Weed Control Update
Winter Weed Control Update
It’s time. The summer grasses are dormant and the winter “weeds” are growing. It’s now you can spray the entire lawn with the organic herbicides. Fatty acid, essential oil and citrus products can also be used safely.
The vinegar mixture is full strength 10% pickling vinegar with 2 oz. orange oil and 1 teaspoon liquid soap added per gallon of vinegar. This technique works fairly well any time during the winter when the summer grasses are dormant. Those of you with actively growing cool season grasses can’t do this.
Weeds in Paved Areas
In gravel, in cracks and joints in concrete and other paving systems, weeds can be controlled with non-toxic products. Use the same vinegar based mixture mentioned above. These organic herbicides, just like the toxic chemical products, only work on actively growing plants.
Weeds in Beds
Weeds in beds can be killed by removing the tops one last time and then covering the problem area with 1/2" of compost followed by about 5 layers of newspaper or 1 layer of cardboard. Wet it all down and cover the paper with 2-4" of shredded native mulch. Spot spray any weeds that manage to come through with the vinegar herbicide.
Vinegar Herbicide Formula:
1 gallon of 10% vinegar
1 ounce orange oil or d-limonene
1 teaspoon liquid soap or other surfactant such as Bio Wash
Add molasses at 1 tablespoon per gallon to the vinegar formula
Do not add water
Organic herbicides available commercially include the following:
Vinegar products – Ozark Pickling Vinegar and Blackjack 21
D-Limonene product - Avenger Weed Killer
Fatty acid product – Scythe
The only selective organic herbicide available currently is the Agralawn Crabgrass Killer. It can be used any time of the year to kill crabgrass, clover, henbit, Illinois bundleweed, false strawberry and other fuzzy leafed grasses and broadleaf plants without hurting the turfgrass.If you have any questions about this newsletter or any other topic, join me this weekend for my Dirt Doctor Radio show.
Naturally yours,
Howard Garrett
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