The article I pulled this image from says: Imagine no more nasty chemicals and no more weeds in your backyard! We will show you How To Make DIY Weed Killer that is natural and toxin free. The best part? These recipes are so simple to make and works like magic. A weed is any invasive plant that can harm your gardening effort. If you don’t control weeds, they will thrive fast take control of your back yard rapidly. Some example of typical weeds are dandelion and crab grass. In this recipe, you only need three natural ingredients to make DIY weed killer 1 Gallon Vinegar 2 Cups Epsom Salt 1/4 Cup Dawn Dish Soap You can use regular white vinegar or apple cider vinegar. Many find that table salt works fine if not better than the Epsom Salts. Apply the solution during sunny days for best results. There were a couple interesting comments, too........ Epsom salt is actually Magnesium sulfate, (magnesium and sulfur), which is necessary for healthy plant growth, has a neutral PH, is beneficial for your soil, & most plants in your garden. You’d have better results using regular table salt. Table salt alone can kill weeds and makes the soil unsuitable for weeds and undesirable plants to grow for quite some time, even years, so is best not to use in the garden or near other desirable plants or vegetation. I use it on my gravel driveway. Vinegar will kill the plant above ground, but has little effect on roots, so it’s a good idea to mix it will salt. Plain boiling water also kills anything, but use with caution because it can kill the roots of nearby plants ----------------- You don’t want to ruin the soil for future growth of desirable plant. This solution does not harm the soil. it kills when it gets on the plant, and then actually makes the soil better. That is the beauty of it. ----------------- the best vinegar to use is cleaning vinegar but the regular vinegar works also but not as good as the cleaning vinegar. Interesting comment on the salt, I will try both. There was also a video that accompanied the article. The video showed a comparison between the homemade solution and Round Up I think. Did as good a job, though the instructions in the video were that it takes several days (not later that day) to show accurate results. What do you think? Anyone ever used this solution?
It appears to be one of the many versions of the same idea. The vinegar needs to be 20% acidity (kitchen vinegar is not strong enough to do the job) the dish soap will break the surface tension on the plant leaves and let the vinegar do it's thing....not really sure about the Epsom Salt, I do know it is used as a plant nutrient in early spring.
Well Ronni, if I were a plant, I sure wouldn't want that sprayed on me. Are you going to try it? If so on what? I am about to kill some crabgrass with something a lot more deadly. Your alternative sounds much more 'friendly'. Jerry
Ronni --I have been using just reg. 7% vinegar I buy at the store to spray on bull thistle roots after I have cut then off. They never regrow. I also spray it on weeds like creeping jenny, plantain, and grass that I do not want growing. Like Toni said it is not as strong as 20% percent vinegar, but it does kill. Plus you have to be really careful that you do not get the 20% vinegar on your bare skin as it can burn you. Sometimes I do have to repeat spraying for grass. But it really does a great job killing other weeds. I will have to put a few drops of dish soap in my mixture with Toni's info on surface breakdown. Spray on a nice sunny day and by, by, weeds. I would keep the Epsom salts out of the mix as the vinegar will do the job just fine.
I had tried with just vinegar and those weeds came back even stronger so I dug them out ! I'll try with vinegar, soap and salt . They are such nuisance.
I use the vinegar (just household), purple Dawn dishsoap and Epsom salt and have been quite successful in killing weeds. I am out there though soon as I spot one so usually they're still pretty small and tender when I'm spraying them.
You can buy the cleaning vinegar at our Woodman's grocery store and it is a lot stronger. I will give this a try . Thank you..
I just mixed it up and it only did a small portion of the lawn with one gallon...meaning we have a lot of dandelions this year ...trying to be organic is not easy. We put the nozzle down to the stems of the dandelion and sprayed. It is time consuming that way but at least you aren't killing as much grass. Hopefully this will work and we can do a few more batches tomorrow.
DIY weed killer 1 Gallon Vinegar 2 Cups Epsom Salt 1/4 Cup Dawn Dish Soap Ronni....this really works well. Not as fast as some and be careful in the lawn or close to flowers. We treated the dandelions in our lawn and it leaves a dead spot which will fill in with grass when things start growing but our DANDELIONS are dead on the ones we treated. Thank you for the recipe for the weed killer.
