"FarmI" ask@itshall be given wrote in message
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"0tterbot" wrote in message
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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.




You know I tried that vinegar and salt and you could leave the 2 togeth for
10 years in a jar and you would have salt grains on the bottom and vinegar
on top. The salt doesn't dissolve even if you shook the jar for a week