NEED PROOF THAT VINEGAR IS A WEED-TERMINATOR? Just look at the weeds growing along a pea-stone path in my Herb Garden. These were photographed yesterday afternoon, just moments before I sprayed them with cheap, undiluted, store-brand white vinegar. Here’s what all that greenery looked like this morning:
I’d say those weeds are deader than dead. And that’s why I use vinegar on the gravel paths, brick walk-ways, and blue-stone patio here at A Garden for the House. For me it has proven an effective, eco-friendly answer to Roundup.
And speaking of Roundup, this year Monsanto, the product’s evil manufacturer, agreed with the New York Attorney General’s office to discontinue their use of the terms “biodegradable” and “environmentally friendly” in ads promoting Roundup. Why? Because these terms were bald-faced lies. Roundup is neither biodegradable nor environmentally friendly.
The next time you want to murder your weeds, why douse them with something that will remain in the soil for who knows how long? Maybe you should reach for vinegar instead. Vinegar is cheap. It’s easy to use. I keep gallons of it in my garden shed.
How to Apply: You can use a watering can, a spray bottle or a pump-sprayer to apply vinegar. I use a pump-sprayer, because it is more efficient. Be sure to rinse your sprayer after use, or metal parts (if any) can corrode.
Make your application on a warm, sunny, calm (not windy) day. Vinegar is not selective; it can potentially harm plants you wish to keep, should you accidentally spray them. As I said earlier, I use vinegar on walkways, where grass and ornamental plants are not an issue.
Will vinegar kill every weed in every garden? That I can not say. I only know that it has kept my pathways free of unwanted growth.
Update: Many of you have asked if I dilute the vinegar with water. No, I do not. I pour it directly from jug to pump-sprayer.
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Kevin, some time ago you mentioned vinegar as a weed killer. I have since used it exclusively where I used to use roundup: on the cracks between blue stone pavers on my patio. Vinegar really works, and it works fast. Thanks for turning me onto it.
Well, I'd much rather my garden smell like pickles than nasty roundup! Great tip, Kevin!
Amazing! I had no idea. Those pictures speak HUGE words. Kevin, once again, you have enlightened my life and made me a happier girl! Thanks to you for this great tip! Enjoy this great day.
Good to know.. I used blue dawn in vinegar but now I know we can leave out the dawn…..:)
Thank you! I <3 vinegar, but I don't <3 Monsatan I mean Monsanto.
Eric – Glad you've given up on Roundup!
Yolanda – Ditto. Love the smell of pickles.
Cary – You're welcome. And I'm blushing.
snowflake – Right – no need to add dishwashing liquid if you are spraying weeds on a walk-way.
Deborah – Think you had it right the first time: Monsatan!
I've got a bit of Round Up left from my more ignorant days and plan to use it on a patch of poison ivy and then never buy it again. There are no food crops near that area. Should I or just go straight to the vinegar? If I don't use it all up, how to dispose of it safely???
Kevin what % acid does your white vinegar mine is 5% is that enough?
BBI – I'd go ahead and use the Roundup you already have on your poison ivy (what a loathsome vine). You probably won't have any product left…the vine usually requires repeated application, no matter what material you treat it with. Otherwise, dispose of Roundup as you would any other toxic chemical: take it to the dump. Definitely do not pour the stuff down the drain!
snowflake – The white vinegar I use is the same as yours: 5% acidity.
Well, the Round-Up did nothing to the phragmites, so it's vinegar time.
Now if only vinegar would work on moles the way it works on weeds. Pepi
Love love love this! My front yard will get dosed today and save me endless hours of grief.
I, too, have used vinegar on weeds. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Do you have any words of wisdom to why? Tender, thin-leafed weeds it seems to work wonderfully on. Others, such as wild bermuda grass, it does not even phase. Do you have any other suggestions as to how to kill back the tougher stuff without using Roundup?
Anonymous – Over on my Facebook page, a reader said she kills her really tough weeds by adding salt and a drop of dishwashing liquid to white vinegar.
Otherwise, certain established weeds can be eradicated only by pulling them up, or by repeatedly removing their foliage. Deprived of food-making foliage, the weed's root or rhizome eventually withers and dies.
Bermuda grass is a horror. Smothering it with black plastic is the only organic remedy I'm aware of.
Does this kill grass too? My hubby was just reading this over my shoulder and wants to know what it will kill because our yard is full of weeds and we want the grass to come through.
Sunny – welcome. Vinegar is not selective; it will indeed kill lawn grass if it comes in contact with the blades. To avoid damaging your grass, you can paint the vinegar directly onto weeds with a brush. Otherwise, pour the vinegar into a spray bottle, and aim the nozzle directly at the weeds you wish to kill. Do this on a calm, not windy day.
I mostly rely on vinegar to kill the weeds where lawn isn't in the way: on pathways and in the cracks of my stone patio.
I've used boiling water successfully, but it is very labor intensive to bring all those full teakettles to the garden. One question, does the vinegar change the acidity of the soil? If so, for how long?
Thanks, Kevin. I've used vinegar with salt in it to kill weeds. Do you think the salt is necessary?
Thanks for the tip on the salt for the other weeds. I will give that a try. How much salt is needed?
As far as the Bermuda Grass, I have not even had luck killing it with black plastic. It kills what is on top, but I don't think it kills the roots; they just tunnel underground and come up outside the black plastic. Our yard is full of it. :/ It encroaches my garden every year. I have tried pulling and pulling and pulling, digging, boiling water, black plastic, vinegar, burning, etc. The only thing that works for any period of time is the dreaded roundup. Uggg…
Barb – The acetic acid in household white vinegar is not only weak, it is water soluble. Consequently if it changes the pH of soil at all, it is only momentary.
Anonymous — I personally have never added salt to vinegar when dealing with weeds. Others, however, claim that both salt and surfactant (a small amount of dishwashing liquid)increases vinegar's efficacy when dealing with tough weeds. I have no reason to doubt them.
That said, I would not use salt in any situation other than for spot-treating extra-tough weeds that grow in a pathway, or between the cracks of a stone patio. Unlike plain vinegar, salt lingers in the soil and can leach into areas where desirable plants live.
Terri – Salt is deadly. How much to use in a vinegar solution, I do not know. I'd first try plain ole vinegar without it.
Regarding Bermuda Grass — I've heard that it is easier to split an atom than to eradicate this invasive!
Unfortunately, I would have to agree with the atom thing! I was the anon who originally asked about the bermuda grass, Just hadn't signed in, so it listed me as such.
This is a great idea! I am trying it today!
Shelly – nice to “meet” you. Glad you found the vinegar tip useful.
Another great idea, Kevin. I'm gonna try it on my brick walkway. Lana
Lana – good for you!
Hi Kevin,
Thank you so much forhte vinegar tip!! I just spent $40 on concentrated round up to kill lots of overgrown weeds. I will use the vinegar instead and see what happens. Hopefully I'll be returning my round up this weekend!! Lisa
Lisa – you're welcome. With really overgrown weeds, you might need to make repeated applications with vinegar. But eventually the roots or rhizomes of the weeds will wither and die. (That is, unless you're dealing with something like Bermuda Grass, which even Roundup won't kill without repeated effort.)
In my experience, young weeds can usually be nipped with just one application of vinegar.
have you used vinegar in beds with your perennials and shrubs? I have some weed that is low growing and runs through the beds. I had been trying to weed but with a bad back it became too much. I did use Round up carefully so the good plants did not get hit. I imagine if I am careful I could do the vinegar this way too.
Anonymous — welcome. Yes, you can use vinegar in a perennial bed. Just take care, as you did when using Roundup, not to spray the plants you wish to keep. A piece of cardboard, held against a shrub or perennial, makes an effective shield against drifting vinegar. Also – be sure to spray on a calm, not windy day.
Thank you for sharing this. It's past time we start treating our future generations' health with enough respect to at least try more of these natural alternatives.
Anne – welcome. I couldn't agree with you more. Visit again, okay?
Thanks Kevin.
1 gallon vinegar, 1 cup salt, 1 Tbsp dish-soap. From what I read, the vinegar with kill the weeds, and the salt will prevent growth in the future. Best for cracks in the the driveway, etc…
John Charles Billiris – nice to meet you. Yes, anything involving salt is probably better used in walkways, etc., than in ornamental beds.
After the Carthaginian war, the Romans salted their fields, actually plowing salt into the earth. They didn't do that to get rid of the weeds and make the next year's harvest easier. They did it to eradicate the food supply for years to come. Avoid salt if you ever plan to plant that area again.
Michelle – excellent point, and with a historical reference, no less! Personally, I've never needed to add salt (or dish-washing liquid) when treating weeds with vinegar.
Hi Kevin
I can't wait to get to a store for more vinegar. I always use it for laundry, and to deter my cats after accidents…..if only if worked on English Ivy!!! It took out all my perenials…
I just love this column!
I'm legally blind and cannot read my books anymore, but I have a special program on my computer that I can read this.
Keep up the great work….love the recipes too.
Linda – Delighted to meet you. Thank you for the the kind words, and also for teaching me yet another use for vinegar!
Keep visiting, okay?
Well I tried it but no luck. will try again hopefully it will work.
[email protected]
kat – Which weeds did you spray? Some, like Bermuda Grass, are particularly difficult to kill.
It helps to spray on a sunny, dry day. Otherwise, if foliage is wet, the vinegar will be too dilute.
I have to tell you, I was dubious. Vinegar?? But I figured, what did I have to lose?
I'm eating my words. I wish I had taken pictures – seriously! Those weeds were g.o.n.e. and within a very short time!!
THANK YOU for sharing such practical advice. Please take it as a compliment that every time I smell vinegar I can't help but think of this great advice!
trillium – Thanks for letting me know that vinegar worked for you, too. One very pleasant aspect of vinegar is this: Even if you have to apply it regularly, the stuff doesn't damage your soil (unlike Roundup).
We have an Iris bed approx 3-ft wide across the entire back yard in front of our fence. Three years ago after Hurricane Gustav, some things appeared that we'd never seen before- including a fast-growing vine in our Iris plants. The stems break easily when we try to pull it up, so we have been unable to get rid of it, and it keeps getting thicker and has covered the Iris plants.
We have used vinegar to kill weeds in driveway cracks, but never in flowerbeds. I'm wondering if maybe vinegar would kill the vines but not the Iris plants. Ideas?
Stephanie – If you're dealing with the tangled mess I think you are — the nasty vine having snaked around and up your iris plants — there probably isn't any easy solution.
Here's what I'd do: First, lift the irises. They can be removed without harm either this month or early next. (You might like to divide the plants now, too.)
Next, trace the evil vine to its source: the roots. This won't be too odious a job with your cherished plants out of the way.
Then reset the iris, remembering to keep the rhizome tops exposed. Mulch can be applied to the bed now too, not over the rhizomes, of course, but around them.
can’t wait to try this-thanks for the suggestion
Neita – Nice to meet you. Good idea to stock up on vinegar, right?
I love vinegar as a weed killer! It works awesome! I also use a mixture of 2/3 white vinegar and 1/3 blue dawn as a shower cleaner – it removes soap scum better than any commercial cleaner I have ever used. Vinegar is awesome for so many things!
April – Yep, vinegar is an amazing substance. Thanks for the shower-cleaning tip. Lately I’ve been using white vinegar to clean my ancient wood floors. Not only does it clean well, but it removes pet odors, too!
Okay – so I know this will probably infuriate/sadden the gardeners out there, but here it goes. Our front and side banks are covered with unwanted plants and flowers – Yuka, irises, and day lilies. It was just too much work for us physically to maintain. We put out a call to friends, neighbors, and strangers to come dig up whatever they wanted. Since then, we have tried *everything* to kill the rest – they have been plowed under and repeatedly dosed with Round-up (a landscaper even claimed to use “commercial grade” Round-up on the stuff.) We then covered it all with black plastic and mulch. This has gone on for several years and we still have plants and weeds coming through the plastic and mulch. Will the vinegar finally kill all these plants? Should I add the salt and dishwashing detergent to make sure? We have a few things we would like to keep – Knock-out roses and azaleas (which have not been affected by the Roundup, fortunately). Any advice would be helpful.
Do you know if it will kill Dollar Weeds? We have a side yard that Dollarw Weeds have taken over and we’ve tried everything!
I just inherited some garden beds with lots of weeds, not plants (yet). How long do you think if I use vinegar on the weeds, before I can plant the plants without hurting the new plants? THANK YOU!!
Kristy – You certainly have some determined plants there! And if Round-up and black plastic didn’t kill them off, vinegar certainly won’t. You can, however, douse the foliage with vinegar every time it emerges through the soil. With no foliage to turn the sun’s rays into sugar, the bulbs/rhizomes/plants will eventually give up. Otherwise, pull up the unwanteds every time they send up foliage. There is no “easy” fix here.
Gina – Unfortunately I do not have experience with dollar weeds. But like many other tough unwanteds, if you spray with vinegar, and the weeds reappear, you’ll have to spray again and again. Some weeds have incredibly long roots, and are almost impossible to kill.
Maryann – Vinegar doesn’t linger in the soil. Once you’ve sprayed your weeds and their foliage has withered (and, of course, after you’ve removed the fried debris), you can plant.
Can I spray my entire garden area and greenhouse floor where my tomatoe plants are? will the vinegar kill all my garden veggies?
Tom – Nice to meet you. If vinegar lands on your garden veggies, it will certainly kill or at least harm them. So use caution.
Do you use it full strength or dilute it? And I take it will kill flowers and garden veggies as well as grass? Dale
ANyone have a sure cure for killing regular ole IVY? It’s an sea about 50 yrs olden my yard and it just keeps growing back in….it’s tough as iron.
If you are looking to get rid of the moles, or other of nature’s friends, spray a mix of egg whites and water. It will keep away the deer, moles, rabbits, mice……you name it.
Dale – Use full strength. You are right – vinegar is not selective. If sprayed on grass or garden veggies it will kill them.
Judy – No easy way to eliminate ivy. But if you continuously cut off growth as it appears, the roots will eventually starve.
Tiffany – Interesting tip. Thanks for sharing it here.
Maryann – Vinegar doesn’t linger in the soil. Once you’ve sprayed your weeds and their foliage has withered (and, of course, after you’ve removed the fried debris), you can plant.
Tom says:
February 22, 2012 at 5:41 pm
Can I spray my entire garden area and greenhouse floor where my tomatoe plants are? will the vinegar kill all my garden veggies?
Kevin Lee Jacobs says:
February 22, 2012 at 7:55 pm
Tom – Nice to meet you. If vinegar lands on your garden veggies, it will certainly kill or at least harm them. So use caution.
Hi Kevin,
You said (to Maryann), “Vinegar doesn’t linger in the soil. Once you’ve sprayed your weeds and their foliage has withered (and, of course, after you’ve removed the fried debris), you can plant.”
So…you don’t need to water deeply before re-planting? Does the vinegar really fully evaporate from the soil it’s seeped into? When spraying vinegar, is it important to soak those roots, or just the foliage?
