I’ve been working with homemade garden remedies in one context or another for about 10 years now. As someone who has spent days searching for odd cures to garden problems I consider myself qualified to say that, of all of the remedies I’ve seen, vinegar seems to be the product with the most (supposed) uses. You can kill weeds with it, as well as plant diseases and insects. You can also use it as a fertilizer or even to acidify your soil. It’s amazing! But which of these uses are real and which are just someone flapping their jaws?
Vinegar as an herbicide: White vinegar which is about 5% acetic acid and does a nice job of burning the tops of plants, but not their roots – so a larger weed will live right through a spray even though it will look bad right after the spray. You can buy 20% acetic acid. It works faster, but it has essentially the same problem killing larger weeds that that 5% acetic acid does. Besides efficacy issues there are safety issues also. I’ve used 20% acetic acid and I think that this stuff is too dangerous for the average person. A little in the eyes could cause permanent injury. Just a little whiff of it is enough to make the nose start running (in other words it’s not good for mucous membranes).
Vinegar as a disease control: What a great idea! Spray something that kills plants onto your prized petunias to control disease! OK, when you use vinegar as a plant disease control you do use a lower concentration which shouldn’t hurt the plant. But vinegar has never proven to be particularly effective at controlling plant diseases.
Vinegar as a fertilizer: Nope, doesn’t work. Acetic acid only contains carbon hydrogen and oxygen – stuff the plant can get from the air. The other things that may be in vinegar could be good for a plant – but it seems an expensive method of applying an unknown amount of nutrition.
Vinegar as a soil acidifier: This is one that I’ve seen a lot – and so I tried it. In a nutshell, it just doesn’t work that well. It takes a lot of vinegar and the pH change is brief at best. Use something like sulfur instead.
So to summarize, despite a lot of recommendations, the only thing that vinegar has really proven to be good at is killing weeds – and then only if the weeds are young.
But it does wonderful things for cucumbers… after they’re sliced and put in a bowl! 😉
If its to balance PH, you can’t go wrong w/baking SODA, not baking powder. mix in the gallon of water half cup baking soda before a rain or just sprinkle on top of root base teaspoon or two.
Good gardening once a month balance.
We’ve approved this comment only for educational purposes. Home remedies such as these are neither science-based nor recommended. Rather than trying to “balance” a soil’s pH it’s wiser to plant things that will tolerate your soil’s natural pH, which is controlled by climate and other environmental factors.
I’m with SandyG — though my preference is for a homemade vinaigrette. Vinegar as a weed-killer? Feh! Rather, it’s good at bringing out the subtle flavors of greens: 3 T good olive oil, 1 T balsamic or red wine vinegar, lots of black pepper and some salt, whisked together and poured with restraint over a salad of fresh mixed greens and herbs, will make you feel as if you’re eating your garden, in a good way.
I know they’ve used vinegar for years in water gardening to lower the pH of ponds with no supposed harm to plants and fish. I do believe the recommendation is to not change the pH more than one or two values per day.
Nice debunking article Jeff- enjoyed it.
I still can’t believe that some
one would think that one thing could be both a pesticide and a fertilizer. But aren’t all pesticides bad if you get them in your eyes? My coworker has had a lot of luck with it mixed with a little orange oil to get rid of all the weeds that grow in the cracks in sidewalks, driveways, etc. But I do see that I’m going to need something stronger for my neighbor’s Euonymus to mysteriously die. Or perhaps vinegar is the right thing to make it look sick enough that they take it out.
I agree with the article. Vinegar is great on cucumbers but keep it in the kitchen. If you really want to get rid of weeds the only good way is to dig them out. You need to get the entire root so go online to http://www.diggitinc.com and get a made in America good quality weeder. You can also get a Diggit Duck that takes the weeds out of cracks.
