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Vinegar (acid kill)

Vinegar is an acid and is a non-selective herbicide. This means that given a strong enough solution it will kill just about all plants. Vinegar works best when used in the heat of the day. The heat helps it react with the plant faster (before it breaks down or evaporates). The only real problem with vinegar is that if you are only spraying (rather than dousing) the ground you will most likely end up with only a top burn leaving the roots alive. It is only partially effective on grass and you will have to do several application for grass and other stubborn weeds.

Materials:

Spray bottle or mixing container

Ingredients:

1 gal Vinegar (10%-20% is better)
Optional
    2 Teaspoons of soap (recommended for all additional ingredients)
    1/4 the cup of Orange oil
    1 cup of Concentrated Lemon Juice
    1/2 cup salt- We do not recommend.... see additional information

Making the Acid based Weed Killers:

Simply mix the ingredients together. Shaking is faster and more through than stirring.

How to use Acid based Weed Killers:

Use protective clothing and do not get in skin or in eyes. This is a relatively weak acid but in your eyes it will burn like the dickens. It may irritate tender skin if you don't wash up after words.

Locate your target and spray to have a top burn. Top burns will kill most weeds after 2- three applications (some after one). For more complete kills pour the solution on the ground where the offending weed is.

On repeated applications you should wait till you see green growth again to spray... spraying dead top growth doesn't make it more dead. When you repeatedly kill the top growth you depleat the plants reserves and it will eventually die. Some plants have more reserves (like nutgrass) and may be very hardy to this approach... it will work eventually. We suggest hand weeding nutgrass.

Additional Information:

Some people swear that salt makes most weed killers better... and it does. However over time, with repeated applications, it can build up in the soil and keep anything from growing and keep the soil from being a living soil. We suggest against it. Some people only use salt on the cracks in pavement (this is why we included it).