I have a strip behind my garage which is filthy with weeds. I’d like to turn it back into a wildflower patch, but am afraid of sowing seeds where I’ve sprayed vinegar.
Thanks for all this, Kevin. My Southern California garden is surely different from yours, but I am sure to use much of your info. So glad to have found you!
Teresa
Even though it’s February, the weather has been so warm in Baltimore that weeds have already started. I’ll be headed out to my pathways this weekend with vinegar in a sprayer. Thanks for the tip. I just found your site through Pinterest.
I had no idea! Thank you so much for sharing this. This spring I will definitely be vinegar queen. =D
Too bad you didn’t make a salad first…there are some awesome edibles you just killed there… but good on you for going natural to kill them either way!!!
So what suggestions do you have for a lawn that is littered with weeds? In some places it’s so dense that I’m not sure if any grass is even in there. We recently bought our first home with a yard and it was not well kept. We live in the kind of neighborhood where a green lawn is expected (otherwise I’d start the xeriscaping!) need help just getting it to a nice lawn.
Hey Kevin, I really enjoyed reading everyones comments about using vineagr. Does it have to be the white vinegar and will it keep squirells away? Lol and a little humor is good for the soul.
I have a weed that seem unbeatable, it is a vineing weed that if left long enough puts out morning glory type flowers, what is this weed and will this vinegar tip work on it. It has taken over the yard last season and it’s quite difficult to dig out especially if it’s grown under the concrete slab driveway in my yard.
Not even as a last resort would I use Round-up, It gets into the groundwater and is an endocrine disrupter in human beings (which actually is making us fat as well as causing cancer and all kinds of other things). I have a raised bed that is filled with bermuda grass, and I think I’m just going to have to pull out the dirt 100% – though I will try vinegar and black plastic first, after I’ve aerated the soil where the bermuda grass is. so it will get into the soil itself. Thanks for the tip on vinegar though… does it work on black berries?
Round-up, or glyphosate is so indistinguishable from agent orange, I’m surprised they don’t call it that… After it’s made by the same company.
This is what Agent Orange does to people when mothers breathe it in and have children:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=309131495787378&set=a.216181858415676.60253.216174248416437&type=1&theater
Round-Up is not that much different.
Watch video at http://gardening.ktsa.com/pages/7809786.php?
1 gallon of 10-20% pickling vinegar + 2 oz. orange oil + a squirt of dish soap works like Round-Up. This will kill any leaf you get it on; works best on a hot sunny day; can wear rubber gloves. Don’t leave it in your sprayer for long because it will eat up the seal; wash sprayer thoroughly after use. Can put mixture on a sponge and wipe it on the plants you want to kill; will start working immediately, but will have to treat Bermuda grass again. Can plant new plants the next day after treating the weeds. Won’t hurt trees, even if you get it on the trunk, but don’t get it on the leaves.
A gardener in Dallas said: We have used 20% vinegar to kill weeds and Bermuda grass and it works well.
This is awesome!! I was looking for an organic way to kill the weeds in my pathway
I love your comment: “Regarding Bermuda Grass — I’ve heard that it is easier to split an atom than to eradicate this invasive!”–so true…
Regarding the mole, do you put the egg mixture in the hole or spray the top soil? We have a mole that is killing the plants and lawn in the both the front and back yard. I don’t want to plant any replacement plants until the little monster is gone.
Most vinegar contains only 5% acid, safe to use. However, if you spray 20% pickling vinegar, remember that it is a strong acid that can damage skin and eyes and potentially lungs. Wear goggles and keep your pets away. Use extreme caution if you are spraying this in an enclosed space like a greenhouse. If you replant the area later, any lingering acidity (it doesn’t evaporate) can be neutralized with dolomite lime.
Fantastic!!!! Cant wait to use it!!!!!!
Try using clear plastic to kill unwanted foliage. Believe it or not, it lets through more heat so it kills more weeds. I placed some on a side yard littered with all sorts of weeds. Left it there for several weeks in the late summer, and you could smell the plants decomposing. It has been over 8 months and it is still a dirt patch, without weeds growing back. Now I just need to figure out what to put down to cover all the dirt.
@Ken, what you are describing is bindweed and it’s related to morning glory but it’s not the same, and it’s as difficult to get rid of as is bermuda grass. There should be SOME information on google, so good luck with that.
Thanks for this great tip. Here in Florida, we’ve got to deal with weeds cropping up year-round and I hate putting Round-up on them. I’m going to give vinegar a try.
Can it be used in the vegetable garden on weeds? Will it affect the garden when I add my transplants??
Teresa – Here’s an even better option for an area that is really choked with weeds: cover the area with black plastic for about 3 weeks. The heat will kill off most if not all of your unwanteds. This method will prove even cheaper than using vinegar.
Kathryn – Welcome.
Lorie – Nice to meet you.
jaclyne – You are right — I should have made a salad first! One of the weeds growing in that strip was purslane. Fortunately this delicious edible grows elsewhere on the property, and I do cherish it.
Katie – I do not have an easy, all-natural cure for a lawn which is littered with weeds. My own lawn is mostly composed of weeds (including clover). The weeds receive a weekly mowing in summer, and of course they do not require fertilizer. Maybe you should go ahead and Xeriscape. Then, when your neighbors make a fuss, you can call the press. Trust me, you’ll have an enormous cheering-squad (including me) right behind you
Jan – white vinegar, 5-percent acidity, is all I have ever used on weeds. But I’m certainly intrigued by Deb’s formula (comment #69). Want to keep squirrels away? Plant lavender!
Ken – Nice to meet you. As Joy Williams says in comment #75, bindweed is tricky. You’ll have to spray it regularly with vinegar before its roots give up. Be prepared to work!
Joy Williams – Excellent points. I couldn’t agree with you more.
Deb – thanks for the formula.
Rebecca – Nice to meet you!
Danna – Here’s hoping commenter #57 responds to your query.
Edna – Thanks for the safety-tips concerning pickling-type vinegar.
Bonnie – I agree — use plastic to cover a big patch of weeds. Interesting that you’ve found clear plastic more efficient than black.
Julia – Nice to meet you!
Can you use this in your garden? Would it kill your plants? Thanks!
I’m callin’ thuh American Society for Prevention of Cruelty ta Weeds !!!! Ya’ll hear all from them in the mornin’ !!!!!
Will it kill poison ivy?
vinegar is a 5% solution of acetic acid. The end product of biodegraded alcohol.
What is the dilution of water to vinegar, Please!,
Hi,
Be sure tio use Heinz or apple cider vinegar as most cheap store brands are little more than acetic acid derived from petrochemicals. You may keep monsanto out but replacing it with BP can be avoided too.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acetic_acid
thanks for a great post!
Oso
Do you think this would work on the weeds on a baseball field? My husband commish a league for our kids’ school. We take care of 4 fields and nothing we try has worked. I was going to use salt water this year. ( the salt you would get from Tractor Supply Company) this sounds like it might work faster. That pic makes me want to try it!!!!
Kevin, nice to meet you too! Does this work on blackberries? I’m thinking the stalks are so woody that nothing would get through them (tenacious plants, they are!) Normally we just have to dig them up.
@Roger I would think that if vinegar kills most weeds it might work on Poison Ivy IF you get to it while the shoots are still young. Once they get a woody exterior it might be harder to do. Considering that most poison ivy and poison oak have woody exteriors, it’s might take repeated applications.
Sustainably yours,
Joy
@oso white vinegar, the type you eat, is derived from petrochemicals???? OO OO OO ok I’ll go look at t the link, I find it hard to believe.
@Oso, I didn’t read everything in full, but from my research on Wiki, you are confusing acetic acid with vinegar for food uses. having made vinegar before, I found what you said hard to believe. Vinegar for food uses, primarily white vinegar and red vinegar (and sherry, etc) is made from plants, while acetic acid for manufacturing uses is made from a variety of sources.
“Distilled vinegar
Any type of vinegar may be distilled to produce a colorless solution of about 5% to 8% acetic acid in water. This is variously known as distilled spirit or “virgin” vinegar,[16] or white vinegar, and is used for medicinal, laboratory, and cleaning purposes, as well as in cooking, baking, meat preservation, and pickling.[17] The most common starting material, because of its low cost, is malt vinegar.”
So let’s not start spreading the rumor that BP is making our white vinegar. I eat it all the time, there’s nothing petro about it! Wouldn’t you be able to taste or smell that? Look up vinegar before you look up acetic acid.
hmmmm, we will try this on our horrific Japanese Knotweed this year. We know we have to use *something* due to the intense invasiveness of the plant (we’ve been told that even Round-up is only partially effective), but due to pets and kids we didn’t know what. So we will try this, with old carpets, etc, and see how that works. Thanks a ton for the tip!
I had no idea! I am going to do this for sure. Don’t like using roundup with my dog around and who know’s how long it stays in the ground. Thanks!
@Paula I just looked up Japanese knotweed and the consensus is to EAT it. the shoots apparently cook up just like asparagus and it’s totally edible. “Some say Japanese knotweed tastes more like rhubarb, which is also in the Polygonaceae family. Either way, use Japanese knotweed as you would asparagus or rhubarb: chopped into bite sized pieces and thrown into stir fries, soups, or omelets; or mix with apples or berries and throw them into pies, cobblers, or jams. It has a stronger flavour than rhubarb, and is more tart, so you may need to use less knotweed and more of the other fruits in your recipes.
Young shoots can easily be harvested by snapping or cutting off at ground level when they are several inches tall. Plants will send multiple shoots up throughout the spring and early summer and is one of the earliest plants available to foragers. The best part is that unlike most other wild edibles, this is one plant that is impossible to kill by over harvesting!
Be careful about eating too much though…Japanese knotweed is high in emodin, a laxative (but for some, this is a benefit). Knotweed also contains oxalic acids which can be a concern to people prone to kidney stones and gout. If your doctor has warned against eating too much spinach or chard because of these conditions, then you should also limit your knotweed consumption. For the rest of us though, knotweed can safely be part of a healthy, diverse diet. In fact, Japanese knotweed contains resveratrol, a compound famously found in grape skins and wine which is being investigated for anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory properties. It is also high in vitamins A and C, and potassium. For recipes using Japanese knotweed, check out this site.”
Anyway, it’s something you might choose to do with this invasive weed, I’ve never seen it before, where does it grow?
Here’s a recipe:
http://pleasantvictory.blogspot.com/2011/05/knotweed.html
enjoy!
Will the vinegar work on bamboo and morning glory. We have bamboo from one neighbor, morning glory from another, blackberries from another and some other kind of ivy from another neighbor that borders our yard. The bamboo is the most offensive. Our yard is also full of horsetails and crabgrass. We’ve tried to do the best we can since we moved in, but we take one step forward and three steps back. We’re still trying to dig out the stump from some Pampas Grass and it’s been two years now! It even gives my husbands chain saw a hard time.
LOVE this idea…Will the vinegar damage the coloring in clay brick pavers?
Also did you use a mixture of vinegar and water or just vinegar?
Betty – I use vinegar on the brick walks of my rose garden. The walks are in full, blazing sun, and the vinegar did not damage or alter the color of the bricks.
And for those who have asked: I never dilute vinegar with water. And I use only common, white, household vinegar, which is 5-percent acidity.
Joy Williams – Thanks for your fascinating input here! As for blackberries…I doubt that vinegar would help. Probably better to cut the brambles to the ground, and then cut-cut-cut when they start to grow again. Eventually the roots will give up. But what a job!
Paula – I have Japanese knotweed, too. It’s a beautiful plant, but oh how it spreads. If you are not going to eat this invasive, dig up clumps the moment they appear in spring. And then dig, dig, dig as other other clumps emerge (as they surely will). With luck you’ll be able to manage the plant, if not eradicate it entirely.
Roger – I saw your poison ivy question under “Ask Kevin.” You’ll find my response there. I had to deal with this hateful vine, too.
when cleaning my pond pump,i through the vinegar left from soaking it onto the grass!!!the next day a lovely very large bare spot was in my yard!!!!now i know what a great veggie killer it is!!!lol
Has anyone tried or had any success with vinegar on privet? The stronger pickling vinegar, orange oil and dish soap solution mentioned by Deb in comment 69 sounds promising as an alternative to Round-Up. So far, my battle against privet has been a labor intensive fight of pulling/hacking it up by the roots and gutting out larger stumps to where any new growth can be mowed over where the terrain permits. Along fence lines this strategy can be a real challenge due to the volume and tree-like size of some shrubs. For many reasons, I have never used Round-Up but was going to try it this year along the fence line in a final attempt to control if not eradicate the privet. For success with Round-Up on privet, I have been told to wait for a hot, sunny day to trim back the leafy branches and trunks and then immediately paint a mixture of Round-Up and glycerin on the exposed stubs. I will look forward to trying this technique with the vinegar solution and hope for the best.
Ever leave the clothes in the washer too long and now they stink? Or the kids leave their wet towels in heap and they’re smelly. Try a 1/4 cup of vinegar in wash cycle and the smell is gone. No vinegar smell either.
I use boiling water 4 the same affect.
Haven’t had as good luck with the 5% as I have with the 10% vinegar. 10% vinegar is usually at garden places that lean more toward organic and chemical free gardening. Works wonders.
By reading this, it sounds like you can’t use it in the grass. But can you use this in mulch bedding around trees? Will it effect trees? I will surely us this in other areas though, thanks!!!
Love the idea of using vinegar in place of Roundup for weed killer, but be aware: that white vinegar is very likely made with corn, that’s very likely GMO. (http://www.attainable-sustainable.net/whats-in-your-vinegar/)
I work for Parks and Recreation in south Florida. We are big on using Round-up type chemicals for weed control. (its just the way the government does things) Though the chemical is only present in the soil for a limited time it is extremely costly and as with any chemical it is nice to be able to have a natural alternative. The vinegar is a wonderful idea and I will surely use this at home and see how it works. I am assuming it is similar to round-up in that it kills only greenery. I doubt it will work on anything with a hard wood stalk or vines for the most part. I have heard of many people having issues killing anything broadleafed as well and this may be due to the type of stem that the broadleaf weeds have. I use dawn soap all the time on many of our plants, of course its not to kill any of the plants rather then keeping the critters and fungus off of the plants. (Whitefly, aphids, etc.) I have yet to see dawn soap work at killing anything, but who knows?
My question is how long does the vinegar keep working? Round-up lasts only so long before new weeds emerge from the soil once again. Thanks to everyone for all the tips and hints. I will be sure to try out the vinegar solution and see what happens. =)
Ok, my second question has disappeared, so I’ll try again, we have had a quite mild winter here where I live, can I start the vinegar offensive against my bindweed infestation now, or do I need to wait for this weed from hades to start growing again.
Hi fellow upstater!
Just found your blog and shared it on FB & twitter.
Will def be following. Vinegar is just a wonder isn’t it!
Take that Round-up!
Steven Sheldon – Nice to meet you. Unlike chemical herbicides, vinegar isn’t long-lasting. And you are right — it kills top growth, not roots. With annual weeds the loss of top growth means the end of the plant. With perennial weeds, however, new growth will eventually sprout from roots. But if the new growth is regularly sprayed, the roots eventually starve to death.
