I've got 9% vinegar right now. Some say that vinegar doesn't kill Bermuda Grass...that must be one of the hardest things to kill.

Can I use regular white vinegar from the supermarket? Also, is it 1 TB of hand soap or dish soap? And do you use less soap if you're making a small batch?

I've heard about vinegar being used as a weed killer. So it's half and half with water. But how much mix for 1 tablespoon of soap? And any kind of soap? Thanks, I'll have to give it a try.

By soap, I think she means dish soap. I've heard that pickling vinegar is even better, but I use regular white vinegar on my brick path to kill the weeds that come up through the bricks. I drop one tablespoon of dish soap (it helps the vinegar stick to the plant) into the gallon jug, shake it up, and then pour it carefully onto the path. I suppose if I diluted it by half it wouldn't take quite so many jugs to do the whole path. It works great, though!

Thanks, For this tip I had no idea I could use this.

Horticultural vinegar is 20%. You can get it at Amazon, but its quite pricey--especially with added shipping costs.

http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UT...

Ive tried white vinegar, but it doesn't work on the weeds I have.

Here's another source, currently on sale. I have no idea if the vendor is reliable or not.

http://www.flowerdepotstore.co...

I've used straight white vinegar (Wal-Mart's cheapest!) on the industrial strength weeds around here and it works quite well. Nice thing about vinegar, too, is that I can use it around the critters.

Will it work on prickley pear cactus??? If so I'll buy a CASE.

Try it! Vinegar is cheap, and if it doesn't work you can either cook with it or clean with it.

Yup. Use it marinate that prickley pear; it IS supposed to be good to eat.

gingin said:Will it work on prickley pear cactus??? If so I'll buy a CASE.

Wild-growing prickly pears are great, why would you want to get rid of them? The fruits are nice and sweet -- good for juicing or making jelly, and the pads are delicious when sliced and cooked. I'm getting hungry thinking about nopales and egg tacos...

Jon...it has gotten really bad in the yard and dog run. Out the back acres I don't care, but I like bare feet and I worry about the dogs and spines. Blooms are very pretty.

Hmm. I didn't think about this & I hate using regular RoundUp or other chemicals with my roses. Do you think using straight vinegar in a jar & sticking a trailing vine of the weed (in my case, Bindweed) into the jar would do the trick? Bindweed drinks RoundUp like KoolAid & is impossible to kill by pulling. All you need to do is leave a 1/4" of a root behind & you got a new plant. I don't qualify for the insects that the CO Dept of Ag gives to farmers/ranchers to get rid of bindweed.. my yard is too small. And Bindweed doesn't seem to do too much damage to my roses. I just don't like having weeds everywhere. LOL

If Roundup won't touch it, I doubt the vinegar would, but what the heck, worth a try! I wonder if one of those little things I've seen for essentially electrocuting weeds would work for bindweed? I've been tempted to try one of those.

I've heard that if you put a jar of RoundUp full strength & put some of the vines in it, that kills the plant, but it takes like a week or so for it to be 100% effective. The full-strength roundup is SOOO expensive. Thinking about just getting some 2-4D, but the idea of having Agent Orange in my house, with my father being a Vietnam Vet, is kinda creepy.

Using high strength herbicide can be counter productive. You have to look at the way herbicide works. The idea is for the herbicide to be taken in and distributed throughout the plant. This is best achieved during maximum growth in a healthy plant. The slower reacting nature of diluted poisons allows transfer without immediately killing the plant tissue. As the poison spreads through the plant it slowly makes it sicken and then eventually die wherever the poison has reached. Concentrated poisons will kill the tissue they come in contact with thus blocking further absorbtion Those parts of the plant die and the rest of the plant will resprout from its base that was left untouched. Plants with different types of metabolism react differently to different types of poison. Glyphosate ("Round-up" amongst numerous other brand names) is one of the most all-round herbicides, which is why it's used so much. But there are plants that don't get the same adverse effects. They need something else to knock them out. When it comes to vinegar, I haven't seen anything about how effective or broad ranging it is. I don't know if it has the same problem of becoming less effective in higher concentrations. But it's worth experimenting with to see what it will knock out. If it's not more 'environmentally friendly' than glyphosate, then at least it's a hell of a lot cheaper.

So glad I clicked on this. I will be buying a gallon to try. I am trying to stay green without using Roundup but the grass/weeds are just getting to be such a battle. Found out I have lupus so it is becoming more difficult to maintain a large amount of plants! I will add a link to show my pretties I will be putting it near. Can you apply it with a paint brush? I am worried about getting it on the dls.

http://www.plantstep.com/Flowe...

Teresa in KY

Teresa, You can spray it on even using a pump sprayer if you make sure the wind is calm AND use a large piece of cardboard or such to "shield" your dl's from the overspray. A paintbrush tends to flick liquid so be aware of that.