Great summery. Explains what I found, and what I wondered about. I did some freeze condensing of store vinegar, but when it didn’t quite work, I thought I was doing something wrong. I also had plans to use it for soil pH. Is the sulfur ok next to a stream?
how to make vinegar fertilizer for plats
Ten to agree too. I did a fun video about how spraying vinegar on weeds was not as effective as pulling them out by hand and got a lot of dislikes – maybe because the video was too corny but I think mostly because people want to think that it works wonders on weeds. Boiling water works great on weeks in cracks too : )
As a tree expert working in http://envirofrontier.com.au tree care company, I used vinegar for several small and medium sized plants infected with different pests and diseases. Vinegar is somewhat helpful in pushing away pests from plants but not as effective on totally control as some infect a lot as compared with others.
In the US it’s illegal to apply unregistered chemicals as pesticides – you would lose your pesticide applicator’s license. I’m surprised that Australia doesn’t have similar regulations.
I am noticing a lot of fungus nats on my outdoor roses and shrubs in my garden. They are driving me crazy! Any suggestions?
It was recommended to me just this week on GOOGLE to spray my thousands of beautiful roses with vinegar and water to get rid of white powder mildew,i hope its not true that it kills the plants as iv done it twice already,it said to spray every 3 days in very hot sun. I will go crazy if iv killed them.
Soo, could u tell me if vinegar and hot water in a spray bottle can stop my cats from going to bathroom in my flower pots?? And how if u don’t kind?? Thanks in advance
Sorry, Alicia, but this is beyond the scope of this blog. I’d check with your vet for advice. But vinegar and hot water is not going to be good for soil life or your plants’ fine root system.
1gallon vinegar 2cups espon salt n 1/4 cup dawn worked gr8 for me as weed killer
We’ve approved this comment only for educational purposes. Home remedies such as these are neither science-based nor recommended. Please do not use them, but instead ask Extension faculty like ourselves for good alternative methods of weed control.
Thank you for sharing this artilce! I learned a lot while reading it.
Is baking soda good for potted plants such as Christmas cactus?
The only appropriate things to use are registered pesticides. Home remedies are not reliable and can make problems worse.
I HAVE to At Some Point Move my 2 Plants and trim them! Which would be Now, except Two very small orb weavers have recently made their home very low between my plants and crepe myrtle right at the edge of my front porch! Each build a very small web, and while watching the first one, not knowing the next night there was a second – l came 2 inches face to face and literally thought l would die. Having arachnophobia my whole life, this summer, for the first time l witnessed a beautiful orb weaver spinning her web up high between my crepe myrtle and a plant, anchored to the eave above my porćh and down to thick ground cover. She gave me new respect and appreciation of these amazing creatures. She looked like a descendent of the spider Charlotte, in “Charlotte’s Web”, and as My name happens to be Charlotte and middle name Louise ….well, l named her Louise! I greeted her each night; she never minded me watching her by flashlight eating her prey or videoing her repairing her web. Which she never took down, she’d sleep above in the eave of the porch. However l was worried bc l am in the process of moving, this was my Mom’s house and will be on the market shortly. My brothers will be power washing, gutter cleaning, some repainting and definitely tree trimming! I just prayed bc there was nothing except maybe try and get her to relocate Far away! She became quiet one night and stayed all night without coming down. Then one day about 3 weeks after she first came, her web was gone and so was Louise l looked for her yet not too hard, because l was sad that my new friend was gone.and really didn’t want to find her in a bad way. Never in my life have l Ever gotten that close to viewing a spider or would have thought l would without shaking or my hands tingling! Anyway, These two are Completely different and Not friendly! Don’t seem to have poor vision at all!!! They run as soon as they see my light! Very small and their webs are small also and so low to the ground! Why are these so small (l mean Tiny!) and their webs small? My point is….How am l supposed to trim the ground cover? Trim my potted plants or rotate them, weed out dried/dead leaves Without breaking the silk threads ?! And how to let them know not to build back anywhere in the nearby bushes? Some people have gardening to do! Repairs and painting while maybe others can sit and Enjoy these beautiful amazing animals but that’s not always the case!