Ken Hamilton – I’d wait until your bindweed starts growing again. And plan to spray it again when new growth emerges from roots. Eventually the roots will give up.
Dawn Kelly – Nice to meet you. Thanks for sharing the news!
I was wondering if this would work for coltsfoot. It is late winter now so I cannot experiment because it is not up, but this weed is trying to overtake my sheep pasture and the sheep do not like it.
So happy to hear I’m not the only one who thinks that Monsanto is evil – really evil. Anyway, my question is, if I’m using the vinegar, is it harmful to bushes or near flowers? I know you said that it wasn’t selective, but are bushes stronger than grass? Thanks in advance!
dawnaurora – I’m not familiar with coltsfoot. Hope you’ll try the vinegar-treatment on the weed when it gets going spring, and then report back on your success.
Amber C. – It is doubtful that vinegar will kill your shrubs. But if you are spraying very near your shrubs, try to shield them with a section of cardboard or newspaper. And try to spray on a calm, not windy day.
This did not work for me. I’ll try it again….
You must add a surfactant to Round Up for use on poison oak. I preferred the graze method of elimination. My sheep loved poison oak.
I use vinegar with salt added. MY landscaper told me to use one container of ordinary salt (about 2 cups) to each gallon of vinegar in a pump sprayer. I will try the vinegar alone to see if it is as effective. I live on a barrier island between the ocean and bay and it is really important to the health of the aquatic life to not use chemicals. I find the salt and vinegar has about a 2 week life then the weeds come back. If it’s rainy weather they will come back sooner.
What is a natural way to kill rock-a-chaw (aka sand spurs??) weeds in a yard? These things are soooo painful when you step on them and they spread if not killed, but when you use weed killer, it also kills the grass.
Connie – Nice to meet you. If it helps, vinegar is more effective when sprayed on a warm, sunny day, and when foliage is completely dry.
Glen – Welcome. Thank you for being such a good custodian of your environment.
Parsi2 – Earlier, someone else asked me about “sand spurs”, or Cenchrus. The weed sounds absolutely dreadful. From a Florida gardening forum I visited, the recommendation is to apply a pre-emergent herbicide (maybe corn-gluten?) in late winter/early spring. Then you must strive to improve the fertility of your soil. Apparently the weed thrives in poor, sandy earth. But it is easily choked out by healthy turf.
Can you spray the vinegar on weeds that are near other plants that you don’t want to die? Also, thank you for this information it’s fantastic. So much better than using round up which I hate. I agree with another comment I read. I would rather my garden smell like pickles.
How much do you dilute the viinegar or use it full strength?
So excited to try this but it didn’t work for me. Wilted the dandelions but did nothing to hen bit.
I have Pokes. I have yet to be able to get rid of them. Do you think the vinegar will do the trick on them?
I bought a gallon of Round-up concentrate but don’t want to use it if I don’t have to.
I appreciate it if someone can tell me it worked for them????
Has anyone used the vinegar on red clover with success?
I’ve got weeds in flower gardens (Phlox reside there and doing exceptionally well, as well as lilies). Can I spray everything? Will it kill just the weeds (as stated by someone on Pinterest) or will it also kill my flowers? Thanks for the great, all-natural tip
I have enjoyed reading all this info about vinegar. Now ya’ll do some talking about fire ants
Keyarn – If vinegar lands on your desired plants, it will damage them. So be careful.
Bonnie – I always use vinegar full strength.
Teresa Hanlin – With tenacious perennials like dandelions (which are edible!) you have to spray each time they send up more green growth. Then the long, long tap root will eventually give up.
Birdy – Unfortunately, I’m not familiar with pokes.
Dee – Should work on red clover. But as with dandelions, you’ll have to give repeat sprays until roots give up.
Susan – You definitely can’t spray everything! Shield your desired plants from the vinegar spray. (Big fan of phlox and lilies here.)
Sylvia – I’ve read that diatomaceous earth (a natural substance, available in bags at garden centers) does wonders to eradicate fire ants.
Judy and anyone with problem vines. We are successful in killing vines by using a WIRE BRUSH to scrape a small section of the stem and immediately spray or paint a little Roundup on the scraped part. I know you don’t like Roundup or similar but this method uses only a few drops per stem – this kills the roots, leaves and any rhizomes on the vine.
Hello all! I’m wondering if anyone has had success killing violets with vinegar? Those cute (but highly invasive) little buggars are killing me!
Hi I have wild garlic in some of my beds and i am going to try “painting ” on vinegar. Do you think it will work? You say a warm sunny day is the best time. I am wondering how warm ? it is early spring not to warm yet but weeds are greening up lol Thanks for your input!!!
Bethany – I had violets growing on the gravel paths in my herb garden — vinegar finished them off, but not without repeated spraying.
Teresa – Tons of garlic mustard here, too. I doubt that vinegar will kill it. Probably best to pull it up by hand. Mercifully it is shallow rooted. Try to get it out before it flowers and sets seeds!
I was wondering of vinegar will kill poison Ivy and grass around fences?
Kristine – Sorry to say that vinegar probably won’t have much effect on your poison ivy. To get rid of this hateful vine, it’s best to pull it out by the roots. You might find these directions helpful: http://www.marrick.com/poison_ivy_removal.html
As for grass — I don’t know which kind you have. Vinegar can kill some types of grass, but not all of them. You might make a test on a small patch and see what happens.
I happened upon this site last evening as I am preparing to de-weed a large garden that we dug up last year. I want to plant young daylilies that I hybridized. How long after using vinegar do you recommend planting? This is such a great alternative to typical thinking regarding weeds.
Lily – How great that you have created a new variety (or new varieties) of daylily! Would love to hear more about it or them.
Since you have a large area of weeds to deal with, I suggest this procedure: Cover the area with black plastic. The heat between soil and plastic will in 3 weeks’ time smother all of those weeds. This is a method which has never failed me.
How long will the weeds stay gone til they grow back? My hubby doesn’t want to spray too often as we have alot of places we spray with roundup right now, IE: at the bottom of all our chainlink fences. Thanks!!
Deanne – I spray my pathways once each month (plus I spot treat in between). Your mileage may vary. Keep in mind that vinegar, unlike Round-up, is not a highly-toxic, season-long poison.
How do I get rid of the weeds in my lawn? It’s seems like I have more weeds than grass.
Vinegar would wash away into the water table. Salt, as a solid, is left behind in deposits. Granted, it takes a lot of salt to harm the land. Besides, Roundup is cheaper, more effective, and no less damaging to the environment than Vinegar.
Vinegar is a fruit acid, and would do nothing to the water table, especially when filtered through earth.
I hate using Roundup, but it’s a must for some things, including poison ivy. I add a few drops of Dawn dishwashing liquid to a spray bottle of Roundup when I’m getting rid of poison ivy. The Dawn breaks through the waxy coating on the leaves, and helps deliver the chemical more effectively than without it. Poison ivy is dead soon after applying this mixture.
what’s the mixture of vinigar and water or doesn’t it really matter?
Thank you Kevin! I cannot wait to try this!
I HAVE to try this!! If only the sun would shine over here……..
Thanks for the tip!
Lise from Belgium
How often do you respray? wondering how long it would be if you sprayed it in garden area’s before you could replant?
Has anyone had any experience with trying to kill weeds in mulch with vinegar? Does it change the color of the mulch? (mine is a naturally dyed red mulch)
i use vinegar to deal with my weeds, but in a different way – i eat my weeds, and pickle them in apple cider vinegar. chickweed, dandelions, cleavers, mallows, so many weeds are delicious and nutitious.
glad you are promoting alternatives to monsatan’s poisons
I think you neglected to say it has to be a VERY warm day for the vinegar to work.Doing it now with the temps in the 50′s won’t budge the weeds.
I was going to use Roundup today on a new area we are clearing out but ran out of day light. I always have white vinegar in the house, i use it for many other things, and i will have my husband try it out tomorrow during the afternoon when we are expecting temps in the 60′s again here in CT.
I’m SO excited to try this! I LOVE vinegar for it’s MANY uses!! I dug out and weeded a patch next to our side walk and then put pea gravel through out to keep the weeds down but I didn’t put black plastic down
So it didn’t stop the weeds as much as I had hoped but plan on spraying w/ vinegar now!! THANK YOU SO MUCH for this wonderful, eco-friendly tip!!!
Shirley
Have you tried using apple cider vinegar instead of using white vinegar which is made with corn and probably not gmo-free corn? I am in the process of switching over all white vinegar home cleaning recipes to acv to avoid supporting Monsanto.
Thank you for a wonderful idea! I hate round up and never trusted the product but I didn’t know what else to use. I owe you a debt and so does our environment. Best wishes.
Two questions:
1) Would it kill patches of crabgrass? I am thinking the answer to that is yes.
2) We have a decorative grass in our landscaping (maiden grass) that we cannot dig up and it seems impossible to kill. Do you think it would kill that? I’m certainly going to try. Vinegar is so cheap compared to the grass/weed killers.
There are so many comments here I don’t have the time to read them all. So, in case no one has said it, wet newspapers (no colored ink) covered in mulch are supposed to make a barrier that plants cannot grow through. I need to get rid of bermuda grass so I am really hoping it works!
Do you spray it on leaves or at the base of the plant, can you spray next to plants you want to keep? How long before planting something where you spray?
Jay – You are absolutely right about the newspaper. I use very thick layers of newspapers when I have a big patch of weeds to kill. Not sure if vinegar will work on Bermuda grass – it is tenacious.
Shawna – I spray only the foliage of the plants I want to kill. I don’t spray the soil — there’s no need to. I have never planted where I’ve sprayed vinegar (I spray it on the weeds which emerge in my gravel, brick and blue-stone paths). But remember that vinegar is not a pre-emergent (like “Preen”), nor is it a toxic poison (like “Round-up”). So you should be okay to plant after 48 hours, especially if you water deeply before planting. Hope this helps.
As others have pointed out, vinegar doesn’t always work on old, establish weeds. These, unfortunately, you may have to pull by hand.
thanks for this….any direction on how much vinegar to use and what type of vinegar? Also what about clearing an area of weeds where you are going to be adding top soil for a vegetable garden.
Deana – I use undiluted white distilled vinegar (regularly household-type). If you have lots of weeds to deal with, don’t bother trying to kill them with vinegar. Just cover the area with THICK layers of newspaper. Over the newspaper, pour your top soil. This method has worked for me countless times.
Would this work on Poison Ivy or Poison Sumac we seem to have an abundance of the stuff the last few years & I hate spaying round up around the house!
Hi there, off course vinegar is much friendlier environmentally than roundup, but it should be mentioned that it is a misconception that white vinegar is eco friendly, because it’s not always the case. It can be a byproduct of the petroleum industry.
Read more here http://tinychoices.com/2008/05/07/is-vinegar-made-from-petroleum/
and here
http://www.theecomum.com/1/post/2011/11/eco-myth-busting-myth-3-white-vinegar-is-the-greener-cleaner-nope.html
For someone like myself, I am trying to garden as organically as possible, and so I would wonder what impact ‘bad’ vinegar might have on that.
With regards to killing invasive grass, I have done that successfully. What is needed to be done is
1) Island the grass – meaning there needs to be borders around all of it, so it can’t creep in from next door.
2) Lay thick sheets of cardboard ontop, ensuring they are over lapping.
3) Lay a thick layer of mulch. I put about 3 foot of heavy coarse mulch on mine.
I had a few grasses pop through here and there, where I had not layered the cardboard on top of each other properly to not create a gap between cardboard. I fixed this by digging down and making sure the exposed area was covered. Gave it 6 months or so, and all the grass was killed and the area is now a beautiful garden bed.
Great tip! Are you using iodized or non-iodized salt?
How long do you have to wait to plant if you use vinegar on a garden before you plant?
Question, we have a low lying area on our property that stays wet and muddy, unless we have an extreme dry spell. There is a constant creek that runs through there. It is grass and weeds, and I don’t mind if the grass dies. We usually end up weedeating the area, but it is so thick and takes so much time. If the water runs through the property and into someone elses field, is is safe to use the vinegar? Does vinegar hurt animals in any way? Thanks, love reading all the comments.
Kevin, I saw that someone asked about morning glory and vinegar, but did not see an answer. Those little buggers drive me crazy!
If I sprayed this on a brick patio which surronds an old oak tree, will it hurt the tree? My brother in law would die if something happened to the tree.
Thank you so much for this. I never heard of using vinegar for killing weeds. It takes ages to pull up those pesky weeds only for them to return a few weeks later. I’ll have to tell my hubby this one! I never did like Roundup as I prefer a more natural way of controlling/killing weeds.
Does vinegar work against thistle? Over the last two days, I’ve been reading through all the comments, and I haven’t seen anyone address this. I’ve got a batch of regular, not Scotch, thistle that was allowed to grow uninhibited over the past year & it’s moved from the garden into the yard. Since no one in my family wears shoes outside, I’d like to get this taken care of. I’ve been spraying the infestation daily for the last four days, but only the four Scotch thistles have actually given in. I do see some leaf discoloration. I read elsewhere that I just have to dig it up, but I know from past experience that this just leads to more thistle as the root system recovers. Any suggestions?
I have big thick stickery weeds in my back yard where my goats are. I haven’t sprayed them with roundup in case the goats eat them. I would think that it would be safe if goats ate vinegar soaked weeds, right? Also, I have huge 3 foot weeds with thick red stalks in my horse pasture. Do you think vinegar would work on these.
Thanks for the great tip!! I have one question though, can we use it to spray around our koi pond?? It would be wonderful to spray the gravel around it, but I’m wondering if vinegar will be harmful to the fish…
Can I ask what the vinegar would do the St Aug grass?
will it work on those pesky yellow flowers?
Any suggestions on how to KILL Yucca plants??? My horse pasture was an old home site (early 1900′s). We have dug them up, covered them up, used chemicals that you have to have a pesticide permit for, tried Voodoo methods, cried a river of tears, cut of all the shoots, poured salt and vinegar directly into the drilled roots and they still manage to multiple and spread. Last year I even put plastic bags over the blooms so that the seeds would not spread!! I am at my wits end……………HELP!!
ALSO the herbcide the “state” “county” & ”
city” Use is worse of all!!! Its 57 % “Arstnic.. Its a heavy metal, does not go away, it goes in ground water,lakes streams, fish, THE BRAND IS “SAMAC< OR CLOSE TO IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. I worked for city and used it to burn back around the water treatment plant. the mist over time soaked threw my skin, lost most of my hair. Had to take 3 different kinds of drugs for 21 days. SO ITS BAD CRAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am wondering if anyone’s tested their soil’s PH level after repeated uses of this vinegar to make sure it doen’t affect it too much
You said….” The acetic acid in household white vinegar is not only weak, it is water soluble. Consequently if it changes the pH of soil at all, it is only momentary.” ………………..I would like to know about salt……how long before planting & do you need to add for PH after? also I heard salt or Epson’s salt helps add magnesium to our soils that are so depleted of this mineral now, what do you know about this? Mahalo fro any help you can give on these matters!!
