Natural Homemade Weed Killer DIY With 3 Ingredients (Kills Weeds Permanently)

3 Ingredient Homemade Weed Killer: How To Kill Weeds Naturally (Organic Weed Killer Recipe)

Use about a gallon of vinegar with the other two ingredients, mix well in a large spray bottle, and apply liberally over the weeds.¹

How it works is that the soap increases the penetration of the liquid through the pores while the vinegar and salt dry out all the moisture.As a bonus, the solution can also be beneficial in preventing rot on roses.

It may take a couple of close-up blasts from your homemade weed killer over a week to completely eliminate the weed, but rest assured it is effective.

But be aware that whatever plant life comes into contact with the weed killer will soon be withering and dying alongside the weeds, so spray with care so there is no collateral damage.

For the best results, spray the weeds on a sunny day so this organic weed killer recipe of vinegar, salt, and liquid soap will be absorbed to its maximum effect so those pesky weeds will quickly turn brown, wither, and be killed off. Permanently.

This 3 simple ingredients mixture is a quick, easy, and cheap method for preventing weeds from reappearing and restoring your landscape to its previously pristine condition.

Does Vinegar Kill Weeds? (Vinegar Weed Killer)

Can vinegar by itself get the job done?

Being acidic, vinegar will have an immediate effect on the weeds with the leaves turning brown and starting to wither away within 24 hours, so it will appear to be an effective solution.

It will take a bit longer to leech down into the roots, unfortunately, and with that delay, the weeds will find a way to survive, grow back, and irritate you another day.

By itself, vinegar will offer a temporary, surface solution, but it won’t get down to the root of the problem fast enough.

Natural Weed Killer Recipes (Natural Homemade Weed Killer DIY)

Using an organic weed killer recipe is a superior and safer method of weed elimination compared to herbicides and other forms of chemical weed removers.

The argument about commercial (glyphosate) herbicides is the harm they can do if they penetrate the soil and enter into the aquatic ecosystem.

As a compound, glyphosate has been registered as far back as 1974 as a pesticide and by 2007 was one of the most widely used pesticides to kill weeds in the United States.

But with widespread usage came concerns for the health of people spraying it, concerns that it was potentially causing certain types of cancers.² Even after extensive evaluations by agencies in the United States, there were no definitive conclusions drawn about whether it was carcinogenic.

Countries such as Austria, Germany, and France, however, have taken steps to ban products containing glyphosate for fears that it causes non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, with the entire European Union to follow shortly after.

What was proven, though, was the harm that any compound containing glyphosate would cause if coming into contact with the user’s eyes.

As effective as these herbicides are, an effective organic weed-killer recipe made from everyday household products will be cheaper and better for the environment.

Other Types of DIY Weed Killers (Organic Weed Killer Recipe)

Boiling water is often used to get rid of weeds but it is not a permanent solution. It will kill what it touches but won’t affect the roots.

Apart from using the organic weed killer recipe of vinegar, liquid soap, and salt, there are a few other options using ingredients sitting in your pantry.

If white vinegar is not available in your home, it can be substituted with bleach.

• 1 Gallon of bleach
• 2 Cups of salt
• ¼ Cup of dish soap

But spray with care as bleach is a chemical and can be harsh if overused in one area or comes into contact with other plants.

Another alternative that is just as effective is to make an orange oil-based natural weed and grass killer. This recipe consists of:

• 1 Gallon of vinegar
• 2 Cups of salt
• ¼ Cup of orange oil

Similar to dish soap, orange oil assists the vinegar in adhering to the weeds for better penetration and effectiveness. This substitute is preferred by some as the pungent smell of vinegar is not so noticeable.

Rather than just sprinkle baking soda by itself to eliminate weeds,³ it will be more effective if combined with:

• 1 Gallon of water
• 1 Cup of vinegar
• ½ Cup of baking soda

If this method is to be used close to other plants, cover them to protect them from drying out if accidentally exposed to the solution.

