Will spraying vinegar kill gallant soldier weed seeds?

I have fought 5 generations of gallant soldier weeds in my vegetable garden this year. These plants drop thousands of seeds and keep the weeds coming even after the plants are all pulled by the roots. We have just gotten all of the GS weed plants out of the garden (in garbage bags) and the garden is now down to bare soil and ready to be rototilled for next spring. I am sure there are lots of tiny GS seeds on the top of the soil that flew off the plants as we were pulling them. I'd love some help in knowing how to keep the seeds from germinating next spring and summer. Before we rototill the garden, if we spray vinegar on the top of the soil, will it kill the seeds? Is there anything else known to kill them?? I don't think my back can stand another year of such intensive and constant pulling of these weeds. I don't have any other spot that is sunny enough for a veggie garden or I'd just start over. Help please??

My 92 yr old mother puts down multiple layers of newspaper (just black & white newsprint, not the shiny colored stuff it doesn't decompose well) then mulches over the newspaper. If a weed does make it thru, she pulls it and drops it on top of mulch to decompose and add to the mulch layer.

I use the newspaper method, too. With this stubborn pest, I'd make my layer of paper pretty thick, and overlap the edges deeply. If you do it now and put a thick layer of mulch on top, by spring it "should" be dead. Good luck to you.

Thanks, Mommy and Cathy! It's a pretty large garden, so mulching it now would be a pretty big undertaking, but that's what I may have to do if spreading vinegar with a water can won't work. I appreciate your thoughts on this!! We MUST find some way to defeat this horrid weed. The seeds winter over dormant and come up in the spring. In light of the dormancy over winter, would mulching the garden now be of much use? Thank you again!!

What a truly wonderful name for a city, Quiet Corner.

The seeds may try to sprout in the spring, but if you put enough newspaper and mulch on top, they should smother before they can get going.

Have you looked at the threads on lasagna gardening? They will give you lots of information on newspaper stacking and mulches.

Cathy - No, I haven't see those threads and will check them out asap. Thank you. I guess we should start saving our newsprint!!!

I have found that vinegar works well on annuals for killing foliage, but most perennial weeds are very resistant to it. They regrow their foliage and come back with more vigor than before.

I would recommend solarizing. You lay down a layer of clear plastic which creates enough heat in the soil to kill the seedlings as they sprout. I use that during the winter in beds I plant nightshades or before creating a new bed to kill sod.

You might also consider this one of the rare times you should try an herbicide. Glycophosphate (round up) breaks down in about 30 days into compounds that are relatively harmless and eventually into carbon dioxide. If used now, by your spring planting your garden soil should be ready for seedlings and you can have the weeds issue under control enough the pulling by hand and hoeing will be able to control the rest.

Great suggestions. Round up would be the easiest way, just make sure it isn't windy and follow the directions. More is not better. I keep a small spray bottle of it for a fence line problem we have, a neighbor has bamboo that runs and no amount of digging keeps it out.

Interesting! Does Roundup work on bare soil? I thought it required foliage to work? We have the garden down to bare soil now. I used it earlier in the summer on some of the GS weeds, but even though I was very careful and there was no wind blowing, my nearby peppers did suffer some impact from it.

Nope, you'll have to wait till you see some foliage to apply.
If you want to stop the seeds from germinating, you'd have to use a pre-emergent like Preen.
I have never used it, but from what I understand about it, I wouldn't use Preen in a vegi garden space.

I have used Preen in the veggie garden without a problem, but it doesn't do a thing to the gallant soldiers. I prefer not to use the pre-emergents like Preen, but I have used it in certain sections. There are only certain weeds it prevents, so several of the ones we have - especially the GSs - aren't daunted by much!

Renwings....we tried your method of spreading clear plastic all over the garden. We have just completed covering the garden.......our local hardware store had a great sale on 4 mil clear plastic in 25' X 10 ' sheets. We had to buy 6 packages, but it is now down and we will see how we fared in the spring! Thanks for the suggestion! Would not have thought of it on my own.

I hope it works! It does require sunlight to work so you may end up planting a late season garden to let the warming spring sunshine do its magic.

We will spend the winter in Fla., so I'm hoping that the sun now and in April will warm it up and do its thing, so it'll be ready for tilling and planting in May. I'll keep you posted! Thanks again for sharing your knowledge!

Wow! what a pest, i've never seen soldier weeds before. I have a horrible time with ground cherries, coming up everwhere, and their getting worse. I just keep pulling and pulling.

Though I'd never use round up in the veggie garden, Only thing I do is keep them hoed. not a good solution. especially if a person would want to go organic like I do. You do have a problem there don't cha!! Good ness!!

Oh, Kathy, I hope you never meet up with the gallant soldiers!!! I literally got sciatica from having to pull so many generations of them all summer. Once I quit weeding, the sciatica went away. My DH and I are so hoping this will be the end of them for next summer's sake. Here's a shot of my garden with the clear plastic spread on it.......lovely, huh??? LOL

hey it looks better than with all those soldiers in there LOL

True!! You saw the earlier post.....and I'd have to agree with you!! LOL