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Mix salt and vinegar, spray or pour it on when it is dry and wont rain for at least a day. It really works and is safer than most off the shelf herbicides. If you want to go nuts - put a big pot on your barbecue grill (outside for ventilation) and heat up a pot of vinegar and a little water, pretty hot, but not boiling - keep adding salt and stirring in until it (salt) wont dissolve anymore. Let cool and now you have a concentrated mix. Tip: use water softener salt from a hardware store - its a lot cheaper than table salt from a grocery store and works just as good. Buy vinegar by the gallon at a bulk foods store.

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14y ago
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6y ago
SaltSalt. Pour Morton table salt between cracks in sidewalks where weeds and grass come up. Pour enough so that it is mounded up an inch or so above the sidewalk. You will be amazed! Vinegar-the wonderful weed killer.Vinegar. Or salt, but you can control your application better if you use vinegar (unless you want to go through the trouble of mixing salt with water in a high concentration).

Vinegar is great for many things and when it comes to weeds, it really works, even on Ironweed, a tough cookie in our area. If you need to apply it to a weed or plant that's in the middle of other plants you don't wish to get a dose, then cut the top off of the weed or plant and dip it in the vinegar. This might take more than one treatment, of that I'm not sure. I've never done it that way. We always just pour or spray it over the area that needs treatment, and a couple of days later your weeds are dying or already dead.

A Weed Killer formulation I've used for interlock brick is to mix 1 gallon white vinegar, 1 cup table salt, and 1 tablespoon dishwashing liquid. I use 5% household vinegar with great success (my interlock has lots of very young, unestablished weeds). I'm told a 15%-20% strength is better, but I can't seem to find it at a reasonable cost.

Other WaysTo my way of thinking, salt [sodium chloride] and vinegar [dilute acetic acid] are both chemicals! For a truly non-chemical method of spot killing any unwanted weeds or grasses is boiling water, or steam from one of those hand-held generators sold for cleaning. Using this technique, I have encountered only two problems.

First, if the amount and/or area of unwanted vegetation is large, it requires a lot of boiling and hauling of water. And second, if unwanted vegetation is in very close proximity to desirable plants, then great care is necessary to prevent contact of the boiling water or steam with the foliage or root system of those desirable plants which you do not want to harm.

Another method for killing relatively large areas, such as for preparing for flower beds or garden plots, is to scalp mow the grass or weeds, then water well, and cover with a sheet of plastic. Stretch it as smoothly and tightly in contact with the mowed vegetation as possible, and weight it down well, especially around the edges to keep the water vapor contained.

The sun will generate heat, which will be concentrated in the vegetation and soil; and water vapor, which will develop over a relatively short time, will kill the vegetation. I think this method is called solarization.

Another natural method is, after scalp mowing, to simply bury the area which you want to clear of weeds with a 6-12 inch layer of any mulching material. This will kill everything, except the millions of seeds which exist in almost every cubic foot of ordinary soil.

IN ADDITIONDon't use the boiling water method listed above. The state I live in tried a fire ant control system called steaming. It consisted of a stainless steel probe about 4 feet long with holes on 4 sides every 6 inches. They took this rod and inserted it into fire ant mounds and applied steam to kill all the ants. It did. Bad thing, it also killed all the bacteria in the soil as well and made it sterile for at least a year.

Ornamec is a very effective, selective grass killer that is safe to use around most shrubs, trees and ground covers. Crabgrass Killer is effective at killing several of the most common species of weeds.

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9y ago
Homemade Weed KillerYou can make a homemade weed killer using white vinegar, salt and dishwashing liquid. Most people call this a weed killer, but it is actually a vegetation killer. It will kill anything it comes in contact with and will change the composition of your soil. If you spray it on your lawn, it will kill the entire lawn and you will not be able to plant new grass for some time. The same is true in your garden. You will not be able to plant where you spray it for several months. So before you do it, think twice. Mix a gallon of white vinegar with a cup of table salt and 1 tablespoon of dishwashing liquid. The dishwashing liquid makes the solution stick to the plant leaves. Make sure you shake the solution to dissolve the salt

Keep in mind that many plants have already dropped their seeds, so the weeds are going to come back. The best solution to eradicate weeds is spend the time to pull them out when they first appear for several years and use the solution to spot kill weeds in a garden but not a lawn.

Homemade Weed Killer #2If weeds appear in the cracks of your sidewalk, the easiest and least expensive method to remove them is to simply pour boiling water on them. This method will kill any weed without using chemicals or changing your soil. This spot treatment can be difficult in tight areas of gardens, but is still very feasible with careful application.
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9y ago

At this time to my knowledge there is no such thing as a weed killer that is selective enough not to kill grass. Your best bet is to find a weed killer and spray it directly on weeds while trying to avoid the grass. Pulling out any weeds in your spare time will also help. Killing weeds before they seed is important to help keep their population down, but remember that some seeds will lie dormant in the soil for years and others will be introduced to your yard through wind or wildlife so you might not see a decrease in the population for some time.

Many household products will kill weeds safely such as vinegar, molasses, sugar, and boiling water. Vinegar is most effective when applied directly to the leaves of the plant.

Vinegar is often mixed with a dish soap or an essential oil (such as clove, or orange) to help it stick to the plant as well as add its own effects. When using soap try to use something gentle and biodegradable and not anything antibacterial. Using vinegar on a hot day is often more effective because it helps to dry out the plant.

Molasses and sugar both stimulate microbes in the soil that will kill any plant that is there but this will leave the soil healthier than before so that grass can grow back. It can help to heat the sugar water or the molasses before pouring it on to kill the weed quicker.

Salt can also be used but high salt content in soil will prevent the grass from growing there as well. This is effective however for places you don't want anything to grow such as in between cracks in cement or in driveways.

Bleach should not be used to kill weeds since it will greatly raise the pH of the soil and prevent anything from living there including the grass. It also will harm any organisms that live in the soil such as earthworms and beneficial microbes.

Also, grass itself can become be an effective weed killer by crowding out the unwanted plants. Keep your grass healthy by aerating (many weeds prefer dense soil), leaving clippings and leaves on the yard to compost, adding a layer of compost over the entire yard in the fall (not too much to completely cover and kill the grass), and letting your grass grow to about 3 to 4 inches before cutting.

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14y ago

Mix one gallon of white vinegar with 2 cups of table salt, and 1 tablespoon of dish soap (I like to use blue original Dawn). I remove about half of a gallon of vinegar and put in the table salt back in the gallon jug and shake until the salt is dissolved. Then pour into a container with spray hose attachment along with the rest of the vinegar. Add the dish soap last to avoid excess bubbles and foam. It is a good idea to rinse the sprayer after use or the salt starts to corrode any metal on the sprayer or will re-crystalize and clog.

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10y ago

A salt-and-vinegar solution is an effective all-natural weed killer for nettles.

Specifically, the ratio has to be at least 1 part salt to 4 parts vinegar. The vinegar must be boiled before the salt is added and dissolved. The solution needs to be applied, red-hot, to the nettles either by pouring over a small area or spraying over a larger.

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16y ago

Roundup is my favourite

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13y ago

Boric acid

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Q: What is a good homemahomemade weed killer?
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