My district Ag office says this……But be careful, Vinegar will change soil PH, soil structure and is not intended to be put into the environment. Just because it is not labeled as a ‘herbicide’ does not mean it is any less harmful. At lease herbicides are regulated and cannot be used as freely as ‘home remedies!’…just my two cents!
Does this work on moss? We have large patches of moss in our backyard that we want to get rid of so we can start to plant grass. Sorry if this is a repeat question!
I am wondering the effect of the vingar on wildlife— I assume none to little effect but I don’t know. I have grasses and weeds that grow from the bird feed I put out. I would like to kill the weeds with out hurting all the animal that eat off the ground. Thank You
Tried this with the salt and Dawn yesterday. Patio weeds are dead in less than 24 hours!! Thank you!!!
PLEASE don’t take Roundup to the dump, UNLESS your dump includes a toxic waste collection point for household and lawn&garden chemicals . If your dump doesn’t have one, contact your city or county offices to see if they do a periodic collection somewhere in your area.
Hey Kevin. What is the residual effect of vinigar. I do some applications for clients in rock beds and gravel parking areas. Round up will usually last about a month and some soil sterilants will work for a season or more. If I were to use vinegar I would not want to make to many repeated applications. Ross
How long does it last?
wish I would have seen this before going out with my round up this morning. I have this for future use though. Thanks.
OMG PLEASE DO NOT CONTAMINATE YOUR GROUND WITH ROUNDUP. IT WILL GO TO YOUR NEIGHBORS AND ANY OTHER GARDENS AROUND YOU. IS THAT FAIR TO OTHER PEOPLE ON EARTH?? TAKE YOUR ROUNDUP BACK TO THE STORE. YOU MIGHT AS WELL USE IT TO MAKE A SAUCE FOR YOUR STIRFRY. MOST PEOPLE ARE NOT PLANTING NON-GMO SEEDS ANYWAY AND WHY WOULD ANYONE ADD MORE CANCER CAUSING AGENTS TO THEIR FOOD. YOUR FOOD IS GENETICALLY ENGINEERED ANYWAY. USING ROUNDUP WILL ONLY SHORTEN YOUR LIFESPAN, REPROGRAM YOUR CHILDREN’S GENES. AND MONSANTO SEED WILL OVERTAKE EVERYTHING.FARMERS KEEP YOUR SEEDS,DON’T LET THE GOVERNMENT CONTROL WHAT WE FEED OUR FAMILIES. ROUNDUP IS ONE OF THEIR BEST SELLERS TO FARMERS NOW. WE HAVE TO STOP AND BECOME DILIGENT ABOUT PLANTING NON-GMO CROPS FOR THE SAFETY AND HEALTH OF THE WORLD.
I may be missing it but what is the mix/dilution ratio?
Bill J – I use straight, undiluted white vinegar (5% acidity) to kill the weeds which emerge in my gravel, brick, and blue-stone walkways. For me the stuff works like a charm.
Thanks for the great tip about vinegar! I use it with lemon juice and a bit of dish soap to clean with. For stubborn rust stains,etc. I add (read… shake some onto the area) baking soda! Between the lemon juice and vinegar most soap build-ups and rust stains and other water build-ups don’t usually have much of a chance. I keep it in a spray bottle. Also, my Mom swears by pure vinegar in a spray bottle and newspapers for cleaning her windows…I haven’t tried that yet, will do so in a couple weeks, after its stays warmer outside!
nearly boiling water works on weeds in the cracks of pavement/bricks.
Dish soap added to the vinegar helps it stick to the weed leaf.
I add a drop of dish soap to my weed-b-gone to kill clover in the lawn too.
I was so excited when I found this.. but it did not work for me.
I have a small patio in front of my house and it has weeds growing up through the gravel. I misted the weeds on Monday, no changes on Tuesday. I soaked them on Wednesday, no changes today either. I’m a little bummed but I absolutely love this idea. I use vinegar for everything. Thanks! 
So glad you do this! I love vinegar’s uses – I use it to clean the hard water build up around my taps, clean the tub etc. and now weeds. Monsanto is truly horrid and I can’t believe they get away with what they do, in the face of the toxic soup our world is seeing. Great post. A picture says a thousand words!!
This is great! I just bought a house and all the flower beds are full of grass. I was really dreading digging out all that grass. Do you think the vinigar alone will be enough to kill the grass and will I need to dig out the roots before I amend the soil? Also can I plant right away or will the vinigar in the dirt be harmful to the new plants?
So, you are using the regular white vinegar bought from the grocery store? The reason I ask is that I have read elsewhere that regular, food-grade white vinegar is not strong enough to kill weeds (being only about 5% acetic acid). These same articles recommend horticultural vinegar which is available in 10% and 20% acetic acid. It is still inexpensive like the 5% vinegar, but it is very caustic and gloves are recommended to avoid contact with skin. I keep the 5% vinegar around for cleaning and other uses, but if it will work on weeds like you suggest then I won’t worry with the horticultural vinegar…Thanks!
I like the idea of using vinegar as it seems as though it would be dog friendly. I am planning to till my lawn and start anew, because it is very uneven and the grass is in bad shape. How long does the vinegar effect the soil? Would that be a good option for killing the creeping charley in my yard before I till?
It works and it kills everything it touches!
Never buying RU again. $1.50 vs. $20+ is a no brainer.
Plus if the boys are running around creating havoc while i am spraying, I don’t need to worry about the over spray.
I don’t dilute or mix, and it’ so cheap that I can saturate without worry of waste. I know tell everyone about it, thanks Kevin!
Save your time and $2. I does not kill most weeds and especially grass. You’d have more success by urinating on them. Sorry but it won’t phase a mature dandelion or burmuda grass.
I don’t know if vinegar works on mature weeds, but it sure knocked out hundreds of young weeds in my gravel driveway. Great tip, Kevin!
Thanks for the tip, Kevin. I just stumbled across your site via Facebook. Would you also recommend this vinegar tip for an overgrown garden? We’ve not been paying attention to our garden for 2 years, and it is now packed full of stickers, dandelions, thistles, and creeping Jennys. I must admit, as against roundup as I am, I’m about ready to spray it down and start over from scratch.
Michaelia – I’m afraid that vinegar not will help in this case. If you want to start over from scratch, my advice is to first cut or mow down your overgrown weeds. Then cover the area with a black plastic tarp (you can use black garbage bags, if you wish). Do this while the weather is warm, and in 3 weeks time most everything beneath the plastic will be killed off.
Alternatively, you can cover the area with several thicknesses of damp newspaper. Over the newspaper, pour a thick layer of mulch. Then you can plant right away, by simply cutting holes through the newspaper.
Re poison ivy . . . see my comment #123.
Also, boiling water will kill moss between or on pavers – otherwise a high water jet takes them off paving bricks.
Wondering if you know how to get rid of Voles, awe have lots and they are tearing up the yard.
thanks
The vinegar didn’t work in killing anything. After I read your blog I bought 4 gallons of walmart vinegar and used it on flower bed and lawn, non of any of the green turned yellow or showed sign of wilting. I am disappointed because I would rather not to be exposed to round up since I’m 8 months pregnant. I still enjoy your blog though, looove your cheese making tutorial.
May I add to the vinegar for weed killer idea. We live next to a wooded area that has tons of poison ivy so my yard is constantly sprouting this cursed vine. When I find a little seedling, just wrap it with a piece of old newspaper and pull it out by the roots. BUT, if there’s more than 3 sets of permanent leaves I drench the thing with vinegar and then completely cover the wet leaves with salt – by bye poison ivy. If the plant you intend to give the vinegar treatment is next to a plant you want to save- try this 2-step method: surround the base of the target plant with a double layer of old newspaper then just cut off the bottom of a large paper grocery bag, slip it over your intended target and spray away. The bag and newspaper will stop and absorb any drips or wind-drift but your keeper plant is untouched.and if you use salt that too is controlled. Works wonderfully well for me here in the northern-most area of Zone 7.
Jingles – you rock! Thanks for the excellent tips.
Thanks! I will give this a try and I’ll let you know how it works.
Nothing but warm sunny days here in AZ. I’ve tried this a few times and it never kills anything. I swear by vinegar for many things, but so sad it doesn’t works for our weeds.
It didn’t work for me. I gave it 2 applications. I wish so much that it would work, but I’m back to Roundup sorry to say. Maybe its Colorado soil, specific weeds…needs more testing and more specifics.
A picture speaks a thousand words! Thank you for sharing. Not sure if you or anyone else mentioned this: I use to work for a fertilizer plant & learned the best time to kill off weeds is earlier on a dry sunny day right after they’ve been cut. This way, leaves & stems are open & thirsty, absorbing any liquid they come in contact with. Too late in the day, they shut down. But, instead of chemicals, I’m now using vinegar, too!
I think you’ve nailed it, karla k! My gravel, brick, and blue-stone walkways are always dry unless it rains. Although I do not cut the weeds back before spraying, they are definitely thirsty. And what a drink they receive from me — a nice dose of acid!
I sprayed a couple gallons of vinegar after I read your article. I used it a week ago. For the first few days it looked like it was working.. The leaves turned brown, but after a few days they grew all new green leaves. The weeds are thriving.
Martha – Keep in mind that vinegar is not a poison (like Round-up). It works by frying the foliage off weeds. Annual weeds can be quickly killed this way — their roots can not survive without foliage for food. The roots of perennial weeds, however, can live without foliage…for a time. Thus when new growth emerges from a perennial weed, hit it again with vinegar (you don’t need to use tons of the stuff). Eventually the roots of these weeds will starve to death.
Believe me, the fact that your weeds turned brown is a VERY good sign!
Tried this about two and a half weeks ago. The vinegar has still not killed the weeds. The Roundup is cheaper as well. Roundup concentrate (purple) runs about $60 to make 50+ gal of mix. The cheapest vinegar I have found cost almost $2.00 per gallon. The Roundup works, the vinegar doesn’t. Looks like it is back chemical warfare for me …..
why would anyone want to kill dandelions and clover????? do you know how healthy they are for you????? my kids eat them daily and never get sick. use the weeds dont kill them!!
Very informative… I have a treeline crawling with weeds and poison ivy that I’m excited to Vinegar!
What was the combo to get rid of moles? Egg whites and water? Amt ratio? Thanks
Really looking forward to trying vinegar on some tough weeds. We recently cleared a large area in our yard of weeds under some large crepe myrtles & I was afraid to use it there in case it harmed the shrubs. Thanks for the great tip!
Will this also clean the green (slippery when wet!!!) muck off of brick walkways, concrete, wood decks, patio furniture & house siding? Using a pressure washer can be taxing on the ears & body and using bleach has been the only additive I’ve known to help ease the process but I wonder how harmful bleach is to the environment. I would rather use a more friendly substance!
Any thoughts or ideas are welcome!
will the vinegar hurt my grass?
thanks
Will vinegar kill Johnson grass?
Has anyone tried vinegar on thistles? Just wondering if it would kill this weed.
Anybody have an answer?
We have used Vinegar to kill ants also. The way we do it is to take a long stick (board) poke into the ant mound (be quick) to make holes. Remove stick. Pour straight venegar over mound till it foams. Then move away and check feet and socks for any for the strays. The next day they are gone to the great ant mound in the sky.
Try and adding and stirring in a bit of hair gel with the vinegar – The solution will then hold of the plant better
On post #114 you asked about sand spurs, a nasty weed with barbed seeds that hurt when touched or stepped on. They grow in poor sandy soils in Florida and ca usually be killed by “sweetening” the soil with Arm and Hammer baking soda. Just sprinkle a little A&H around the area and watch them disappear. Some grasses may turn yellow for a while after treatment but recover fairly quickly. BTW… Baking Soda also works on crabgrass.
I have used both vinegar and boiling water effectively. You just need to be very focused with carrying boiling water. What I like about water is that it doesn’t change the PH of the soil.
This question may have been addressed but I don’t have the time to read every comment/question. I did read that the vinegar will kill grass. We have way too many weeds in our yard to walk around with a spray bottle squirting them. Since we quit using chemicals to kill the weeds our yard looks terrible. It is being taken over with clover & dandelions. What can we use to spray our entire yard that is safe?
This is freaking amazing. Hope it works for me!
Sounds really great, but does it work on couch?????
I’ve found that boiling water will kill each plant it touches. I even use it effectively on mushrooms (which I had tried everything on). So if your vinegar doesn’t work just put the tea kettle on when it’s piping hot pour it on the weeds you want to kill. Keep it off plants you want and watch your feet, it’s hot water for Heaven’s sake.
Another quick tip for dandelions just pop the yellow tops off before the flowers mature. The weeds won’t spread, won’t get enough energy to grow and eventually the whole plant dies off. I’ve used this method in my yard for a couple of years.
Can i plant vegies once i have sprayed with vinigar
KEVIN,
I WAS THINKING THAT IF 5% ACID VINEGAR DOES SUCH A GOOD JOB KILLING THE SIMPLE WEEDS, THEN THE TOUGH ONES WOULD PROBABLY DIE WITH A HIGHER ACID CONTENT VINEGAR, OR ANYTHING MORE ACIDIC BUT STILL SAFE, LIKE KANGEN 5.0 ACID pH WATER.
ALSO, I HAVE HAD EXPERIENCE WITH ROUNDUP IN THE PAST WHERE, ONCE SPRAYED, I WATCHED THE WEEDS DIE FOR A WHILE, BUT THEN CAME BACK WITH A VENGEANCE! IN FACT, IT SEEMED TO ME THAT THE ROOTS WERE STRONGER AND DEEPER, LIKE ROUNDUP ACTUALLY BECAME FOOD TO THESE MUTANT WEEDS! I LEFT THE JUNK IN THE SHED FOR THE NEW TENANTS (;-D,) SO I DIDN’T FEEL TOO GUILTY ABOUT THAT!
JUST ANOTHER SUGGESTION: OUR CITY HAS TWICE-ANNUAL HAZARDOUS MATERIALS WASTE COLLECTION DAYS, WHICH ANYONE WHO NEEDS TO GET RID OF THE STUFF THEY HAVE COULD CHECK WITH THEIR CITY TO SEE IF THAT SERVICE IS ALSO AVAILABLE FOR THEM.
[NOT 'YELLING,' BY THE WAY - JUST VISUALLY CHALLENGED!] THANKS FOR THIS NEAT BLOG! GOD BLESS YOU AND MORE POWER TO YA’!
I am so glad to read this. My husband uses weed killer all the time and ends up killing other things too. I’m certain that he has killed 2 trees and a couple of shrubs and some cactus plants that I cherished, but he says he did not. I will certainly tell him about this. As a matter of fact, I will send this page to him to read!!
Wow, I never heard of this. BUT, I use diluted vinegar asnd spray it on my 95 hostas and I never have slugs eat those plants. Wondering why it kills weeds but does something good for hostas?????
