# Kill weeds with vinegar?



## leigti (Mar 18, 2015)

Somebody told me that you can use vinegar as a pet safe way to kill weeds and grass. Has anybody tried this? I also heard you can use soapy water. Any ideas would be welcome thank you.


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## Yvonne G (Mar 18, 2015)

I've used this method and it really works:

Natural Weed Control
I don't usually post these things unless I have tried them, And this works. I was amazed how fast I saw results too.

Mix:

1 Gallon white vinegar

2 cups multi purpose epsom salt

1/4 cup regular blue dawn dish soap

Put into gallon sprayer, if you don't have a sprayer, You can use anything that will spray out liquid, Saturate weeds.

I used this in the morning around 10 am went back in a couple hours and the weeds were wilting and turning color, a few hours later, bye bye weeds. Use this every couple weeks to control weeds, all safer for the environment, and allot safer to have around the house with children and pets.


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## leigti (Mar 18, 2015)

Yvonne G said:


> I've used this method and it really works:
> 
> Natural Weed Control
> I don't usually post these things unless I have tried them, And this works. I was amazed how fast I saw results too.
> ...


Thanks! I will try this.


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## johnsonnboswell (Mar 18, 2015)

You can also use boiling water. Not practice for every application, but it works and leaves no residue.


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## leigti (Mar 18, 2015)

johnsonnboswell said:


> You can also use boiling water. Not practice for every application, but it works and leaves no residue.


You mean just boiling water by it's self right? That would work for a small area but I have a large area so that might not work as well. Or did you mean that you have to use boiling water in the above recipe?


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## jaizei (Mar 18, 2015)

Using fire is more fun...


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## Grandpa Turtle 144 (Mar 18, 2015)

leigti said:


> Somebody told me that you can use vinegar as a pet safe way to kill weeds and grass. Has anybody tried this? I also heard you can use soapy water. Any ideas would be welcome thank you.


It's not your kitchen vinegar it's gardening vinegar ( gardening vinegar is stronger ) but you can take kitchen vinegar take the cap off and let it sit outside for 24hours so the water will evaporate out !


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## leigti (Mar 18, 2015)

Grandpa Turtle 144 said:


> It's not your kitchen vinegar it's gardening vinegar ( gardening vinegar is stronger ) but you can take kitchen vinegar take the cap off and let it sit outside for 24hours so the water will evaporate out !


I didn't know there was any such thing as garden vinegar. Never heard of it. Today I just bought regular distilled white vinegar , will that work?


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## leigti (Mar 18, 2015)

jaizei said:


> Using fire is more fun...


Hmmmmmmm, that could work


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## Odin's Gma (Mar 18, 2015)

Plain salt will work for many plants also. Just buys a big bag of water softener salt. Pour a good amount over the plants that need killing, cover with a mound of sand, and as you water the yard the salt leeches in and kills the roots over time. Be aware that it will also kill the plants immediately surrounding it, but it is very effective, and with the sand covering the actual salt, the pets can't snack on it.


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## Grandpa Turtle 144 (Mar 18, 2015)

leigti said:


> I didn't know there was any such thing as garden vinegar. Never heard of it. Today I just bought regular distilled white vinegar , will that work?


Your distilled vinegar for the kitchen is watered down but if you take the cap off and put it out side it will evaporate the water out and then use it .


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## tglazie (Mar 18, 2015)

This has got to be the first thread I've read that proposed killing weeds over encouraging their unfettered growth. 

T.G.


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## leigti (Mar 18, 2015)

tglazie said:


> This has got to be the first thread I've read that proposed killing weeds over encouraging their unfettered growth.
> 
> T.G.


These are nasty goat head sticker weeds. They grow in my gravel driveway. I also kill the grass along my fence line. I usually use round up but now that I have chickens I can't do that.


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## leigti (Mar 18, 2015)

Grandpa Turtle 144 said:


> Your distilled vinegar for the kitchen is watered down but if you take the cap off and put it out side it will evaporate the water out and then use it .


Okay I will do that. How much of it evaporates? I bought 1.5 gallon jug


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## tglazie (Mar 18, 2015)

Oh no judgement here. Kill 'em all. I definitely plan on using this method to eliminate the scourge of live oak seedlings in the front of my property. 

