How To Kill Weeds With Homemade Weed Killer and Other Natural Methods
What are Weeds and Why are They a Problem?
Before you can fight weeds, you need to know what they are, how they get onto your land, and how much harm they cause.
- Any plant that has grown out of place or was not planted on purpose.
- A plant that is aggressive or has a negative impact on human activity.
- A plant that obstructs the growth of other plants, flowers, or vegetables.
Weeds, no matter how you describe them, are fierce competitors in the natural world. Weeds multiply quickly as a result of features such as copious seed production, long-term dormancy and survival of buried seeds, and their capacity to grow in places where cultivated plants wouldn’t (or couldn’t).
Around the world, there are an estimated 250,000 plant species, with roughly 8,000 of them acting as weeds.
The following are the most prevalent weeds that impact homes in the United States:
- Lambsquarters are a common vegetable.
- Foxtail
- Glory of the Morning
- Palmer amaranth is a kind of amaranth.
- Waterhemp, redroot pigweed
- Ragweed is a common weed.
- Barnyardgrass
The following are the most frequent weeds in California:
- Annual ryegrass, blanket crabgrass, witchgrass, and creeping bentgrass are examples of grassy weeds.
- Alligator weed, alsike clover, Asiatic hawksbeard, and annual sowthistle are broad leaf weeds.
- These weeds may demolish lawns and gardens, choke out beautiful plants, serve as hosts for pests and plant diseases, and have a detrimental impact on the appearance of your outdoor space if left unchecked.
A beautiful and well-manicured landscape is every gardener’s dream. But then, weeds happen, and in a short while, they become challenging to manage. While chemical herbicides may seem like the go-to products to eradicate weeds, they can be potentially harmful. They’re toxic to the soil, impact groundwater quality, and are unsafe for humans and pets.
If you’d like a chemical-free way of eliminating weeds, there are natural strategies to employ. Some of these methods involve using ingredients that you’ll find lying around your home, so you won’t need to spend so much on weed control. Here’s how to kill weeds with a homemade weed killer.
Vinegar
Vinegar is very efficient in drying out and killing even stubborn weeds like dandelion. You can use household vinegar, which has 5% acetic acid. For quicker results, however, it’s best to purchase a vinegar with 20% or 30% acetic acid from a garden store.
Mix the vinegar with a surfactant-containing item like dish soap to help the vinegar penetrate the weed. Then pour the mixture into a spray bottle and apply directly to the weeds. It’s best to use this method during sunny periods so that rains don’t wash off the vinegar.
Borax Powder
Borax is not only useful for cleaning clothes, but it can eliminate weeds like ground ivy. Its weed-killing nature is a result of the sodium borate compound in the powder. You can prepare the solution with water, transfer it into a spray bottle, and apply it to the weeds.
Corn Gluten
Gluten cornmeal helps suppress the growth of weed seeds from their roots before they spring out from the soil. You can spread the powder over an area and spray some water on top.
Rubbing Alcohol Solution
Just like vinegar, rubbing alcohol can dry up weeds and kill them. Prepare the solution with one quart of water and two tablespoons of rubbing alcohol, and apply with a spray bottle. It’s best to use this solution on a sunny day for better results. When applying homemade weed killers, be careful not to spray them on other plants as they’re non-selective.
Other Natural Methods
Besides homemade mixtures, there are different natural and creative ways to kill weeds. Some strategies include:
Boiling Water: Pouring a kettle of boiling water over the weeds is beneficial, especially for weeds growing in pavement cracks and garden paths.
Newspapers: Put your old papers to work by covering weeded areas with them. They’ll deprive the weeds of sunlight, inhibit their growth, and eventually kill them. You can also use landscape fabric and other organic mulch in place of newspapers, and you’ll get the same result.
If you’ve been battling with weeds, you can try any of these natural and homemade weed killers. You may as well hire a weed control professional to give your landscape an impressive look.
Recipe for a Natural Weed Killer
white vinegar, 1 gallon 1 pound of salt 1 tablespoon dishwashing liquid To get the greatest results, combine the components in a spray bottle and apply to weeds during the sunniest part of the day.
A combination of vinegar, salt, and liquid dish soap offers all of the elements needed to quickly kill weeds as a natural alternative to herbicides. Both the vinegar’s acetic acid and the salt’s sodium chloride are effective at drawing moisture from weeds. Dish soap functions as a surfactant, a substance that lowers surface tension, allowing the weed-killing mixture to bead on the leaves rather than being absorbed by the plant. The consequences of this DIY spray will be seen in a matter of hours on a hot, sunny day, when weeds turn brown and wither.
The outcomes can be quick and effective depending on the weeds and the season. However, there are drawbacks. Because this mixture is not designed to work its way into the root system like certain chemical solutions, numerous applications will likely be required to keep weeds at bay. Furthermore, when seeking for a speedy treatment, sunlight is crucial, and the 5% acetic acid in most household vinegars may fall short of expectations against tougher weeds.
Keeping a spray bottle of this homemade solution on hand is an affordable and often efficient weapon against weeds that may appear along walkways, fences, or house foundations, despite its shortcomings. Spray only the weeds you want to kill, not the soil or neighbouring plants. This weed killer lacks Master Gardener accreditation and is unable to distinguish between weeds and the plants you want to keep around.