Has anyone tried vinegar on nutgrass? I am really struggling to kill that sucker off for good!
I love the fact that this is organic unlike Roundup. Thanks for the tip of washing out the sprayer too. I once used muratic acid in a sprayer and forgot to rinse it and it ate it up.
i have an issue with ivy that was planted years ago that i cannot get rid of (townhome community so it spreads quickly into our small lots).
think your vinegar trick will work on it?
I’m wondering if there is anything natural that will get rid of Poison Oak??
help, ideas???
Thank you for the post on the vinegar. I will have to try it.
Now when weeds growing in Monsanto planted fields become immune to the round-up, we can always use vinegar to kill them
Going to try this tomorrow! Thanks for the suggestion!
Thank you! Do you have a way to get rid of scrub oak? We life in High Desert in AZ and are trying to keep the scrub oak away from the house because it can be a fire hazard.
ABOUT KILLING ANTS…diatomaceous earth is AWESOME for killing FLEAS and just about any insect you don’t want…BUT it DOES NOT KILL ANTS~We put it on an ant hill several times to see if it would….next morning the ants had actually carried the diatomaceous earth OUT of the hill..and made a little hill with it outside their very aggravating home! It WAS a bit funny to see that they did this, however, we STILL have ants! BUT, this product is GREAT and I mean GREAT for other insects! I get the “FOOD GRADE” and can rub it right on my dog and cat! The stuff is GRAND…but PLZ can someone find a way to get rid of those pesky ants?!?!!
Can you tell me if vinegar will work on sticker weeds? My parents have built a home on 5-7 acres of land in rural Oklahoma City, in Cleveland County. Their home is situated on a hill and the front lawn is covered in weeds which produce stickers. My brother is mowing it down with his tractor mower, but a better rememdy is needed. My parents want to put in a vegetable garden and would prefer to kill the weeds before planting any seeds or plants in the garden bed.
Also, I had given my parents a tree seedling that was developed and grown from the Survivor Tree at the Murrah Building bombing site/museum in downtown Oklahoma City. I had received it when I worked downtown prior to my retirement. The seedling tree was planted in the middle of the yard, and the trunk is now about 2-3 inches diameter and around 4 feet tall or so. If any vinegar overspray was to get on it, would it harm the tree or kill it? I would hate for that to happen, as they have been growing it since around 2005-2006. When I received it, it was almost as big around as a pencil and was around 18 inches long.
Hope to hear from you soon.
Do you think that it would be ok to spray around a fish pond without hurting the fish if it got in the water?
i am extremely aware of what chemicals do. growing up in the shadow of monstanto and its smoke stacks, i know the damage it took in our section of the city here in new england. i have witnessed and told of so many cancers, deaths and children born with defects, stillbirths and miscariage or grew to puberity and developed various problems.
enough with the chemicals. treating laws with chemicals for that perfect look – whats wrong with dandelions and clover, just mow it —- its green. if you have to kill weeds, use only vinegar – its safe.
I have reproduced this post in its entirety for our gardening group (who are somewhat technically challenged). I hope you are ok with that.
I am also recommending it as an alternative to people who use the dreaded Roundup. Brilliant !
To kill ants–which I haven’t tried yet—I’ve seen a post to use 3 parts sugar, 2 parts borax and a little water..heat in a pot over medium to make a paste..pour into a beer or soda can and place near ant hills. Cover if other animals might get into it! The ants will eat it and die from dehydration. I’ve tried other things like vinegar and poured into the holes—they just move on. It doesn’t kill them all. Hate ants!
@ Kevin Lee J…. ? you said you use vinegar on your old wood floors—how much and are your floors sealed? We have old floors, most of the sealer is gone in spots and I can never get them clean..thanks!
Regarding bermuda grass (devil grass), I remember years ago my dad planted St Augustin and it over came the devil grass. That being said be sure to get the hybrid, as regular St Augustin can be just as invasive as devil grass. The hybrid seems to have better manners and can be blocked with a edging as it does not send out the deep runners. Some people do not like the St Augustin as it is wide bladed and not as soft as thinner bladed grasses. It is a warm weather/area grass, we lived in So. Ca at the time.
I am a professional gardener (55 accounts), and the only chemical I use is Round Up. Without it, I wouldn’t have a roof over my head. If it is not biodegradable, why do I kill grass to form a new huge bed, plant the plants right in the dead grass, mulch over it, and I can still keep planting and they all alive?
I love the idea of using vinegar instead of Round Up. I wonder if it will work on wild blackberry bushes. these things are taking over our property. Round Up does kill them but it takes a lot. I’m going to try using salt and Dawn in the vinegar to see it it will work. Fingers crossed…
Thank you ! Thank you! and also to my friend on FB who posted a link to your article. I live where tide pools are nearby even in my yard so ANYTHING that goes into the ground water will affect them eventually. We try to be so careful of what we spray for just this reason, and have kept the round-up use to a minimum and only when it looks like we wont have rain for a few days (We live on the east side of the Big Island so trade showers are common ever day for 20-30 mins.)
Also thanks for the answer to the acidity questions, too, The tide pools are such a valuable resource that I hate to disturb them! Out goes the Round-up and its vinegar, baby! Thank you again!
Some great information that I’m definately going to try!!! Thanks. A question: Can I use the vinegar to kill sod that I want to turn into a veggie garden in a couple of months? Will it stay in the soil such that it might hurt the vegetable plants I put in later?
Kevin, lots of info! So I’d love to use the Vinegar. I think I am getting a bit confused ?
I just moved to a place that the weeds are choaking the grass…
will the Vinegar kill the grass too???????
Thank you soooo much for all this valuable info !!! I have been putting up with invasive weeds and grasses for years rather than use poisons. I hate Monasanto or Monsatan as someone said, and all it’s evil disgusting products. It’s anti humanity ! I can’t understand how stupid is corporate greed that it wants to eliminate life from their own planet ! Rise up to all who understand that natural alternatives exist. Well done Kevin for your site ! Keep it up pleeease !
Just wondering, I had heard that if you use vinegar, nothing else will grow where it has been used. Is this true? I would love to use vinegar in my garden but want to plant perennials and annuals. I was also wondering if this works well with thistles.
Hi just curious if you have any tips for week control in a veggie garden? Trying our first garden this year and want to be as natural as possible…. Thanks!
The smell of vinegar reminds me of Easter when I was a kid. So it’s not just cheap, effective, and environmentally friendly, it’s a little trip down memory lane. I’m guessing it’s also not harmful to squirrels and birds.
I’ve used vinegar for years – sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, and sometimes I need to use repeated applications. If it doesn’t work, it’s usually because I let the weeds get too big! Another great natural remedy I use is clove oil, which I buy at my local garden center. (I don’t remember the brand, but I’ve only found one that is available.) It’s not cheap, but somewhat more effective than vinegar. And the smell is kinda nice for a few days.
Will the vinegar work on kudzu? I sure hope so (roundup doesn’t). Love the idea of vinegar since I have small dogs that go outside. Thanks for the tips
Hi Kevin, what do you suggest for creeping charlie?
Was excited to try this so I went and bought vinegar, but it s brown. Do you have to use white vinegar? What is the difference between the two? Can’t wait to try this!!
Thanks for this tip…I so very much plan to try this. now, all I need is something…anything that works to kill TONS of fire ant mounds! Just found your site after a friend posted this article on her fb , so u may already have a fire ant treatment, so I shall search your site soon…I have tried boiling water, a cup of gas, then boiling water(doing over 30++ hills with boiling water is difficult, not to mention, it really did not work) have also tried grits, yah, right, nothing; all it did was attract my neighbors chickens, they ate the grits & a few ants, mound grew right back up & then some by next day. Anyway, thanks for vinegar tip.
the large number of entries on this tip prevents me from reading each one.i will say it’s a sure no no to salt your soil.thats the stuff every farmer whose worth his ground want’s to get rid of.salt ruins soil.i’m curious if you’r claiming vinegar is systemic? of course any more natural method of controlling weeds and pests is welcome.i don’t quite know what bermuda grass is.tho i know what bermuda shorts are.all i can say that if an option is not systemic you can forget about controlling grasses.that family includes wheat and grains of course.i’ve always used dogonal to controll any grass from elephant grass to bamboo and everything in between.determine wide leaf weeds submit to ronstar.i’ll try some vinegar but i doubt any majick here.
WOW! That is stupendous! I’ve used Roundup and did not get such good results! Why are we using something as toxic, and harmful to US as Roundup when plain distilled white vinegar works so much better?
Canadian Thistle is just too hardy to get rid of…UNTIL…I came across this recipe and use it on them…sunny day is best, and repeat if necessary a day later. It took a couple of years of consistent spraying, but now they are gone!!! They had spread throughout my landscaping and lawn. Get them before they get too big.
Mix well . . . 1 gallon vinegar, 1 cup salt, 1 Tbsp dish-soap. Make sure salt is dissolved and shake before each use. I use a large spray bottle and turn the spray to a thicker stream, aim at the inside middle part of the plant closest to the ground. You will notice the leaves dry up pretty quickly…a day or even earlier.
Hi Kevin
What a great article. I was pointed to this by someone else and even though I have been working on weed information sharing for years now, I had never heard of vinegar – why?- well, I did a quick check of my academic literatrue database and found only 5 entries on vinegar in weed control. A check of the same database for synthetic herbicides gave me more than a hundred thousand entries. We need more research on alternatives and the comments coming in on your article are a great resource.
Best
Dr David Low
The Weed’s Network
Monash University
Australia
Good to know about the Canadian thistles, j. debra! They are the bane of my yard, and no weed killer I have found so far even reduced their numbers.
An EASY tip for controlling drift when spot spraying vinegar (or anything else) plus it re-uses!… Take a clean plastic half gallon milk jug and cut off the bottom. Then just take it with you when you walk around spraying weeds. When you find one, pop the milk jug over the weed, put your spray nozzle in the top, and spray away. No drift, no overspray. Your wanted plants stay safe and you can really soak those weeds. Plus it’s super quick and easy!
I don’t like Roundup or chemicals either, but sometimes I just have to use them, especially around my flower garden. I have found if I put on chemical resistant gloves, pour a little Roundup in a disposable glass and use a foam paint brush (disposable) then I can just paint the stuff on the plant I want to eradicate. Has worked wonders for me and I’ve never killed something that I really wanted to keep.
but I am going to try the vinegar on a nice crop of bindweed that I am unwillingly growing.
Thank ! Kevin That surprise me ? I will try it and let few neighborhood know about it and hoping make weed go aways from thye fences . hardest wored with weed eater keep coming back over ,over and over again I add brick and fews concrete under neath to keep weed out of it east to use push mower on side of it . thank .Ronnie
Our vinegar success proved to be limited. Vinegar will not get to the roots. Bleach, however, will kill the plant above and below the ground.
To Pepi in comment 11 {I didn’t read all the way through, so someone may have already answered you..} in regards to moles, I used to care for a kindly older gentleman who told me to take a stick of juicy fruit gum {unwrapped, un-chewed} & drop it in the mole’s hole. The mole will eat the gum & will not be able to digest it & will eventually die from blockage. I personally could never hurt any kind of animal, so I use Hav-A-Heart traps & lure them with something else, then take them to the woods & set them free. I forget what I used for a lure, but a simple online search will tell you that. Either way, good luck! And be kind to all God’s creatures!
Do you have to worry about the acidity affecting the soil, or does it degrade quickly? Great tip! I’m going to try this.
Just don’t use it as a lawn weed killer
I threw something with vinegar on the lawn after bbq’ing and left a big dead patch. My choice for environmentally friendly lawn weed killing is a torch. They are easy to find at better gardening stores. Just zap them with the torch on a day when the ground is nice and moist (for obvious reasons).
for the tougher weeds use 1 gal of apple cider vinegar, 1/2 cup salt and 1 tsp of Dawn dish soap. I use this in the cracks of the driveway, much cheaper than roundup!
I live in Texas and we have St. augustine grass. The grass runs in vines as opposed to individual sprouts. I was wondering if I used the vinegar as a spray along my fence line if it would kill my grass further out? I was also woundering if I sprayed around the base of my trees, if the vinegar would hurt my trees at all? I have BIG pine, oak, and magnolia trees I would like to spray around.
Can’t wait to give this a try around my walking paths this year! Thanks for all the useful information. Glad I found you on Facebook.
Thanks for the great tip. Goodness knows, my yard has weeds.
Hey will vinegar work on poison ivy plants?
please dont take roundup to the dump, unless your town is equipped to handle toxic chemicals there. it will leech into ground water if its just put in the landfill, and it needs to be disposed of separately. keep it in the barn/basement/shed until there is a toxic chemical day, or call the sanitation department and ask them for the particulars in your area.
Saw this on Facebook and followed here. A few things:
Dawn dishsoap is strong because its made from petrochemicals! Meaning its not very ecofriendly. A better alternative however for killing off yellowjackets/hornets (dissolves their exoskeletons) in their underground nests (poured in the hole) then gasoline, which can contaminate a huge area!
Red wine vinegar is said to work for blackberries, which are an invasive weed from hell in the Pacific Northwest (we got plenty of berries…but its the kudzu of the NW).
Monsatan, er, Monsanto… lol
Kevin, great advice, I also use vinegar, and to remove bermuda grass, it must first be stripped by a weed eater so that part of the systemic veins are open, then spray, works also with Bermuda grass and other woody weeds, just weedeat them to the cores and then spray, and when using on lawns, if you turn down the presure so it doesn’t over spray, you can control the kill factor, vinegar is also great for ant hills and water roaches,,,keepn greenin,,,
Sometimes thicker leaved weeds needs bruising to help vinegar work better.. whack them with a cane a few times then spray on the vinegar! The broken leaves should absorb the vinegar to good effect!
Will this kill the “good” mosses and lichens? I always pull the weeds out of our brick patio to preserve the mosses growing between the bricks.
PERFECT TIMING…. you just saved me a bundle. I was about to go out and buy the horrible juice… NOW IT WILL BE VINEGAR!!! Hooray!
Has anyone ever tried vinegar on Garlic Mustard?
Thanks Kevin! I am anxious to try this. One quick question… We have a section of rock that we’d like to try this on. We do have three trees in this area. Is it going to harm them?
Do you happen to know of a way to get rid of bindweed that has taken over our yard? The little white flowers look nice BUT that weed is ruining everything we have and taking it all over..Any bit of info would help
I love this idea! But please be aware that cheap vinegar is probably made from genetically engineered corn, which is a product of the same company that gives us Roundup (Monsanto). Try to find vinegar that doesn’t come from GMOs! Apple cider vinegar, red wine vinegar, organic, GMO-free, or homemade would be options.
Will the salt cause damage to concrete?
Just to let you know. I use this and it works. A lot cheaper than roundup
I’m so excited to try this! I’ve been weedwacking, pulling, cutting and doing anything to avoid chemicals in and around my horse pasture and pond for years. I’ve got a beautiful stone wall that is covered in poison ivy and weeds by late spring every year but have always hated the idea of harsh chemicals because it’s so close to the horse pond! Even my walkways are a mess because I don’t want to hurt my cats and dogs ; ) Depending on how ambitious I am, I’d even like to spray below my electric horse fence because anything that grows up and touches it shorts out the electricity rendering it useless and a fire hazard. Can you tell I’m excited? Now to find a way to invest in a vinegar company so that I can get some of my money back.
