Vinegar could be best weapon in war on weeds

The city is missing out on an environmentally friendly way to kill weeds, without resorting to a weed whacker or chemicals. On Wednesday we reported on thick weeds between the sidewalk, boulevard and curb on Cosburn Ave., which would have been sprayed with toxic weed killer prior to a provincial ban on chemicals in 2009.

We got an email Thursday that said the weeds had just been trimmed by city workers, but we also heard from readers who say cheap and natural solutions are available to nix weeds. The common denominator in the suggestions is household vinegar, which apparently decimates weeds when sprayed on them and works even better mixed with dish soap.

Brian A.X. Storm sent us his recipe: “Large bottle of vinegar. One cup salt. Epsom is best. One cup regular dish soap . . . Spray in the a.m. Dead by the p.m. on a dry day. Works like a charm and no environmental impact.”

Terry Middlemiss said he’s been pickling weeds for five years, “with great success.”

“One part vinegar (pickling vinegar works best because of its high acidic value). Three parts water. Two tablespoons of salt (pickling salt works best). One teaspoon of dish soap.

“Mix together in a spray bottle and spray the weeds, ensuring that the leaves are covered. The dish soap helps it stick to the weeds.

“The problem with whacking them is that it doesn’t kill the roots and the weeds will come back.”

Mike Sloan emailed from London to say he uses straight-up vinegar with nothing else and it works great.

We’d heard that vinegar is a natural weed killer, so we went looking online to see what other people say. And we weren’t disappointed.

The Garden Counselor website says vinegar is cheap and highly effective, but notes it’ll kill everything and cautions that it must be used carefully.

They tried straight vinegar, soap and water only and a mixture of soap and vinegar, concluding that “weeds were affected the fastest and most completely with full strength vinegar and soap. All the weeds appeared completely dead 24 hours later.”

We want to know what other natural solutions, if any, there are to get rid of weeds. Maybe vinegar is the key ingredient, but if you’re using something else, tell us about it.

After the pesticide ban kicked in, people told us about things they use to kill dandelions, which included vinegar. The most unusual was a blowtorch.

“I have the weed torch and a large country lot,” said a reader. “If you torch, just use enough heat to make the little suckers fall over. I got great pleasure in torching them black and have many burned patches as a result.”

We’ll also be asking the city why it isn’t using vinegar. Stay tuned. What’s broken in your neighbourhood? Wherever you are in Greater Toronto, we want to know. To contact us, go to thestar.com/yourtoronto/the_fixer, call us at 416-869-4823 or email jlakey@thestar.ca. Report problems and follow us on Twitter @TOStarFixer.