T.G.


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## HLogic (Mar 18, 2015)

Adding clove oil to the mix will make it more effective. There are also citrus based weed/grass killers that are very effective.

For those in FL and nearby areas, goat head stickers are known as sand spurs - nasty little buggers they be...


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## leigti (Mar 18, 2015)

I have all sorts of names for those stickers and none of them can be listed here.


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## Grandpa Turtle 144 (Mar 18, 2015)

leigti said:


> Okay I will do that. How much of it evaporates? I bought 1.5 gallon jug


Let 1/2 evaporate


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## Loohan (Mar 18, 2015)

Grandpa Turtle 144 said:


> Let 1/2 evaporate



Acetic acid is volatile, too, though. I don't know how fast the acid would evaporate (think silicone seal odor) in comparison to the water.


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## leigti (Mar 18, 2015)

Loohan said:


> Acetic acid is volatile, too, though. I don't know how fast the acid would evaporate (think silicone seal odor) in comparison to the water.


Is that why I should put it outside?


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## Tom (Mar 18, 2015)

Goat head weed is a good tortoise food. Its one of the main foods for wild leopard tortoises according to one study I saw. It was one of many things that held a relatively high percentage of their over all diet.

I would suggest handling and feeding it out while it is still soft and flexible, _before_ it goes to seed and becomes the horrible monster that it is.


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## Grandpa Turtle 144 (Mar 18, 2015)

leigti said:


> Is that why I should put it outside?


Here in AZ 80 degrees outside and 71 degrees inside ( cause of AC )evaporation happens faster at 80 degrees then 71 degrees


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## leigti (Mar 18, 2015)

Tom said:


> Goat head weed is a good tortoise food. Its one of the main foods for wild leopard tortoises according to one study I saw. It was one of many things that held a relatively high percentage of their over all diet.
> 
> I would suggest handling and feeding it out while it is still soft and flexible, _before_ it goes to seed and becomes the horrible monster that it is.


Oh crap you're freaking kidding me! I guess if I feel extremely motivated, it probably won't happen but anyway, I can try to get it in the green stage. I have to get rid of it before the stickers form. These things are evil. Once when I was a kid I was riding the horse at a full gallop and he tripped, I flipped over his head rolled down a hill and landed in a huge pile of those damn stickers. It literally took two hours to get them all out of my clothes. I hate those things.


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## johnsonnboswell (Mar 18, 2015)

leigti said:


> You mean just boiling water by it's self right? That would work for a small area but I have a large area so that might not work as well. Or did you mean that you have to use boiling water in the above recipe?


Yes, just plain boiling water. Another approach is to smother weeds. Or use Yvonne's recipe, I'm sure it's good.


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## leigti (Mar 18, 2015)

leigti said:


> Oh crap you're freaking kidding me! I guess if I feel extremely motivated, it probably won't happen but anyway, I can try to get it in the green stage. I have to get rid of it before the stickers form. These things are evil. Once when I was a kid I was riding the horse at a full gallop and he tripped, I flipped over his head rolled down a hill and landed in a huge pile of those damn stickers. It literally took two hours to get them all out of my clothes. I hate those things.


The horse was okay thank God, but he ran off home. So I had to walk a mile with a gazillion stickers poking me. I think I'm traumatized for life when it comes to those damn stickers.


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## Yvonne G (Mar 19, 2015)

Here in my neck of the woods we call them puncture vine. I, like Tom, have heard that they are good tortoise food.


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## Loohan (Mar 19, 2015)

acetic acid is relatively innocuous to breathe in dilute concentrations, i imagine.

What i'm trying to say is, sure the water will evaporate, but so will the acid. I don't know which is more volatile. If this method does work for people, it suggests that water is. 
If so, then it might still be more economical, despite the waste, to evaporate cheap vinegar than to try to find/buy the strong stuff.

Incidentally last summer i tried straight cheapo vinegar with a bit of soap on some weeds in hot weather. It did suppress them and slow them down quite a bit, but didn't kill them.

