, but the day I tried it, I had that stove cranked on forever to boil enough water to do just some of the weeds. I have just too much rock driveway to make that plausible for me.

Since some weeds are annuals, as long as you can cut them down enough so they don't seed, you'll be ahead of the game. We have little, short nasty thick sticker things here (Mexican thistle?), and running a shovel across the dirt was enough to cut them down. I could stay on top of one area, but when I walked down the lane to the mailbox one day, I saw many, many more plants. Agh.

 

[patandchickens]

Boiling water does work, but the day I tried it, I had that stove cranked on forever to boil enough water to do just some of the weeds.

You need to do more canning Kills two birds with one stone.

But yeah, boiling water is not a solution for a gravel driveway, but then neither is any am't of household vinegar that a person is realistically going to be able to double-concentrate.

Note that vinegar doesn't work real well on perennial weeds (at best, you have to approach it as if you were using pulling or mowing, i.e. do it repeatedly and promptly EVERY time the weed gets reasonable topgrowth back). The same is somewhat true of boiling water although IME for *shallow rooted* perennial weeds it is actually possible to boil 'em to death in one shot.

Pat

 

[i_am2bz]

The formula I use is 1 gallon of regular vinegar add 1 cup of salt and two squirts of dish soap. The two times I have done it in my driveway the weeds have died and not grown back. It does not kill all weeds though.

I might try this; do you use a sprayer or spray bottle?

WZ, that's my issue, too; the nearest feedstore (TSC) is 20 miles away & I'm usually AMAZED when they have something I actually want (& then it takes 3-4 people to find it). Garden centers are even farther away.

But vinegar, salt, & dish soap - check, check, check.

 

[sufficientforme]

I put it in a 2 gallon hand pump sprayer and do it in the hottest part of the day.

 

[ORChick]

I agree with Pat here. I have used the hot water from waterbath canning to kill the weeds growing through the cracks in the patio - works like a charm. (I suppose pressure canning water would work as well, but there isn't as much of it )

 

[Marianne]

I think I'll do the vinegar/salt/dish soap thing this summer and see how it goes.

and Pat, your comment that I need to can more was funny!

and true, too!

 

[big brown horse]

I hope this works on moss. My roof is turning green! I havn't done anything b/c everyone says to use narsty chems on the moss. I refuse.