Aloha:
Don’t want to use roundup.
tried vinegar in my driveway that I have been using a weed burner on
vinegar did not work hot dry day. What did I do worng?
Does vinegar really work??
Try again.
Weeds need a home too. They may be invasive but they would not have survived this long if they did not fulfill some niche. Keep a small patch of weeds in your yard for genetic variety.
Will this work on what we call bamboo? I suppose it would kill everything, not just what you don’t want, right/ Not sure of the actual plant, but the bamboo weed grows like crazy. We try to rip it out at the roots which is really hard, it’s in among all the other plants. If you trim it, even low to the ground, it grows out and up FAST.
I guess it’s called Japanese Knotweed.
Can I use vinegar in a small commercial vineyard? We make sure the vine trunks have no suckers (or any green) when we spray Roundup under the vines?,,, Would a little bit of residual spray on the trunks harm the grapes? or affect the wine? I would love to use this as an alternative. Thanks.
So I just sprayed a gallon of vinegar on all kinds of weeds. Hope it works! Thanks for the tip!
I sprayed vinegar about a week ago but we got alot of rain so I will spray again when weather permits
I have a large area I want to convert into a garden,it is covered in pasture grass. Do you think that spraying it heavely with vinagar would work and about how long should I wait to sheet mulch and get the beds ready?
I just stumbled across your website and can’t wait to spray my weeds with vinegar this weekend!!! Also, have to mention that I am enjoying reading all the comments… this is one of my favorites… mostly because it is so true:
Regarding Bermuda Grass — I’ve heard that it is easier to split an atom than to eradicate this invasive!
I was just talking about vinegar and its efffectivity with a friend yesterday. All Glyphosate products ARE RESIDUAL * in spite of what Monsanto and the other companies claim, causing infertility in grazing animals and poultry. Howewver, I do doubt the photographs were taken within 24 hours. If you look at the first photo the lettuce and Rosemary and other vegies are fairly young, uin the second they are rather bushy and the lettice twice the size. Can you explain that?
Household vinegar may kill the top growth of some weeds but for those with deep root systems they will be back. There is horticultural vinegar which is 20% acidity and is designed to kill weeds. Whether you are using household vinegar or horticultural vinegar you should wear eye proctection to prevent an accidental spraying into your eyes.
Can I just say re salt and soap, both will cause a build up in the soil if used regularly and so damage the soil ph. Soapy water can be handled by some plants and even cleaned up by some but vinegar. I use it for many jobs around the house but I’d worry about the same thing, build up in the soil. Any thoughts?
before I use vinegar in the yard is it harmful to cats and dogs????? Would hate to make one of them sick or worse…..
I would like to kill everything in my backyard grass and all. Would this work? I would like to start over and lay all new seed. If this won’t work, what are some suggestions as to something that would work? I’ve got ever weed known to man kind in my backyard, stickers, and some grass here and there!
i find if you add salt to the vinegar it helps to kill the harder weed varieties
Singapore daisy ….HELP !!!! …it laughs at Roundup.
I’m glad to know about the vinegar for weeds. We have two small housedogs and i never like using weed killers because of them.. I’m assuming the vinegar would not be harmful for animals?
Kevin, I would love to try the vinegar idea. Save $$, and friendly on my dogs and baby. Was wondering if it is safe to use for weeds around my cut leaf Jap Maples and such? I have some nasty and ambitious dandilions I don’t want in my flower beds.
Like others, I’m very excited about using vinegar to kill weeds. Does anyone have bedstraw? Tried the vinegar? Please tell me it works.
My recipe to kill weeds a hot sunny day, a gallon vinegar, add 1cup of salt and a squirt of dish soap (the soap helps the emulsion stick) add to your sprayer and spray covering all surfaces of the weed wait a week and reapply if needed rinse out sprayer.
Hi, I have read all kinds of great information on the use of vinegar to kill weeds, but the one question I need answered is this: Where can I buy 10% pickling vinegar in Ontario? Everyone says how well it works, but I can’t find it anywhere!! Thanks! Patti
i REALLY REALLY WANTED this to work…we spend lots of $$ on Round-up, and i was loving the idea of something safer, cheaper, AND better for the environment…i have tried it TWO TIMES — once with white vinegar, once with apple cider vinegar…sunny day, no wind…all this did was make the LEAVES turn brown and wilt, but the weed was still standing and green!!! it did NOT kill the weeds – just made them wilt and parts are brown. i tried to saturate them. can you help me see what i might have done wrong, or what i might do IF i decide to give this a try #3????
Question for Tiffany #57. What amount of egg white and what amount of water do you use to ward off the critters you listed.
I was wondering what to do with my backyard, full of weeds. Thank you!
I hope it works!!
This works great for my gravel area, after a few days when everything turned crispy, I used my propane roofing torch to burn the ugly dead stuff away. Thanks for the tip the torch alone takes much more time when the weeds are green
Tried “the recipe” yesterday. WORKS! Grass and weeds in driveway cracks were dead and dying by nightfall.
Safe and efficient. Thanks lots.. Here in Davenport,Iowa.
I’m not sure that people understand how Roundup works. If you know the “light” and “dark” cycles of photosynthesis, the round up blocks ONE chemical on the “staircase” between the light and dark cycles. This is why it MUST have contact with the plant itself. It does NOT poison the soil. But you must be careful of drift as it does the same thing to ALL plants.
I sprayed weeds with straight vinegar and they are still thriving?
Does the vinegar work on rockachow gowing in the yard? Our yard is a sandy one (being close to beach) and along with the “grass” we also have rockachow and bermuda grass. I know the vinegar works on the gravel paths, but will it work on the other stuff? How long does it take for the pathway weeds to grow back?
I am definitely going to try this – unfortunately I had already sprayed my veggie garden with round up – how long before I can plant in this garden now with the round up on it?
I am so glad someone pinned this! I have a massively long gravel driveway that the previous owner didn’t care for well and it’s lost a couple feet in width thanks to encroaching grasses and weeds. The thought of buying and spraying THAT much Roundup, especially with my small children that don’t like to keep off the freshly sprayed areas, was a little scary. That stuff isn’t cheap and is quite hazardous! But vinegar, that is cheap and safe. Thanks so much!
How about tubers like violets? They are all over our lawn. It’s a nightmare – they stuff you use to kill them is about the most toxic poison out there.
I feed a large community of wildlife … bird varieties and small animals 2-3 times daily and am wondering what impact vinegar will have on their feeding area (presently clear pea gravel AND pea gravel interspersed with grass and weed patches).
Will be trying the vinegar on paver bricks, etc. immediately, but will wait for a response concerning the wildlife community problem.
How long would vinegar, once applied, take to dissipate … or does it?
Awaiting your response, and thanks.
Vinegar to kill slugs? # 227 You stated that you diluted vinegar and sprayed it on hostas PLEASE share with me the ratio. I have more than 30 plants and it is a constant battle ( and I am afraid that I am losing)
PJ Hampton
Ohio
My flower bed is invaded by colts foot. Last fall I hired help to remove all my perennials from my garden and remove all the weeds. We covered it in plastic for the winter. I removed the plastic this spring and found a few weeds, since late March the colts food has run rapid through my garden. I have use round up twice and yesterday I have sprayed the area with Wipe out. Do you have any suggestions? Should I have the whole area dug up, lay cardboard and cover with new soil. Do you think this will remove the deadly colts foot. Thank you
Thank you so much for your great tips. I am new to the whole gardening biz. I live overseas (Japan) and so I rely on the internet to teach me how to garden. This winter I learned all about evil, vile, Monsanto and so I am starting my own veggie garden (with non GMO seeds). Anyhow, I have a plot all planned for my garden but it is overgrown with weeds. Do you think I could use vinegar on this plot to kill the weeds and then later plant my veggies there? How long before the soil would be safe do you think? Thanks again! I appreciate posts like this more than you know.
will it kill raspberry and other assorted hard to remove ground cover?
I have used vinegar successfully for different weed infestations, however, I have an insidious, and extensive infestation of Myrtle Spurge, (which is at the top of the noxious plant list here in Colorado) on my property. I used Round-Up last year on this tenacious plant which continues generally virulent, despite some die-off, but I refuse to use that product any longer. Does anyone know whether vinegar or variations of the use of vinegar are effective on this noxious invader?
I once used salt and vinegar on the weeds in my wood chips round the borders
Weeds didn’t die but the chips tasted great ha ha
The addition of dish soap to any spray mixturewill help to reduce surface tension and to break though the waxy type coating some weeds have as a self defense mechanism. So whether you are using a listed and tested chemical as a weed killer for its LABELED and INTENDED purpose, or if you are using a homebrew concoction (be it vinegar or some weird recipe involving aged human urine which some guy who claims to be America’s master gardener promotes), a few drops of dish soap such as dawn works as a sticker/spreader.
By the way, keep such spray away from your pollinators (such as honey bees). If you inadvertently spray honey bees with soapy water, you have just killed them.
Also be careful of how much vinegar you dump or spray on something. If you get a big rain shortly afterwards, it will leach from the application area and kill vegetation you did not intend to harm. Using items for non listed or off label purposes always comes with risk. You will never find a real Master Gardener who promotes such practice. Just because it is natural, does not mean it is safe or good for you.
CouLd someone that has been following this please email me at [email protected] please
Does BROWN VINEGAR work the same as WHITE VINEGAR?? Let me know asap. Thanks.
Can I use BROWN VINEGAR instead of WHITE VINEGAR? What would be the difference?
Hello there,
I read this and started using vinegar on all weeds and it worked so well! Unfortunately, I think I added too much to the weeds near my butterfly bush. The leaves and stems are slowly turning brown. I am so mad at myself. Is there a way to reverse this? Maybe by diluted the soil with water?
Thanks!
Kevin: Help! do you have a soultion for keeping cats from using my back lawn for a litter box? The urine is killing the lawn
I repinned your suggestion of using vinegar on weeds then went to your site and read about it. That’s really interesting about Monsanto agreeing not to put “biodegradable” and “environmental friendly”. I have read some really awful stories about Monsanto and the Canadian organic farmers and soybeans. Monsanto is wiping out organic soybeans and ruining the fields that were deemed organic with their GMO (genetically modified organism) soybeans.
But I have another question, what do you know about the product Simple Green? They also claim they are “biodegradable” and environmentally friendly”. I sprayed it in my horsetrailer as a cleaner on the rubber mats to get rid of goat smell and goat blood after the vet surgically gelded the goat. The goat had to stay in my horsetrailer for a while because he was wild and we didn’t want him to be attacked by mountain lion, lynx, etc. Well after I put my horse in the trailer he became very agitated and was dancing every time I put him in there. Later I read that it can affect animals chemically, namely the scrotal areas. Just wondering if you have had any experience with this product.
Thanks for helping to promote the use of “REAL” natural products. I just became an associate master gardener and am volunteering with the help of the certified master gardeners in my town. Looking forward to reading more.
Hi Kevin,
I want to prepare my area for planting a tree and flower bed. My landscaping is scheduled to start this evening, my neighbor is creating the edging and planing to put down black plastic over the grass, then fill it with top soil to begin our planting.
My area is Michigan, and the ground dirt is made up of mostly clay, if this helps.
I’m a new gardener, so should I spray the whole open grass area where I want the flower bed and tree with the vinegar to kill the grass and weeds, which I don’t have a lot of weed but there are some, then pull up the dead grass, lay the plastic afterward to give me a cleaner slate to start with.
If, so will it be safe to plant my flowers and tree the same day, or should I wait a day or two, so not to damage the roots or cause the plants to work harder to get established,
Any advice you can give me has a new gardener, I would greatly appreciate , as this is my first landscape of perennials. I have only done potted plants each year, except a few hosta’s
This is a great form…Thanks!
Also, should I use preen with the new plants to help prevent new weeds from growing.
How long does this vinegar solution last? I use Groundclear on my driveway (it is gravel and gets very weedy, and the Groundclear usually lasts about 1 year with only small touch ups. Does the vinegar last all spring/summer/fall or do you have to reapply it once a month or so?
Hi,
For really tough weeds, try Pickling Vinegar. It is usually 8-10% acetic acid, which works better than regular 5% acetic acid.
In the States, you can find 20% acetic acid, but it must be used with caution as it is considered ‘caustic’ so a mask and gloves should be used. I didn’t find it to be too bad though. It does tingle if you get it on your skin- just rinse quickly with water and don’t breathe in the fumes when you are spraying. I use the 20% vinegar on the tough ones such as the WICKED Hogweed and a lot of garlic mustard weed that is encroaching on my horse pastures and all along my river frontage. I would much rather use this, leaving no residual in the soil and safe for the river and my horses if they ingest it (although they don’t go near it for quite awhile because of the vinegar smell!). Using the 20% acetic acid, the entire Hogweed plant had shriveled up and turned brown as if it had been burnt within a half an hour. On the rest of the property ( under electric fence lines, etc) I cut the 20% vinegar by half and it still does the trick.
You can find the 20% acetic acid vinegar in Ontario as there is a company here that sells it, but I had to buy a “full run” which means 14 boxes of 4 x 1 gallon jugs for about $250.00, which is fine, because I will eventually use all of it living in the country. I would have to get the company’s permission before I released their name/information, as I do not know if they would want to start dealing with private individuals, but try the pickling vinegar if you can find it in grocery stores. It will usually kill the root as well as the top growth I believe, unlike 5% regular vinegar which I find only kills the top growth and the problem returns. Perhaps numerous applications would eradicate the root entirely with 5% though- I’m not sure! And I don’t think it would hurt to add salt and the Dawn to it to help it “stick” to the plant. Hope this is helpful!! Patti
Does vinegar work on wild rice and will it hurt fish or frogs? I know someone doing this and I would like to get them to stop using roundup. Thanks
I read down through about one fourth of the comments, but there are a lot of comments on here! So if this question was already asked, please forgive. We have Horse Tail weeds that break off when you try to pull them, so they are out of control and always come back many fold. They are unrelenting. Any suggestions for these nasty invaders? Thanks.
Great post, as usual! I shared it on my farmers market blog. I have used vinegar with good results. Still trying to kill off poison ivy with it. Any suggestions? Thanks so much.
Great post as usual! I have used vinegar with good results and shared this post on my farmers market blog. I am trying to kill poison ivy with vinegar, any suggestions? Thanks so much!
I tried the vinegar weed killer, and all it did was water the the weeds. Nothing died. Is there anything else added to it?
I sprayed a gallon of white vinegar over a rocky area last night about 7pm, and it looked like no change had taken place this morning on my way to work????
Does NOT work on poison ivy on my mountain in Arkansas…..went up with a gallon of vinegar and sprayer…..no way. My favorite natural poison ivy treatment from research……get a goat!
