New Info on destroying dandelions with vinegar

I was at Costco, and the vinegar aisle was filling up. To 1 gallon of distilled white vinegar add 1 cup of salt and 1 teaspoon of liquid dishwashing detergent. The salt lets it go down and destroy the whole root and the dish detergent makes it stick and not wash away. Such was the conversation in the Costco aisle today. Good luck for all (except dandelions).
Vicki

Wow! Thanks, Vicki!

Better yet, thanks Vicky.

Ok, now how does one apply this to the 1,000,000 dandelions that are in my yard?

Water pistol? Bucket? Fire hose?

Inquiring minds want to know.

Hey, water pistol might work LOL
Only put it on the weed, no where else. It will kill the grass too.

do you have any suggestions about killing the grass? i've always just dug it up which is tons of work.

Never know till you try it, heard from others it works on grass to. just don't get it on you babies.

Thank you, thank you, thank you....I have been pulling dandelions up, only to have them reappear again, I wish what ever chewed off the roots of my poppy would do such a good job destroying dandelions!

AD - you made me laugh! I think a tanker truck would work for you...
The only concern I have about the mix, is the salinity level - seems to be rather high for any plant to be able to cope with. AD - might there be some other substance that would act as a carrier, and not leave saline residue in the soil? And, an approximation as to how long it would take to leach out the excess salts? THX!

Well, I found a quart of vinegar, 25% white, 75% cider, a .25 cup of table salt, and a small squueze of dish detergent.

Went out and hit most of the crack sitters, including the lavish growth of dandes growing in the crack between the driveway and the garage. Then I hit a few monsters in the lawn, with very careful shooting.

I will report back on the death of the evil critters.

As to Kayte saying, the vinegar + salt mix seems totally inhospitable, so it will be interesting to see how fast the evil plant dies, and how long the area is a toxic waste dump. But after my dandelions come out, the area is a toxic waste dump, as nothing will grow there for a good long while. It seems the dandelions must exude a toxin to where they live.

Poured white wine vinegar on a thistle on the fence this evening. Will post on the progress

I used the vinegar, salt and detergent recipe in a spray bottle and sprayed dandelions in my front walk, driveway, and yard.

The areas touched by the liquid were brown and ugly in one day. Its more than a week later, and nothing is regrowing, untouched parts of the plants are still green. I am waiting to see whats going to happen over time.

I am also curious as to how toxic the area will be in my yard. Which is why I did a limited area in the lawn to see what needs to be done to reestablish grass. Will I need to dig the contaminated area out, or can I just over seed in the fall?

The only thing I would be concerned with is the possibility of a high saline level, but it ought to leach out of the soil over time. Do you have a way to check the salinity?

Nope. Just what I was thinking, but the ions should leach out of the topsoil or be neutralized by the winter rain. You have to understand, my yard is so full of weeds, I don't want my yard to become anything like the central valley of california.

Yeah, I figured rain over the winter would probably take care of it.
I was reveling in the fact that I have so few dandelions this year - but the Thistles sure are thick!
I hand pulled weeds that were too tall for the weedeater to handle without them twisting around the shaft. More tomorrow - oh such a fun time that will be!

Anyone ever hear of Thistles keeping gophers away? A neighbor saw my Thistles and said "Oh good, you won't have gophers". I had never heard that one before. I'm always pulling them or they take over. There on a bank that I don't really plant in, but I don't want them up in my yard. My next door neighbor gets gophers or voles or whatever they are, but I don't.

Well I have thistles and voles, so I'm not sure that holds true, at least for the voles. However, I don't have thistles everywhere, and they could manage to avoid those locations. I do pull them out yearly, but they do return.
I'm going to try the vinegar thing on some thistles to see if it kills the root too. Pulling them leaves a little piece to re-sprout later.

This message was edited Jun 29, 2008 10:51 PM

Good idea, let us know how it turns out. I can't always get the whole thing out either.

I have the occasional thistle and the occasional Lambs Ears to pull, but the grasses getting obnoxious in places they can't be weed whacked are the real job in my yard. I guess I am going to have to try some garden edging that will beat them, but I am not looking forward to the installation.

As to the dandes and the vinegar, I noticed one today that appears to be sending up green leaves. It must not have gotten enough to kill the roots. We shall see.

Another crack in the drive got thoroghly washed last night when I left a sprinkler on! I am wondering if those plants will come back.