Gardeners and farmers despise weeds, and why wouldn’t they? Weeds are nothing but a nuisance that hinders the healthy growth of plants by utilizing all the nutrients in soil other plants need to grow.
Not only do weeds affect the health and growth of surrounding plants, but they also spread across the area rapidly in a very unaesthetic manner. There are plenty of commercial weed killers available today, but these weed-killing products don’t come cheap.
You should try making a homemade weed killer if you don’t want to spend hefty amounts of money on expensive weed-killing chemicals. Although chemical weed killers are highly effective at getting rid of weeds, the strong chemicals in the formulation can affect the health of your plants.
You probably use only natural pesticides, right? Why not go with an all-natural weed killer?
However, you’ve got to make sure that the homemade weed killer is absolutely safe for the rest of your plants. You would want the solutions to only kill the weeds in your garden – not any of your other plants.
Making homemade weed killers is quite simple and straightforward. Continue reading this blog post for safe homemade weed killer recipes if you can’t take the annoying weeds any longer.
Why is it Important to Get Rid of Weeds
When we say weeds are a nightmare for every gardener, we mean it in the truest sense. If there are weeds in your garden, you need to do something about them soon before they get the better of your garden. Some of the major reasons why it’s extremely crucial to get rid of weeds in your garden are:
- Weeds are parasites and can suck up all the valuable nutrients from the soil.
- They slowly claim all the space, soil, and sunlight, leaving nothing for other plants.
- They spread rapidly and soon become an eyesore for your landscape.
Homemade Weed Killer Recipes
We’ve compiled a list of the most effective and safest weed killer recipes you can easily make at home, using common household ingredients. You can rest assured that these homemade weed killers won’t affect your beloved garden plants.
1. Vinegar-Based Weed Killer
The vinegar-based weed killer tops our list. Mix a gallon of vinegar, 1 tablespoon dish soap, and a cup of salt. Pour the mixture in a spray bottle and spray over the weeds. It’s highly effective and can help you get rid of weeds in no time. The results will start to appear after a few hours of spraying.
Vinegar contains acetic acid that pulls out the moisture from the weeds. Salt facilitates this further. The weeds start to dry and wither when they’re devoid of moisture. Dish soap also plays a vital role in killing the weeds. Soap is a surfactant. It means that it reduces the surface tension on the leaves and prevents the weed-killing solution from getting absorbed by the plants. The solution beads on the surface of the leaves and assists the role of vinegar and salt.
There’s one thing that you should keep in mind when using this homemade weed killer in your garden. Salt can affect the composition of the soil and may render it useless for growing the next batch of plants. You should skip adding salt to this homemade weed-killing recipe if you want to use the area for planting more plants in the future. However, you can use salt if you wish to use the area for growing plants only once.
2. Salt Weed Killer
Weeds know no bounds. They can grow anywhere, be it your garden, driveway, or any other concrete surface. While you can get rid of weeds in your garden using vinegar and dish soap solution, you’ll need a stronger component for killing weeds that have grown on your driveway or concrete patio. Mix salt in boiling water and simply pour it over the weeds. Salt and boiling water make a very strong weed killer. And since you won’t grow any plants on your driveway, there’s absolutely no harm in using salt here.
3. Borax-Based Weed Killer
The next homemade weed killer recipe involves the use of borax. Firstly, mix the borax powder in water and spray the solution over the weeds. Borax contains boron as its main component. Plants need boron for healthy growth but only in certain quantities. If you feed plants more boron than they need, they’ll die. This is exactly how borax weed killer works. It kills weeds by overdosing them with boron.
4. Corn Meal
All the above-listed homemade weed killer recipes kill weeds. However, you can prevent the growth of weeds by sprinkling pure cornmeal over the soil. Cornmeal stops the germination of seeds, thereby preventing them from growing in the first place.
5. Rubbing Alcohol
Another highly effective homemade weed killer recipe is a mixture of rubbing alcohol and water. Simply mix rubbing alcohol and water and spray directly on weeds, and you’re done!
Preparing a safe and effective weed killer at home is no rocket science. All you need is basic household ingredients, and you’re good to combat this major garden nuisance.
If you like awesome gardening hacks like this one, check out our calamansi planting guide or our article about cultivating string of turtles plants!
Found this to be interesting and will try a couple of combination. Thanks for sharing.
Happy to help!
Jenny