Although weed in themselves are not a problem. I have a forest garden and just leave the weeds alone, only pulling out the odd perennial from time to time. Weeds are useful, as they bring up minerals from the ground and are of benefit to wildlife and other plants.
Where have you been all my life? I’m so glad to have found your website. I look forward to visiting often.
THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH ! WE tried it ,we LOVE it!! We have a small farm with Nigerian dwarf goats (along with chickens rabbits, dogs, cats and a Llama) I often graze them in the front pasture near the driveway so commercial weed killers are NOT an option anywhere on our property as these are dairy goats and WE drink the milk. Not only did the vinegar work it worked FAST! Thank you Kevin!! Love your website you inspire me every day!!
for ants, boric acid dunno why
I have goutweed in my yard and am going to dig it up to hold it back. However it is in all the neighbor’s yards and will keep creeping in. Will vinegar work on this to keep it at bay and in the other yards?
Kevin, great article! Question: I have a small 9 pound dog. Is the vinegar harmful to her? Also, can I spray this in mulch beds? I have weeds in the beds, but also shrubs. Will it hurt the shrubs? Will vinegar kill my grass as I have some weeds in areas of my grass. Thanks for this great idea! Hope I will receive your answer soon.
While I was ‘struggling’ to find this pin, I found another option/addition to the vinegar weed killer that I just tried. Undiluted white vinegar and dishsoap in a spray bottle. My youngest and I went outside and had target practice!
If anyone has heard of/used this please respond….
How much vinegar do you mix with the water? Thanks!
ive tried twice now and my weeds wont die. Could it be i’m not spraying enough on each section?
Hey Kevin!
I have a strip running the length on my garage about a foot wide filled with weeds about 3 feet tall. I want to get rid of all of them. Should I weed eat them down to a lower length and then use a vinegar spray or just spray them as is? My neighbor’s garage is right next to mine, so there is limited direct sunlight but it is 80 degrees or so right now. Thanks for your recommendation!
Deb – For a really weedy area like you describe, I don’t recommend vinegar. Better to newspaper mulch the area. Details here.
Wow! That was quick
So I should weed eat and then do the paper mulch? And come next spring I should just be able to spray when the weeds are first coming up again?? I’m in Montana if that makes any difference?
If you lay the newspaper thickly enough, you may not have to spray at all next year. Even in Montana
If you will wait till early spring when the weeds 1st start coming up before the grass then spray the yard with the vinegar it will kill the weeds and not the grass, grass is dormant at this time.
I am wondering if the vinegar will also kill the grass? Can you use the vinegar to kill the weeds in your lawn? Thanks Kevin, Tammy
What about Japanese knotweed? Nothing seems to kill it!
Please don’t use salt. It will completely ruin your soil! People used to salt enemies plots to keep anything from growing there at all!!!
Does the vinegar work on poison ivy and poison oak?
picked up your website,[i'm in england] i just sprayed half of my gravel drive with 5% malt vinegar and results are good. rain forecast for friday so will put on hold ,but it worked on the bit i did. nice one. shall tell my chums over here, tks a lot…dig
Didn’t see any mention of Goutweed, which I am just about to plant and am wondering when the time comes for me to control it, will vinegar do the trick.
Did #57 ever reply about using vinegar for Moles?
Hi..I have a problem right now that is really bugging me…the weeds are taking over my flower beds in my back yard I have trees and bushes planted in them.. will the vinegar work for my problem or will it kill my trees and bushes to?
does vinegar kill trees and bushes…
Just reading the comments. We had a lot of “nice” grass when we moved in here some years ago. I never realized it was apparently Bermuda Grass until I just now looked it up. Drought and the deer have killed it quite effectivly, two things we have had in abundance in the Texas hill country the last few years.
I spread rock salt on a large patch of crab grass in my gravel driveway and it worked like a charm.
Will it take more than 1 application of vinegar to kill poison oak that is growing under my deck and coming up thru the deck to the side of the house?? There is a ‘pretty good size’ growth of it under the deck…I can not get UNDER the deck so will just try pouring it thru the planks etc…Thank you!
I know the lady who invented Deadeye Vinegar (a high percentage vinegar treatment for unwanted plants. Can’t find it anymore. She sold the business. She invented it to come up with a safer alternative, after her husband got very sick from using all the chemicals in their flower planting/tending business.) She told me for it to work, it has to be 70 degrees F or warmer, that you want to zap the plants when they are young. I vaguely remember something about it having to stay warm for some hours after zapping the plants with the vinegar. That may explain why vinegar hasn’t worked for some folks. Think the trick about using a weedeater on woody plants would make a huge difference too.
To make moles move from your yard (to your neighbor’s – I guess) put used kitty litter in their holes. Also, planting castor bean plants will eliminate grubs which the moles eat. Without a food source and smelly holes, the moles will leave. BEWARE castor beans are very poisonous so don’t plant if you have small children or pets that might eat the seeds that form in the fall. I’m going to try the vinegar around the edges of my flowerbeds.
I tried vinegar last spring. Some stuff it killed, but it died slowly. Some things it didn’t phase at all. And the stuff it did seem to kill came to life again after after a few weeks. So I am disappointed. Maybe I will try the salt and dawn dishwashing soap version. Just vinegar alone didn’t work for me. We had a very wet spring and early summer maybe if it had been drier and the weeds had less rain on them it would have worked better. I only put it on though when we had 24 hours or longer without rain.or
I have a huge cottonwood tree in the yard and there are shoots that come up from the roots all in the grass. Would vinegar work on tree shoots???
I am so happy to have come upon this friendly forum and all this useful information.
Didn’t work for me!
This is a little off the subject, but we have some weeds growing on a steep hill. I saw your vinegar solution and plan on trying it. Dead weeds are ugly, so I was wondering if you had any suggestions as to going about planting some ivy to keep weeds from growing, as it is dangerous and hard to weed wack a steep area of yard. It’s about a 15ft by 8 or 9 ft area.
Thanks for the tip!! The white vinegar killed the weeds within a day – it worked well here in South Africa with the beautiful sunshine that we have. I’m looking forward to more useful tips in and around the garden to share with our gardening club members.
We have a really bad sticker weed problem.But we also have a fur baby that needs to go potty and its been a nightmare!! will vinegar work on sticker weeds??
To avoid damaging good plants, I put the vinegar in a closed plastic bag, then make a tiny hole at the low end,so it gets just the roots of the weed.
I’m now a believer of white vinegar killing off my weeds on my driveway/path/soil. Can you tell me the ratio of water to vinegar to use in a watering can or do you use just vinegar?
My problem I have today is that I have a vacant lot next door. My cable provider came out to “install” the cable from the street to the house and told me that since the lot next door is vacant it was my responsibility to maintain the weeds around the box where they provide the services. I have a downhill slope from there and I was wondering if I use vinegar around there will it kill my trees, grass and other plants that I want to keep if it was to rain?
Over the years I have learned that hardy weeds have some elements in them that the soil needs. Nature make those weeds to grow on that spot so the soil can gather those elements to stay healthy.
If we need to get rid off those hardy weeds we need to give the soil those elements harvested/gathered by the weeds.
Best way to do that is make a mixture of the hardy weeds and plain water. Soak the weeds for 14 days/3 weeks in a bucket with a lid. Stir daily. You wait till the liquid is a stinking brown soup. Sieve the plantrests out ( they can go to the composter) Dilute the broth 1:10 with water, shaje well.. Spray or pour the liquid over and around the hardy weed. Soak it.
You have to do this more times than once, but it surely wiil work.
Use about 1 kg of weed to 10 litres of water. With a dillution of 1:10 1 kg will give 100 litres spraying soution.
Note: the liquid of 1 kind of weed works against that weed and not to other weeds!
if vinegar kills weeds or any types of weeds, how long does it lasts for? Will it stop growing back permanently or temporary? Any suggestion would be greatly appreciated.
Yay! THANK YOU for posting this!!!!!! I can’t tell you how delighted I am to have an alternative to spending hours pulling weeds out of my gravel drive (I too hate roundup).
Vinegar is an excellent way to clean inside the house too. Spray a little on a sink, tiles, floor, stove-top, tub, taps, even toilet. Sprinkle with a little baking soda and wipe. The baking soda foams up and gives a gentle abrasive which leaves a sparkling clean surface. I know this is all about gardens, but hey, we still need to clean up the soil we track in.
Thanks again for making my day
I am so super excited to read this! I would want to kill weeds in the cracks in sidewalk and drive way..and the ones that grown up through the cracks by the curb…(in the street)..I love white vinegar..I use it and baking soda to deodorize my garbage disposal and sink, and in my dishwasher as a rinse for spots…
will any sort of vinegar work? I dont use white vinegar due to its beng developed from milk
will any sort of vinegar work?
Does vinegar work on privet? I have a cut over I’m going to plant with hardwood and pine this winter. Also will it damage the trees I’m planting?
Got any really good remedies for getting rid of Goathead plants ? I really dislike the thorns that come into the house on the shoes or our poor dog’s paws. Thanks a million …
I haven’t tried this, but I know Round up does not work, after a couple of weeks the weeds are back, I will give anything a try. Waiting for summer to try this!!
hi Kevin do I add water to the vinegar???
There is a organic product used by organic farmers called Eco-clear-
vinegar and citris juice- that kills weeds in minutes. winter salt used
on side walks also works well on cracks in side walks
and on slate walks just spread it on and let the rain do the job.
Thank you so much, I will be using vinegar on our walkway, and on paved patio.
I have a tree in an area i want to use the vinegar to kill off the weeds which has taken over the st augustine grass. How far away should I spray the vinegar from the tree. The tree is very young planted a year ago.
Thanks
Hi, Is it ok to use coloured vinegar? I can´t find white vinegar here in rural Andalucia.
Is this safe to use around pets? Also the solution mention with salt, is that safe to use around pets? Thanks for all the tips!
Love this idea of getting rid of my weeds. I have tried doing a no dig garden of top of a lawn full of weeds. cover with news paper, dot with seed potatoes, ,sheep manure and straw. harvest the potatoes and leave the straw mix. In 2 years lawn!
Genuinely no matter if someone doesn’t understand afterward its up to other visitors that they will help, so here it occurs.
Can I use the vinegar solution to kill off existing weeds if I plan to put vegetables in the area at a later date?
I used leftover salt from the winter months during the prior spring with great results! I had thought about vinegar too so I’m going to add them both together this year and see what happens! I have very alkaline water and soil….. so it may just balance it out and they grow crazy later
Hi Kevin
Thanks for the interesting column!
A quick question, down here in South Africa we have “paper thorns” (a horrible and strong-willed weed), would vinegar be effective in killing it?
Thanks!
Mary-Ann
Hi Kevin
Thanks for the interesting column!
A quick question, down here in South Africa we have “paper thorns” (a horrible and strong-willed weed), would vinegar be effective in killing it? It grows through our grass lawn, and they are nasty little things especially with kiddies around!
Thanks!
Mary-Ann
Awesome!! I can’t wait to try when the weather gets warm! Thank you!!
Do any of you know how long after using the vinegar you can plant seeds etc if it gets on the soil…Monsanto has come out with roundup with a pre-emergent that you cannot plant in for a year and have to use seasonally, and at the end of the year the weeds should be under control…..I know this is far reaching, but, does anyone know if there is a natural pre-emergent??
Has vinegar worked on Mallow for anyone?
Hi,
If vinegar is acidic, is it best to use on alkaline soils only, would it not make acid soil more acidic over time?
I was thinking of using it in areas where I later plant fruit and vegetables.
Thanks
When is the best time to spray the weeds? I have cheat grass coming up about half an inch. Do you have to have the actual “leaf” of the plant for it to kill it, or can you kill it when it just pops up out of the soil?
Have I destroyed my garden? Hubby picked up Preen for southern gardens. I have used the Preen for vegetable gardens and loved it. I didn’t pay any attention just put it down and had planted my tomatoes and bell pepper plants. I noticed it after I had put it down that it was different than I used before. Have I destroyed my garden and does this crap poison the fruit if it survives?
I came to my son’s property to check up on it and evict some tenants. Much to my surprise’
the murderous Round Up was being used by these people in the garden. Knowing the damages that Monsanto, the makers of that weed killer, have been causing in Colombia , India, and many other countries I wanted to immediately throw it in the garbage can but after thinking it over’ I realized that even that would not be a good deed. This Monsanto product is not even good to throw in the garbage. Does anyone know how to dispose of it without causing any harm? Thanks for any suggestions.
what does the vinager and or salt do to the soil as far as planting goes when you use roundup you have to wait thirty days before you plant something there
How “warm” does it need to be for the vinegar to kill the weeds?
Thanks!
Tried to read most of your other comments for my question, but your site is very popular. Good job. I am wondering if I can cut down thistles before applying the vinegar, or does it work like Round Up and have to be applied before cutting?
Will try the vinegar again, but it didn’t work last year.
Castor Oil For Moles & Voles
Someone here was concerned about moles. You can get rid of moles and voles by spraying castor oil on the affected area. It works great. It will keep them away for up to three years. They don’t like the smell or taste. I used it on a garden area one time, where the voles were having a great time munching my vegetables, and they were gone immediately and never returned.
I don’t remember the dilution rates, but I’m sure you could look it up online.
- Can some kind of essential oil be used with the vinegar? I hate the smell of vinegar & would love to cover it up with something.
- Will the vinegar also kill insects? That’d be a definite plus for me.
Thanks!
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I used vinegar (straight) and went through 5 gallons spraying weeds in and around my garden. It did nothing. No weeds or grass died and it’s flourishing very well after a good doucing. Guess I’ll have to look for something else.
Thanks for the tip about white vinegar!
Last year, I think we had a bag of bad seed because we were innundated with Creeping Charlie…which is impossible to get rid of! It kept coming back….killing off the grass. We thatched in the fall and applied (a couple of times) ORTHO’s weed killer (says it won’t kill grass)….and waited to seed. I’m hoping that the seed comes up this spring….central NJ..
and that Creeping Charlie does not!
Any ideas?
Re: Killing Lawn When Spraying Weeds:
I have used Round Up, spraying weeds on my lawn while the Bermuda is dormant and it does not kill the grass while it is still in dormant stage; but after this, I will start using Vinegar.
Thank you so much. The vinegar works. I will try it next time without the soap and salt. Will the dandelions come back or are the roots gone too? Do you know what will kill wild onions and wild garlic?
Well, I have rented my house out 5 years while I was in another state and tried my best to control the weeds in my gardens whenever I visited. I am embarrassed to say I relied on Preen, a pre emergent chemical and also roundup for some weeds.
Monsanto is indeed evil… I watched a documentary about Monsanto and it opened my eyes. I used Preen every 3 months religiously to control all weed seed dropped or blown into the gardens from germinating and growing. All these chemicals are damaging to all life… all insects, animals and most definitely us, humans. I implore you to educate yourself if you still think it is an option to use chemicals.
