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Use Vinegar and Salt as a Weed Killer

ByTuula McPhee

Vinegar and salt as a weed killer?  Yes, that’s right.  Chock up another use for that ever so versatile vinegar. Ever since traditional herbicides were banned here in Ontario we have been in a constant battle with weeds. We love to garden, but sometimes weeds can take the fun out of it.

I recently heard through the grapevine that the combination of vinegar and salt makes a great weed killer so I decided to test it out myself.

IMPORTANT:  This mixture will kill all plants it comes into contact with so use it carefully. Also it strips the soil of its nutrients so it’s really meant for places like driveways, patios, pathways etc., places where you don’t want anything to grow.

Also, this mixture works best on a hot, sunny day when no rain is expected for at least 24 hours.

vinegar-and-salt-weed-killer

RECIPE:  1 gallon (or 4 litres) of vinegar  with 1 cup regular table salt and 1 tabelspoon dishwashing liquid, which helps the mixture adhere to the weed leaves.

Pour out about 2 cups of the vinegar into a plastic watering can. This makes some room in the bottle. Pour the cup of salt into the bottle of vinegar. Add the tbsp of dishwashing liquid. Let it sit for a few minutes for the salt to dissolve.

Make sure the lid is tight and gently turn the bottle upside down and right side up a few times to get any salt off the bottom of the bottle, so it’s completely dissolved.

Pour this mixture into the plastic watering can. I marked mine with large X’s so it only gets used for weed killing. I don’t want to be watering my plants from this container.

vinegar-and-salt-weed-killer

I’ve used gorilla tape to block some of the holes in the spout because there were way too many. This allows for better aim and less wastage of the mixture.

vinegar-and-salt-weed-killer

Now here are some befores and afters. The afters are the very next day. I’d say that’s pretty fast work.

vinegar-and-salt-weed-killer
vinegar-and-salt-weed-killer
vinegar-and-salt-weed-killer

 

vinegar-and-salt-weed-killer
Isn’t that awesome? I can’t believe it worked this well.  Even on dandelions. It’s actually much faster than the traditional weed killers that we used to buy from the store. And it’s much cheaper. I imagine it’ll take a few days for the weeds to totally disappear, or we can weedwhack them away once they’re completely dried out.
I’m thrilled to have finally found something that works and is envrionmentally friendly. This mixture is also supposed to stop new weed seeds from germinating in the places where it’s used. I’ll be watching to see if that’s true.
Another tip is to use boiling water to spot kill weeds. Whenever I’m boiling anything, rather than throw the leftover water down the drain I take the pot outside and kill a weed or two. The boiling water works almost instantly.
If you have any green tips for weed killing I’d love to hear them.
Thanks so much for reading!

 

XOX

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2 Comments

    1. Hi James. Thanks so much for visiting! This recipe is all I use now because regular herbicides are banned here. It works great but I've found it does take awhile for the dead weeds to disappear if you don't pull them. They have disappeared over time. I still have to pull weeds in the gardens though because this isn't meant to be used in soil where we want things to grow. Tuula 🙂

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