Vinegar for My Weeds
- Vinegar (acetic acid) sprayed on weeds works because it draws all of the moisture out of the leaves of the plant, causing the leaves to turn brown and brittle within a matter of hours, especially if you sprayed on a bright sunny day.
- Vinegar kills the leaves and stems of weeds, but not the roots. If you spray young weeds two or three times, they will die completely because their withered leaves are not able to provide any nutrition to the plant. The roots eventually die from lack of sustenance. On the other hand, established weeds with strong root systems can recover and put out new growth, which requires another round of spraying. For these plants, you may be able to keep the new growth down, but you are unlikely to kill the weed completely.
- If you spray vinegar on your lawn, it will kill the leaves of the weeds but it will also kills the leaves of grass, leaving you with unsightly brown spots. The same principle applies to gardens. The vinegar will kill every plant it touches, so you would need to be very careful in how you apply it. Vinegar is especially good for applications such as walkways, driveways, patios and rock walls because you want to kill all the plants that are growing up between cracks and pavers.
- If you add a capful of dishwashing liquid to a gallon of vinegar, you will increase the effectiveness of the vinegar as a weed killer. The dishwashing liquid leaves a soapy film on the plant's leaves that will damage their ability to "breathe," hastening their demise. Adding salt to the vinegar does not seem to make much difference. You could also use a higher concentration than is usually available in grocery stores. A 10 percent solution of vinegar is more effective than a 5 percent solution, but you must be very careful if you increase the strength of the solution. Vinegar is an acid, and strong acids can irritate your skin, lungs and eyes.