After 8 years of relying on my system of chemical controls, guess what? This summer, it just stopped working… I am going organic from now on and researching all the myriad of ways to do it. All those Monsanto executives in charge certainly don’t care about US… and I would guess that a good portion of them who truly understand the enormous devastating risks only live organically. It is an evil machine and we need to think for ourselves to decide what is best. Corporations do not really care what is “best”, they just want to make lots of money.
Roundup certainly doesn’t dissipate in the soil… it is unknown how long it stays but it is a LONG time.
Hi Kevin,
Thank you soo much for sharing this wonderful idea. I have 3 very active dogs and spraying the back yard with chemicals really bothers me, espcially since I live in Sunny Arizona and weeds are very common here. The fact that Roundup is the only thing anyone wants to use to kill them is alarming. Now that I have read about Vinegar I will be purchasing several gallons at the grocery store tomorrow and I will be filling up the sprayer and going commando on those weeds this weekend…I will take before and after photos and send those you’re way..
I am hoping it will blow all of our minds…thanks again
Hey Kevin,
Does it have to be white vinegar? I’ve got a huge jug of apple cider vinegar I’d love to get rid of if it will do the same job.
Thanks!
Lynn
I understand that vinegar changes the PH of the soil which makes the plants die. Now that I know about using vinegar as a weed killer, how long must I wait before new plants can grow successfully in that ground?
What do u use to kill weeds in shrub beds?
This is the first time I’v been on this, I find it delightful and informitive Thanks, I”ll be checking it out from time to time. That is if I can find it again. Im new to Pintrest and havent got it figured out yet.
We have thistle all through our rose bed. Our concern is losing the roses when using the vinegar to kill the thistle. Will it harm the roses?
For crabgrass I use baking soda and it will not harm my St. Augustine.
will it kill briers
Hello. I have a small raised garden in the front of my house that has two hydrangea bushes. THere are weeds infesting the garden all around the bushes. If I use the vinegar in a pump sprayer on the weeds and avoid the hydrangeas will the vinegar affect the bushes from seeping into the soil?
Thank you.
Darlene
what can I spray to kill weeds that are in the garden???
Will it also kill westeria. The purple flower vine that grows in trees.
Great advice. I have a gravel path through my backyard that I spray with vinegar solution. The only thing I worry about is the effect on a tree back there if enough vinegar is applied.
I have a saltwater aquarium and used to keep my gravel clear by pouring the exchanged saltwater on it, but ultimately decided that salting he earth was going to ultimately come to no good.
There’s a little misconception in the comments above. Acetic acid is soluble in aqueous solution, but so is just about any other acid I can think of (hydrochloric, sulfuric, etc.). The fact that acetic acid is a “weak” acid does not mean it breaks down right away, it just means that it only partially dissociates its proton and negative counterion. It will definitely lower soil pH for a time. However, I do believe there are microorganism a that will eventually break it down (over the course of weeks, maybe?). But if you’re constantly applying vinegar, you are definitely going to have some seriously acid buildup in the soil.
how long after i spray vinegar can i lay sod
Hi Kevin,
I never tried this, but always thought you had to dilute it or something. Think this would work great between the cracks in the driveway and sidewalk. How long do they stay dead? Are they going to grow back in a few weeks or is this a permanent killer?
Thanks for the tip – found this on Pinterest.
Linda
how soon after vinegar weed treatment can we plant?
Will this kill only weeds or grass as well?
I just heard about using vinegar on weeds a few weeks ago! I usually just pull weeds (and don’t bother messing with the little ones) because I would NEVER use a man made herbicide., especially roundup, but the prospect of having few or no weeds is VERY tempting, the only reason I have not tried vinegar yet is because I am worried it will leech outward and reach my plants. For instance, I have a gravel pathway through my garden too, but I don’t have raised beds like I saw you do in your picture. If I use it on the weeds in the pathway, can it leech out 1,2,3… feet to where my garden plants are? Also, how much do you spray on each weed? Is it just a little spritz, or do you have to douse them? I would really love a little more info and details about how to treat the weeds with vinegar! Thanks so much!!!
I plan on trying the vinegar out this coming weekend. Hopefully it will do as good a job as it did for you. As far as the Bermuda grass goes, my yard was covered with bluegrass when we bought our home, it is now covered all over with Bermuda. We love it, it is thick and beautiful and wonderful to walk on barefoot.
How long will the vinegar affect the soil. For instance–if rain washes downhill from where u sprays a day later, will it kill good plants I’m the “wash” area?
I live in Florida and certain parts of my yard are full of sand spurs, any suggestions? These things make it impossible to enjoy the yard at all…I am going to try the vingar first though I am excited to find out if this works.
Ugh! Didn’t have time to read all…but please DO NOT dispose of old chemical at the ‘dump’! Find a hazardous waste collection site and dispose of them properly there. Thank you for caring.
I have a whole hillside up in Seattle filled with weeds and Huckleberry bushes. I clear the hillside every year and would like to do something else with the space. Its a nice terraced hillside. Do you think the vinegar would work on these roots?
Wondering about the acidity/ph factor? Around here in northern California, the soil is a bit too acidic anyway. Might it work to use straight calcium/lime/ make the environment WAY too alkaline for those pesky weeds? Your thoughts on pushing the ph in the opposite direction?
dbmckinney says:
April 6, 2013 at 11:35 am
I used vinegar (straight) and went through 5 gallons spraying weeds in and around my garden. It did nothing. No weeds or grass died and it’s flourishing very well after a good doucing. Guess I’ll have to look for something else.
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what time of day did you spray it? what was the temperature? sunlight (you want a good amount), dryness (did it rain recently? area and weeds should be dry to absorb vinegar more), being too cool will affect if it works. You could try mixing vinegar with a little bit of soap, I would suggest Dr. Bronner’s, at least it’s not sourced from petrol like Dawn. Others have had success mixing with salt too, although it could keep everything from growing in those spots. Boiling hot water has been used with good results.
Will it work on the dreaded PERIWINKLE that I have been slaving over since I bought this house 4 years ago? (curse the person who put it in….) Or is there a magic answer for periwinkle- since there really are lovely plants, perennials, bulbs, shrubs all cowering around it?
A scientist friend enlightened me to the fact that apple cider vinegar has a much higher acid content, would that make it more effective?
Can you use this around other plants in the garden or only over stone/gravel walkways? I have weeds in between plants I don’t want to harm
Vinegar is effective; however, it also causes earthworms to die an agonizing death. I tried the vinegar treatment a few years ago and was shocked to find these creatures writhing in agony rising to the surface of the soil. Imagine pouring vinegar into your eye; that’s what they feel. So I am outside on my hands and knees pulling weeds the old-fashioned way.
What about Blackberry vines?
What can I use on weeds in my ornamental beds?
This is great to know…we are just clearing our yard to plant and it is FULL of weeds!!! We are so happy to hear about this fix for the weeds and old grass!!! We are just a little confused as to how long we have to wait after treating the ground with the vinegar before we can re-seed the grassy area and plant our veggies and flowers? Thanks so much for all the help….good luck to all the other gardeners!!!
There is problem with vinegar in that it dissolves calcium based rocks (limestone, for example), and mortar, and some concretes. I used it all one summer on horsetails, and by the end of the summer some of my paving and landscape rocks were cracking and splitting. Some rocks were so weakened by the vinegar I could crush them into dust in my hands. Some rocks in a retaining wall were cracking apart down fault lines that had calcium in them. Kinda like acid rain x1000.
To Jane and Kerri:
Just once you are done get some lime supplement for grass of the carbonate not gypsum type and spread it on the soil. It will easily neutralize the vinegar in a week or so after watering. Then adjust the soil ph if necessary for what you intend to plant..
I am desperate to get rid of burdock which gets into all the dog’s coats, on my wool clothes, etc.
Would vinegar do it?
Wow … sounds great and I’m going to give it a try …
Was wondering about Japenesa bamboo. I tried vinegar a few years ago.. Roundup too with no results… Auy Suggestions??
Thanks sooooo much for this I have terrible weeds and almost resorted to the round up that was left at this house!! uugghh I REALLY did not want to!! now do you have a remedy for fleas???!!
THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH FOR THIS!!! I DID NOT WANT TO RESORT TO THE ROUNDUP THAT WAS LEFT AT THIS HOUSE!!!…UUGGHH! NOW DO YOU HAVE A REMEDY FOR FLEAS? THANKS AGAIN!
Bonus: Vinegar will neutralize any cat pee that might be around.
Hi Kevin,
In previous years, I rid my garden of the very invasive Japanese knotweed with the afore-mentioned evil Roundup (forgive me! I didn’t know what a bad thing that was!). All has been well until recently, when I spied a single stalk returning. I’m happy to use vinegar instead, but should I pour it into the root area, or douse the leaves? Thank you so much!
Usually I pull weeds by their roots. Yesterday, I tried vinegar on them. Today, the weeds still look healthy as ever. What went wrong?
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Does it kill Poison Ivy?
thank you for sharing such an important message……..
I’ve had intermittent success with vinegar (could have something to do with type of weed or season or stage of growth or…), but I’ve also had intermittent success with a hoe.
Here’s a couple of things I wanted to comment on as I read through some of the posts:
1. Dandelions are an important first food source for bees, I no longer kill of my dandelions and my poultry and sheep love eating them anyway.
2. From what I’ve read, vinegar-water is great for watering acid loving plants because it will temporarily release iron from the soil. I’ll try it on my blueberries and raspberries and hopefully it will prevent weeds there too (sorry earthworms, but there’s about another billion of you in the garden who I feed regularly).
3. Salt is the BEST way to keep your asparagus patch weed free. Asparagus doesn’t care about the salt. I didn’t believe it until I saw it, but I wouldn’t use salt anywhere else!
4. Dawn in water will kill most insects when sprayed directly (even insecticidal proof squash bugs, it’s really a joy to watch really) because it coats them and prevents them from breathing through their skin, so that’s another way to keep monsanto out of our gardens. however I’ve found nothing that will eradicate the alien mutant colorado potato beetle…
I may try that egg wash thing and see if it will keep rats away. I have rats in my poultry yard and I’m just about ready to use poison, it’s terrible.
I have a bush area at the front of our house and it is REALLY weedy! I want to kill all of those weeds but not hurt the bushes. what are the chances that if I spray vinegar that the bushes will still be ok?
Should I take the chance?
Tried the vinegar but it did not work for me. No signs of stress to the weeds at all
Is Weed-be-gone another evil Monsanto product? That stuff works great, but I’m very interested in finding a more environmentally friendly way of selectively killing weeds from a lawn.
Thank you for this information. I am wanting to learn more about organic methods for pest and weed control.
Sue
I wonder if it will kill multi-flower rose bushes, those things are like barbed wire fences?
Will this attract ants or other animals?
what about kudzu any luck there
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I tried using vinegar the other day on some young grass plants and it did not kill the grass. Some of the grass blades did turn brown but the grass survived. It was a day in the 80s and we had 4 days of sun and 80 degree weather. I used the white vinegar undiluted from Wal-Mart. Also it is not cheaper than Round-up, the vinegar was $2.38 a gallon and the Round-up is between $19.00 – $20.00 for concentrate that you can get 10 gallons of spray. I have never had a problem with any build-up of Round-up in my soil?
Does vinegar kill small trees?
I used vinegar on a problem blackberry bush that was on my property that simply would not die. I hosed the bush down and a few days later is was wilted crispy brown. Made removal a lot easier and safer than using those dreaded toxic herbicides that don’t work as well.
Okay, now how do I get rid of spiders that make conical webs on/in cedar shingle cabin (outdoors)?
Hi Kevin
Is the vinegar ok to use in a vegetable garden before planting?
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I tried the combination of vinegar, epsom salt and dishwashing liquid yesterday… it works!!! However, I also noticed the surrounding areas of the lawn where I sprayed yellowing. Hope it’s a temporary condition.
Ok so i moved into a house that they let the area behind their garage grow up for years so like at least 8 feet tall. I dont care if nothing ever grows back there again I want to use it for my kids play area will that work? Also can I spay it on weeds that are growing in a flower bed with big trees without harming the trees?
If you want something stronger than vineger delute muritic acid into your spray bottle and spray away. It’s a much stronger form of acid. You must delute! Try deluting a half of cup to a gallon of water for starters. you can go on from there.
I also use it when I clean a newly grouted tile floor. It kills the lime deposits in the grout. Do not use it on marble, it’ll take the finish right off the floor.
We also use it in our swimming pools so it’s safe in a deluted form.
Do not breath the vapors coming out of the bottle it’s a highly concentrated acid and it’ll hurt you in that form. Mix it outside! If it comes in contact with steel it’ll rust it, if you accidently spill it on your tile floor right out of the bottle it’ll take off the finish. Use it outside! So you must rinse out out your bottle. it’s the same as vinegar but a 100 times stronger and the cost is very cheap. I’ve been using it for years. Just be very carefully not to get it on your hands. If you do, rinse them in water quickly. Also Arm & Hammer baking soda will stop the acid completely.
I have hear of a mix of Vinegar, Dawn and Salt. I’m told Dawn helps to strip the weed of it’s protective oils so the vinegar can do it’s thing. Not sure what the Salt will do really. I wont use the salt, but I think a little dawn can’t hurt?
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I tried this on the weeds growing in the cracks of my driveway and they are still alive. I didn’t dilute the vinegar so what did I do wrong?
I have been reading through the comments and noticed that many of the ‘weeds’ that people are trying to eradicate are herbs with medicinal qualities. Please do a little research on your ‘weeds’ and if they are beneficial, try contacting a local herbalist to see if he/she has any interest in them. Or, if you have gobs of them you could try selling them yourself.
How does this effect soil ph for future planting?
And to think, I have repeatedly tried to grow bermuda grass in my yard to no success.. I have a yard of basically weeds and clover and a few tiny patches of bermuda. One mans trash is another mans treasure.
I wonder if this would work for moss on roofs??!
Thanks for the great tip’s. But i have to ask what would the vinegar do to my plant’s. And what is an easy cheap why to keep bugs from eating my plants? Thank you. Have a nice day!
I have more weeds than grass in my yard. If I kill everything and spread some grass seeds, will the weeds come back too? I am very new to yard work so if this sounds crazy please be gentle with me.
Kevin this is so awesome that you posted this, because I have had concerns about using the roundup, because of the toxins and inhaling it not to mention my kids. Also my son loves to help me with outside projects and i wanted something safe for him and me. I’m so glad vinegar works. I have a ton of weeds to kill the safe way now. I’m back to the store to refund my money for the roundup.
Thanks so much.
Kevin, I have a lot of buttercups and ragweed in my horse’s pastures, can I spay vinegar on them and what if it gets on the grass? Will it kill grass also? Thanks
I have several issues I need help with. I will try the vinegar on my yard but I have massive red ant troubles. I would go out and sit in the yard and pull weeds and it seems the ants are right with the weeds. Also I have feral cat troubles as well. Is there something I can use that is natural that will detour them as well. Ant help will be appreciated Thank you.
What type of Vinegar, Brown or white, or a particular type please advise x
Has anyone tried vinegar on Ivy? I’d appreciate any comments.