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 Post subject: Vineager as a herbicide
PostPosted: Thu Jan 14, 2010 9:27 pm 
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Joined: Fri Oct 31, 2008 10:31 pm
Posts: 3
Location: Odessa,TEXAS
Hi Trop,

I attended a state supported garden program the other day. They were singing the praises of Round-up. One of the claimed strengths was that even when used as a spot treatment, it did not linger or move within the soil and that you could even plant something there within the day as long as the spray did not get on the new plants. As an afterthought, it was mentioned that vinegar was a good herbicide as long as you were careful.

Having said that, I wasn't sold on the herbicide, but I'm not necessarily sold on the total organic, save the planet agenda either.

However I did wonder how long, or if the vinegar stayed in the soil, and how long it would be before something could be planted in the treated area.


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PostPosted: Thu Jan 14, 2010 10:24 pm 
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Joined: Tue Oct 20, 2009 12:22 pm
Posts: 129
Location: Frisco, Tejas
Welcome to the club, I'm one of those AGW-denying conservative white male Christian Republicans... who is diehard organic gardener who hasn't bought any 'save the planet' agenda either.

On the other hand, I don't go out of my way to pollute it either, common sense, right?

Don't confuse going organic with any political movement.

Glyphosphate (Roundup) has a LOT of problems with it. Google the studies, do your own reading and make up your own mind. It bothers me.

Vinegar, or acetic acid, kills the portion of the plant above the ground. It is non-selective - spray it on a hot day and it will wipe out what it hits. I use it in cracks where grass invades etcetera. You can water it down slightly and drink it, in fact you do so whenever you order a salad. Balsamic? That's acetic acid, Wine left open? Same thing. Thankfully, the latter is not an issue with me because I never let perfectly good wine turn to vinegar. Kind of my own, save the wine, kill the liver agenda :-)

The chemical companies have a strong lobby. I have been involved in lobbying, I've been involved in marketing, I have a minor in stats - I can BS you all day with those skills and used to make quite a comfortable living being full of nice organic ...manure.
The chemical companies certainly have an agenda. They are there to make a profit. I don't think that's the least bit evil. I like profits. They are also there to do some good things because those things are profitable - like increasing crop yields.
I'm also quite sure that the folks who work on weed killers don't want to harm anyone but let's be clear - their job is to produce an effective product that will sell and turn a profit, safety is not their first goal nor should it be.

Let's set aside just how toxic a given pesticide may or may not be for a second. Doesn't it make sense to use the least toxic one? If something you could drink works fine why spray something you would never drink?

More frightening to me is the wide variety of chemicals we get through our food, our water and out in the garden. They don't test 10 or 20 in combination to see what happens and they really can't do so - it's not feasible.

So my thinking, take it as food for thought, is pretty simple: I go for the least 'artificial' solution whenever I can. Fresh foods grown organically, filtered water, the lawn, my veggie garden, my flowerbeds are all STUNNING and I don't put anything on them I wouldn't want to eat. If you live in the DFW area come on over one day, I'll walk you through how I do everything and compare my property to a dozen ChemLawn homes on the street, make up your own mind and go by what you see, smell, feel and taste as you stroll through the lawn and grab a tomato or a strawberry from the garden - no need to rinse, it's clean.

I like to walk in my yard barefoot when I am working outside, I like letting my friends' kids roll around in my yard knowing that the worst thing that will happen is a grass stain. Think it over - you don't have to buy in to anyone's agenda other than your own, just do yourself a favor and think for yourself.

For me, the message is real simple: growing things naturally works better and is better for me so I do it. The fact is that there are some weeds like Nutsedge where the organic solution is not effective compared to the chemical solution but then again - nutsedge ain't exactly cancer (I've had both, take my word on this one). A non selective herbicide though? Shoot, there are easy ways to kill everything if you are not being selective. For selective killing I kinda favor a .38 :-) If you live in the DFW area and want a free course in how to make your lawn and garden better without toxins than you can with them, take me up on my offer and I'll happily give you an afternoon of my time to show you how I do it and talk about why.


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