"0tterbot" wrote in message
...
i was just surprised to read in the smh you can spray weeds with white
vinegar, (to kill them, not to make them taste better ;-)

surprised, because i haven't ever heard such a thing!!!

has anyone tried this? i am having increasing problems with sheep sorrel &
had intended to spray them with zero once the leaves are growing again,
but would be more than pleased to give vinegar a go instead. i'm not big
on zero but i can't think of a better way to deal with the sheep sorrel,
which is becoming out of control & virtually impossible to clear by
hand-weeding & grows in places that can't be solarised. i also get some
kind of weedy clover thing in my paths, which annoys me beyond endurance.

Gardening Aus recently had a show where the elderly chap in Qld (Colin by
name if I got his name right) had a whole lot of organic solutions for
probs. One of the organic solutions was the vinegar weedkiller, but it's
not just vinegar. The recipe is 1 Cup cooking salt (not iodised) dissolves
in a Litre vinegar - brush on weeds and dont' get it on anything else
because he says it'll kill it.

The other organic solution he had which we're now trialling is to stop
grasshoppers which was 1 Cup molasses dissolved in 1 litre of water and
sprayed on plant foliage - this solution seems to actually be working.

But back to the f***ing sheep sorrel! I too have a problem with it but more
in my paths than in my beds (generally). One bed does have a problem with
it but I didn't prepare that bed at all well and one thing I've found with
sheep sorrel is that it really doesn't seem to like well prepared beds - it
grows best in shit soil. I've also found that Roundup does not kill it.

Sorrel in paddocks is always an indication to farmers that they need to
apply lime. We did that on a paddock of our other farm and that has
certainly worked well in the paddock - you dont' look across the paddock now
and see that typical red tinge of the sorrel flowering - it's still there of
course but the other species are more dominant now. It works to some extent
to check it so you might try adding lots of dolomite and see if that helps.