Vinegar, Epsom salt and soap DO NOT KILL WEEDS (growing, Hydrangea, grass)
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It frustrates me no end to see and hear this all the time. Sure it will kill the plant parts you see but NOT THE ROOT. So what good is that? The plant comes back in time.
Read this or simply listen to the radio interview.
I never heard of using epsom salts in those DIY recipes until this year. No idea where this came from. The old recipes always used salt. Epsom salt and salt are 2 different things.
Salt kills weeds, Epsom salt actually fertilizes them.
Personally I just use 50 lb bags or road salt, and skip all of the mixing. People will yell at me and say that salt will kill the soil permanently, but this is not true. I used to dump it on my gravel driveway each year to kill the weeds that were tough as nails. Some always reseeded back a year later, proving that salt will not render soil infertile permanently; it will work as a long term weed killer, however.
It frustrates me no end to see and hear this all the time. Sure it will kill the plant parts you see but NOT THE ROOT. So what good is that? The plant comes back in time.
Read this or simply listen to the radio interview.
Many modern people living urban lives do not understand plant roots. They just see a plant growing above ground and either want it or don't want it. To them, if the green is gone the plant is gone.
Modern people have no concept of plant roots being the foundation of the plant, in the same way the basement is the foundation upon which a house is built.
Most modern people have little interest in plants and how they operate.
It is stunning how people corroborate plant life to mammal life. Look at all the photos of dead plants we see in here with the owners asking how they may be resuscitated. They can't be. Dead is dead with a plant, and often the problem is underground.
Most home weed control adds more 'poison' to the environment than the miniscule amount of chemical in a well studied and well regulated commercial product. Vinegar is probably safe environmentally, but concentrated table salt and epsom salts are pollutants. Once you pollute the soil and water supply with salts, soaps, and such you have done the environment no favors.
At least the regulated chemicals get inactivated or destroyed by various means within a short time of encountering the environment. Long term soil and stream health is what nature is all about.
Last edited by luv4horses; 07-27-2015 at 07:20 AM..
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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Epsom salts, in the proper dilution as a foliar spray, are a great source of magnesium, which is often lacking in older soil, especially in some geographic areas such as here in the Northwest. I use it when the leaves of certain plants such as Hydrangea are starting to yellow and they green up soon after. As for weeds, the plain white vinegar will kill broad leaf weeds to the roots if used on a hot day. For grasses you will have to re-apply often when they sprout back, and it's useless on Ivy. As much vinegar (and time) as it takes, it makes far more sense to spend the money on Roundup which kills to the roots fairly fast.
No chemical herbicide or home-made concoction beats the effectiveness of carefully pulling weeds by hand after a good soaking rain, but few are willing and able to do it.
Last edited by randomparent; 07-27-2015 at 03:52 PM..
No chemical herbicide or home-made concoction beats the effectiveness of carefully pulling weeds by hand after a good soaking rain, but few are willing and able to do it.
This is true, randomparent. But in my experience, pulling up the weed and its root also disturbs the soil such that new weed seeds are 'activated' (usually by sunlight). When you use a chemical killer like round-up, the weed just dies in place and fewer new weeds appear later in the same spot.
This is true, randomparent. But in my experience, pulling up the weed and its root also disturbs the soil such that new weed seeds are 'activated' (usually by sunlight). When you use a chemical killer like round-up, the weed just dies in place and fewer new weeds appear later in the same spot.
Absolutely true.
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