Organic herbicides

Just learned that there are herbicides that are approved for organic farming and want to find out if anyone has had any success with one? I’ve come across one called Avenger based on citrus rind, another called Torched based on clove oil. There seems to be a whole world of them.

we are not organic farming but use 30% vinegar as an organic herbicide to control weeds.

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Corn gluten can be used as a pre-emergent.

Clanter, thanks, did it work well? Or reasonably well?
The weeds I’m fighting are mostly perennial plants and I expect I’ll need to douse them several times.

Yes and it is possum crack. Do not use it in a flower bed or vegetable garden unless you want the possums to dig the soil all up. Found that out the hard way.

Yikes! Don’t want no jacked up 'possums.

You might try a product like Eco Garden Pro.

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kills any weed within a few hours

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Do you use straight vinegar?

Probably depends on your needs. As I’m sure you know chemical herbicides are formulated to target certain things - for example weeds (of a certain leaf structure) vs. grasses (of a different leaf structure). Or just everything if you want to clear an entire area. Some target roots, unsprouted seeds, etc. You could probably determine what you want to achieve and ask an extension agent for advice.

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Clanter might be referring to a 30% (I think) agricultural vinegar product sold at TSC, RK, etc. I’ve used household vinegar (5%?) with success to kill surface vegetation. It works well, takes a heavy coating and two or three days. It doesn’t kill roots or un-germinated seeds so unless one keeps at it, growth will return. I’m not sure of return rates with the commercial vinegar product.

You can find recipes online. I personally use a gallon or so of grocery store vinegar, “some” dish soap, and top off my spray container with water. I tried it on my gravel drive and yes, it works! But only if I keep reapplying. So my drive has long since retuned to its feral state. I’ve used it in flower borders as a way to clear weeds in preparation for planting other things. I got the cheap spray pump on Amazon.

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yes, the primary feed store we use has been stocking this for at least a decade

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I didn’t know about the 30% strength. How long do the weeds stay dead? I was finding with regular
vinegar they bounced back after a month or so.

Fingers crossed you’ve got good news. :smiley:

You definitely need the higher strength vinegar, AND, use appropriate PPE because that stuff will burn you too. Dead is dead :slight_smile: Regular consumable vinegar isn’t strong enough to plants on its own, at not without repeated applications and even then, it can’t kill a lot of things

Just be careful using salt for any of this, as it will kill the soil too, not just the plants

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Does the 30% vinegar kill the entire plant, roots and all?

Something I’ve come across in my crazed Googling is that the tops are killed off, and not necessarily the roots as the plants don’t translocate the poison into the roots. If the tops can’t make chlorophyll, then of course the plant will die but it may take a few rounds of treatment before the plant roots give up the ghost.
I suspect the evil weed in my fields will be super hard to get rid of. It is nutsedge, which makes little tubers underground. It spreads really really fast. But I will try to get rid of it. May buy a little tiller and hit it with vinegar or whatever and then till and till.

vinegar is an acidic indiscriminate contact killer, it does not get to the roots of a plant but does kill all leafy aspects within hours

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Nutsedge is the devil. Still trying to get rid of a nustsedge infesttion I got years ago from big box store compost.

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