I also tried this with d-limonene added:
http://homeguides.sfgate.com/make-w...-oil-vinegar-dishwashing-detergent-48333.html
which also had the same result. Due to lack of rigorous testing methods, i don't know how much better this was.


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## Loohan (Mar 19, 2015)

Yvonne G said:


> Here in my neck of the woods we call them puncture vine. I, like Tom, have heard that they are good tortoise food.


If i'm correct, this is Tribulus terrestris AKA goatshead AKA sandspur. I had plantar warts for decades stemming from stepping on one in FL in 1974.
You could always grind them up and sell them 
https://www.google.com/search?clien...f-8#q=Tribulus+terrestris&channel=fs&tbm=shop


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## leigti (Mar 19, 2015)

Loohan said:


> If i'm correct, this is Tribulus terrestris AKA goatshead AKA sandspur. I had plantar warts for decades stemming from stepping on one in FL in 1974.
> You could always grind them up and sell them
> https://www.google.com/search?clien...f-8#q=Tribulus+terrestris&channel=fs&tbm=shop


Wow, I should have plantar warts all over my feet. I've stepped on about 1000 of these darn things.


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## Loohan (Mar 19, 2015)

leigti said:


> Wow, I should have plantar warts all over my feet. I've stepped on about 1000 of these darn things.


They won't all cause warts. I've stepped on lots too.
Warts are supposedly caused by a virus. Maybe it happened to be present on that one i stepped on.


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## Tom (Mar 19, 2015)

leigti said:


> Oh crap you're freaking kidding me! I guess if I feel extremely motivated, it probably won't happen but anyway, I can try to get it in the green stage. I have to get rid of it before the stickers form. These things are evil. Once when I was a kid I was riding the horse at a full gallop and he tripped, I flipped over his head rolled down a hill and landed in a huge pile of those damn stickers. It literally took two hours to get them all out of my clothes. I hate those things.



I don't have a story anywhere near that good, but I stepped on one in New Mexico and it punctured my foot right through my shoe.

I think Yvonne's moniker is an apt name for this weed. It certainly punctured my foot.


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## leigti (Mar 19, 2015)

Tom said:


> I don't have a story anywhere near that good, but I stepped on one in New Mexico and it punctured my foot right through my shoe.
> 
> I think Yvonne's moniker is an apt name for this weed. It certainly punctured my foot.


Oh yeah they will definitely puncture threw a shoe. Evil I say they are just evil! And if one pokes me then it itches for a few hours. The seeds are the stickers, and they can lay dormant for years before they grow another plant. Which is why they are almost impossible to get rid of.


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## Yvonne G (Mar 19, 2015)

...and don't even think about riding your bike along side the road where the darned things are growing. You'll get flat tires for sure. When I take the hoe to the street in front of my house I end up with them sticking into the bottoms of my flip flops. If I don't stop at the garbage can on my way back to the house and pick them all out, they re-deposit on my property and grow everywhere I've walked.


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## leigti (Mar 19, 2015)

Exactly. They hitch a ride on whoever and whatever they can. The poor dog will start hopping along on 3 feet and I know that she stepped on one.


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## Tom (Mar 19, 2015)

leigti said:


> The poor dog will start hopping along on 3 feet and I know that she stepped on one.



Oh yes. As much as I travel my dogs around the world, I see that one regularly.

They are such nice soft tender plants _before _they go to seed though...


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## leigti (Mar 19, 2015)

I will try to get to them in time to feed them to my tortoise.


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## Loohan (Mar 19, 2015)

Tom said:


> I don't have a story anywhere near that good, but I stepped on one in New Mexico and it punctured my foot right through my shoe.
> 
> I think Yvonne's moniker is an apt name for this weed. It certainly punctured my foot.



They are also called caltrops:
http://jkherb.trustpass.alibaba.com/product/114550458-101442756/SMALL_CALTROPS.html


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## leigti (Mar 19, 2015)

leigti said:


> I will try to get to them in time to feed them to my tortoise.


I gave some to my tortoise tonight and she could've cared less. Granted, it usually takes her to her three times of feeding her a new item before she will actually eat it. So she may not get another chance at this one. We'll see. I mixed up a batch and poured it on.


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