Shop Products
Houzz Logo Print
droct

Vinegar soaking to kill weeds. Good idea?

droct
15 years ago

I'm considering buying a few multi-gallon containers of White Vinegar from the grocery store (so probably only about 5% concentration) and just dumping it over an old garden patch at my house (been basically unused for god only knows how long before we moved in) that has become overrun with weeds (a number of different kinds, and I'm only just getting into gardening so I can't really quite identify the types yet). Last year I tried spraying some on the surfaces of the weeds with limited success. I'm hoping by pouring on more of the vinegar so it soaks down a few inches into the soil will kill the weeds more throughly. (Hopefully the roots will at least be damaged, so it'll be easier to keep them under control afterward).

My question is this: Is this a good idea? Will this work at all? Will I kill too much good stuff (like bacteria etc) in the soil?

And secondly how long will I have to wait after doing something like this to start planting other things in the area? Will the soil be alright in a week or two? Would I be able to eliminate the vinegar by simply watering the garden after letting it sit in the soil for a few days?

I'm pretty new to gardening, but this year we'd really like to be able to use the garden patch in our yard and grow some of our own food!

Comments (7)

  • Kimmsr
    15 years ago

    Vinegar, in the 10 to 20 percent solutions not the normal household 5 percent solution, is a plant killer. When applied properly, at the right time, bright, hot sunny day, it can kill all the top growth of plants it contacts. Just pouring it on will not really do much since it must contact the plant foliage. I have seen nothing to indicate what Vinegar does to soil bacteria, but since it will kill plants I would suspect that it would adversly affect soil bacteria in some way. I do know that earthworms do not like Vinegar, even normal household Vinegar.
    Rather than pouring something that will cost you a lot of money on your soil, and will not do the job you want done as well as you think, put down some newspaper and cover the newspaper with a good mulch, to hide the paper and hold it in place, and that will kill the "weeds" you have, prevent others from growing, aid in soil moisture retention, and just generally make growing conditions better for the plants you put there.

  • wvbetsy
    15 years ago

    Rather than using vinegar or weed killer on your flower bed, why not put down six layers of black and white newspaper, then a layer of compost followed by a layer of mulch. The weeds will die and decompose along with the newspaper. Wait a month or so then plant your beds. I do this all the time when I want to create a new flower bed. This way I don't have worry with weeds or grass. The newspaper blocks the light and doesn't allow the weeds or grass to grow. The compost conditions the soil. The mulch keeps the soil cool and helps retain moisture.

  • midnight1957
    14 years ago

    I am having a problem finding 10% vinegar in the midlands of SC. Where can I buy it, no one seems to have even heard of it here. One person told me to look at canning stores but there is none around here to my knowledge. Any help will be greatly appreciated without having to mail order it because of the shipping expense.

    Thanks and have a Blessed day.

  • Kimmsr
    14 years ago

    Many garden centers carry "weed" controls containing 20 percent Vinegar, called Acetic Acid most of the time, and the people working in these garden centers do not know that Acetic Acid and vinegar are the same thing, or at least vinegar contains Acetic Acid. Is this a problem with our educational system?

  • STARBABY11221_YAHOO_COM
    13 years ago

    WHY WOULD U SOAK PLANTS IN VINGER.THATS BAD TO KILL PLANTS THEY HELP OUR GARDEN STAY PUT .IM DOING A SCIENCE PROJECT ON KILLING PLANTS I DONT LIKE IT. IM IN THE FITIH GRADE 9 YEARS OLD I HATE IT.

  • robertgarven
    4 years ago

    I have a bulb in my garden that is the most horrible invasive plant, it is even called the devil bulb, as when you try to dig it up the bulb has dozens of small bulblike flakes that fall off and regrow into separate plants. There is no way to kill them except excavation and destroying the soil for around a cubic foot around a plant the size of a pea....


    https://www.sfgate.com/homeandgarden/goldengategardener/amp/Eradicating-noxious-N-gracile-devil-bulbs-2370868.php


    I am experimenting pouring vinegar on the plants to see if it will kill them or slow them down. I am a conservationist and an organic gardner but these are horrible. They are growing in between flagstones and I was hoping I could pour enough vinegar in there that it would kill them

Sponsored
FineLine Kitchens, Inc.
Average rating: 5 out of 5 stars81 Reviews
Award Winning Kitchen & Bath Design Center Serving the DMV Area