About a month ago there was a thread here about using vinagar as a herbacide. I cought the thread late in the discussion and so did not read the source.
Who came up with the idea? How strong a solution? What about other acids, ie Muratic?
Thanks,
Ed Upshaw Anna Maria Island, A quaint little drinking village with a fishing problem.
I've used vinegar on a limited basis, mostly on walkways for the weeds growing through the cracks. It has worked very well. What I like best is that it's completely non-toxic.
I'm using 20 percent which is "leavings" in the barrels I purchase in which I plant potatoes (and one strawberry barrel with an herb barrel to follow). The barrels are 50-gallon barrels used by a food processing company which they sell for $5 each after they empty them. The vinegar barrels are white; they also have soy sauce barrels which are a beautiful blue but tough to carry in your car because they make you hungry with the soy sauce smell . . . keep thinking of stopping for teriyaki!
Another thing vinegar is excellent for is to remove rust from tools, works great!!!
Sources to purchase the stronger stuff? I've not yet found any. What we buy in the grocery store is five percent. I felt fortunate to happen upon the 10 percent.
Glenna
Um, no it isn't non toxic. It's extremly toxic to soil biota as well as to plants. If it weren't toxic, it wouldn't work. Admittedly, most of the herbicide action is because of it's phytotoxicity, which is why you get regrowth that must be retreated.
It's also darn dangerous to humans if you get it in your eyes, and I wouldn't want to handle it without gloves either.
It's not organic either.
Or without negative effect on the soil.
I saw it at Lowe's a few weeks back. I think it was 20% acidity.
Tyler
Hi, Vinegar is an organic acid. HTH -_- how no NEWS is good
Lots of things are toxic to insects, or various kinds of bacteria, or yeasts, that are not toxic to vertebrates. I think the questioner probably understood that a pesticide must be toxic to the pest, and probably meant to ask if vinegar would harm the plants or humans. As fallen fruit generates vinegar (probably beneficial to the plant as a natural insecticide), and many members of genus Homo use vinegar on salads, the answer would seem to be obvious.
A whole industry needs to be closed down.
This will be news to vintners who permit air to reach their wine.
See above. Nevertheless, it is not a good idea to drench the garden with acetic acid. If you have done so inadvertently, follow with a dressing of lime, which will turn it into calcium acetate, and rescue the pH.
Perhaps it was 20% Acetic Acid. Acidity is measured by pH.
I'm admittedly no chemist. However, the label clearly stated 20% acidity. I just check a bottle in the pantry and it states 9% acidity.
Tyler
I'm sure it is labelled as you say.
Whatever it says, "xx% acidity" has no meaning in the real world. The only possible intent must be "xx% acetic acid".
It is as if whiskey manufacturers would label the product "40% drunkeness" instead of "40% alcohol" or a proof rating, in the belief that semi-literate purchasers would find that more meaningful.
Wouldn't it be more akin to calling rubbing alcohol "100% alcohol" as opposed to "100% isopropyl alcohol"?
Calling the product e.g. "100% acid" would be like calling the rubbing alcohol "100% alcohol", and would be equally misleading and equally uninformative. Calling it "100% acidity" (or whatever number) doesn't make any sense at all, no matter how you slice it.
a word of caution if using muriatic acid (hydrochloric acid) - the description as labled probably is 20 baume (specific gravity) 20% acid by weight...use caution when using it as it will burn your skin and don't breathe in the vapors or any vapors that are emitted when or if it comes into contact with anything. very nasty stuff - it even eats up steel!!!
It was vinegar.
Tyler
The stuff you put on salad is usually about 5 % acidity, which has a mass percentage of between 4.0% and 5.5% acetic acid. The stuff at Lowe's has much more acetic acid. Vinegar is a weak acid, and is relatively safe when used in low concentration (i.e., you can eat it). The 20 % acidity material will be a strong lachrymator and skin irritant. Do not use Muratic Acid, a.k.a. Hydrochloric Acid. This is a strong acid and it will do harm to you and the environment.
Derek
Belladonna is an organic alkaloid. It's from the Foxglove plant -- a gorgeous plant.
Both are useful, if used properly.
29% of modern pharmeceuticals are plant derivitatives. Used wisely, they're wonderful. Used improperly, they can kill people. *shrug*We're doing trials here at my house using 20% acetic acid on cow parsnip, which is invasive in my area. (We call it "push' -key " which is a borrowed word from the Russian fur traders who showed up in this neighborhood about 150 years ago. The Russians married the Aleut gals, so our local dialect is full of "borrowed" words from Russia.)
Jan, in southcentral Alaska
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