Saturday

Vinegar VS Roundup


Everyone has to admit with all the hub-bub about Monsanto and Roundup we need to get back to basics. I love to make my own vinegar but that is another subject. In the garden the stuff I can reuse is endless. I re-use any wood , concrete and odds and ends from all over our neighborhood. Yes, people do look at me strange but when they see how I have used thing's in the yard they are impressed.

But let us stay focused on the use of vinegar in the garden.




Well the information read's kind of like this :

Vinegar is a natural product, usually derived from grain, apples or grapes.
It is distilled through a fermentation process.
The vinegar you buy is typically labeled at 5% acidity. This means it contains 5% acetic acid, the active ingredient.

Acetic acid is what makes vinegar a weed killer. Actually, it makes vinegar a plant killer. Grrrr  because it draws all the moisture out of the leaf.

Spraying full strength vinegar on a plant in full sun will often result in a withered, brown plant in only a few hours, for sensitive weeds, or by the next day in tougher plants.
It is non-selective, meaning it might kill everything it touches. This limits the usefulness of a vinegar weed killer, to the extent that you are able to control over spray that would get on desirable plants.

The Recipe changes from site to site but this is the one I got from a class I took on Natural Alternatives for the Yard

Ingredients

1 Gallon Distilled Vinegar
1 cup salt
1 tablespoon of soap (any liquid soap)
1 cup warm water ( Warm just sounds so soothing for the
poor weeds)


A Great site for information on Vinegar and the Do's and Don't and great information

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