What Is the Best Kind of Salt to Use as a Weed Killer

Bootleg weed killers are all the rage and vinegar or common salt or a combination of the two are highly publicized. How well do they piece of work? How do they compare with Roundup? In today'due south post I volition compare the three options by testing them on existent weeds in my garden.

Homemade weed killer – vinegar and common salt

Vinegar, Homemade Weed Killer

I've discussed vinegar before in Vinegar Weed Killer Myth . It is constructive against small weed seedlings, and it does destroy the green leaves in a higher place ground. It has very trivial result on roots.

In this post vinegar refers to the stuff you can buy in a grocery store. It does not include 20% acetic acrid which is a dangerous chemic that does impale some weeds.

Common salt, Homemade Weed Killer

Salt, commonly in the form of sodium chloride, the table common salt, is recommended quite a bit for killing weeds. It can be used in water, as a solid or even mixed with vinegar.

Salt does impale weeds, as well as all other plants. Sodium is a toxic metal ion which dissolves hands in water. It moves through soil along with the water. If the amount of sodium is high plenty it kills plants, so it should be no surprise that it kills weeds.

Different synthetic or organic pesticides which break down over fourth dimension, the sodium ion does not break down. It might be done away by h2o to another location, like the soil where you grow favorite plants, or into local rivers and lakes, just it will always be somewhere.

Someone on a social network group said they kill weeds by applying common salt, and zip grows in the spot for at least 2 years. Not bad – the weeds are gone considering the soil has been contaminated so much goose egg will grow there until water leeches the excess sodium abroad. That does not audio like practiced gardening to me.

Roundup Weed Killer

The active ingredient in Roundup is a chemical called glyphosate. Contrary to popular belief, this is a safe chemic (ref i) and information technology works very well on about plants.

Glyphosate is absorbed by the leaves of growing plants and is transported to the roots. There, it slowly kills the roots and in turn the whole constitute dies. This process is adequately irksome, and commonly takes ten – xiv days for the found to die.

Roundup vs Vinegar vs Salt

The above descriptions are basic facts about the three weed killers. I wanted to run into them in action and be able to compare them to meet how effective they really are.

I know Roundup works since I take used it in the past on a few very stubborn weeds including dishonest grass and bindweed. I have never used vinegar or table salt.

In early spring, I dug out some good sized dandelions and potted them up. I took expert intendance of them for a couple of months to make sure they were growing well. The picture below shows the three plants but before being sprayed with a weed killer.

Homemade weed killer – Before being sprayed, June 22

Each pot was sprayed in one case with one of these: Roundup, pickling vinegar (7% acetic acid), and salt (i/4 loving cup sodium chloride per liter water).

After treatment, all three pots were added to my nursery of potted seedlings, which are watered every day unless information technology rains. They received sun most of the day, with a fleck of shade belatedly in the day.

Two weeks subsequently spraying.

Bootleg Weed Killer – Roundup vs Salt vs Vinegar, July 6

From feel, I know Roundup takes about x days to start showing results. Plants are ordinarily dead at the 2 week marking. Information technology looks like salt likewise did a good chore and that was not unexpected. Salt, at high levels, is toxic to well-nigh plants. Vinegar had browned off the leaves a bit afterward spraying, but new ones soon grew dorsum. The vinegar treated institute is smaller than before spraying, simply is growing fine.

Eight Weeks After spraying

Homemade Weed Killer – Roundup vs Salt vs Vinegar, August 16

Does Salt Kill Weeds?

You can meet from the higher up film that the salt sprayed on the plant was not plenty to kill information technology. Things might accept been unlike if the plant had been in the ground. Table salt is very soluble in water, and more watering ways that it is done abroad quicker. The constitute would not accept been watered every bit much if it was in the ground and and then the common salt might have stuck around longer, in turn killing the plant. But that is simply a approximate.

The common salt treated plant is non nearly equally large as the vinegar treated plant. So common salt certainly affected the dandelion more than the vinegar spray.

Salt may be better at getting rid of weeds, but it is just non a good idea for treating weeds in the garden. Adding salt to your garden is not good for your plants or the surroundings.

Does Vinegar Impale Weeds?

The pickling vinegar did do some initial damage to the leaves, but it clearly did non kill the establish. This is consistent with scientific reports that say vinegar at 5% or vii% have very trivial effect on weeds that accept well established root systems. Run across Vinegar Weed Killer Myth for more details.

Vinegar will not impale most weeds in the garden. xx% Acerb Acid does kill some weeds, but is not constructive on all types.

In my next post I exam vinegar's ability to impale other types of weeds Vinegar Weed Killer Myth Revisited .

Will Vinegar + Common salt Kill Weeds?

Some recipes recommend a mixture of both vinegar and salt. This is probably more effective than just vinegar solitary, but again table salt is merely no proficient for the garden. I would not use it.

Many of you will accept trouble believing me when I say Roundup is less damaging to the environment than salt. Roundup degrades fairly rapidly equally leaner and is converted to h2o and CO2. Salt stays in the surroundings for always.

references:

1) Glyphosate technical Fact Sheet: http://npic.orst.edu/factsheets/glyphotech.html

two) All photos by Robert Pavlis

perrywromem.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.gardenmyths.com/homemade-weed-killer-roundup-vs-vinegar-vs-salt/#:~:text=Salt%2C%20Homemade%20Weed%20Killer,or%20even%20mixed%20with%20vinegar.

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