Natural Weed Killer (Natural Weed Killer With Vinegar and Dawn)

Even when using a natural organic weed killer recipe, care needs to be taken when spraying as some areas are more sensitive than others.

Weeds embedded in lawns, for example, need to be treated with more care than weeds sprouting out of cracks in the driveway. Any blade of grass that gets exposed with a splash of a vinegar-based solution is going to turn brown.

If just concrete or asphalt is surrounding the weeds, then soaking the area with your homemade weed killer is not going to be a problem.

The best option for lawn protection but weed elimination apart from pulling them out by the roots is to completely cover the weed with a wet newspaper. This will cut it off from the life-giving rays of the sun and it will eventually die, as long as you frequently wet the paper so it doesn’t dry out.

Natural Weed Killer for Lawns: Organic Weed Killer Recipe

Commercial organic solutions can be purchased from hardware stores that are specifically formulated to eliminate weeds embedded in lawns without decimating the grass around them.

Some of them are extremely effective, fast-acting, and cause no harm to the user or the environment as they are free from chemicals, and as such are recommended for weed management without causing any harm to the grass, pets, or nearby flora.⁴

• Green Gobbler Vinegar Weed and Grass Killer
• Burnout
• Natural Armor Weed and Grass Killer
• Fiesta
• Espoma Weed Preventer Plus Lawn Food
• Avenger
• BioSafe Weed Control
• EcoSmart Natural Weed and Grass Killer

Experiment to see if you prefer to use any of these instead of a homemade organic weed killer recipe for ridding yourself of these eyesores.

It is important to care about which one you choose as they do have varying times of activation, and some of them are not cheap.

Identify Weeds by Photo

There is a common misconception that all weeds found in gardens, poking through in driveways, and in other uninvited places, are all the same. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Some in the list below are categorized as weeds as they can cause damage to the local ecology, are potentially harmful to pets and young children are invasive, and if left unchecked can actually displace native plant species.

Here are just 10 of them, with pictures, so you will be aware of which weed has encroached into your premises and which organic weed killer recipe is going to be the most effective for getting rid of it.

1. Crabgrass (Digitaria)
2. Pigweed (Amaranthus)
3. Lambsquarters (Chenopodium album)
4. English Ivy (Hedera helix)
5. Quackgrass (Elytrigia repens)
6. Canada Thistle (Cirsium arvense)
7. Purslane (Portulaca oleracea)
8. Buckhorn Plantain (Plantago lanceolata)
9. Clovers (Trifolium repens)
10. Knapweed (Centaurea)

All of these weeds are problematic in different ways and with varied levels of severity. The two methods to manage any of them are called pre-emergent and post-emergent.

Pre-emergent refers to applying preventative weed killer in vulnerable areas where weeds are likely to pop up, whereas post-emergent is a case of handling the problem when they are noticeably sprouting in unwanted areas in your lawn.

A homemade organic weed killer recipe weed killer will exterminate the weeds once they appear while applying corn gluten meal will prevent them from forming roots and setting up home in your lawn in the first place.

How To Kill a Tree Stump (How To Rot a Tree Stump Fast)

The homemade recipes of warm water, Epsom salt, and dish soap can work equally well in getting rid of a tree stump as it does in eliminating weeds.⁵ When combined with another method, the results are excellent.

Here are the ways on how to rot a tree stump fast.

First, several deep holes need to be drilled into the tree stump so the solution will penetrate to the tip of the deepest root.

Instead of spraying, pour the liquid into the holes and cover the stump with a heavy material to block out any light.

Environmentally conscious gardens will prefer this how-to-kill-a-tree-stump method because although it can take a few repeated applications over a few weeks, it will eventually desiccate the stump which will then be easier to extricate.

How To Kill a Tree Without Cutting It Down

For those asking how to kill a tree without cutting it down, getting rid of a medium or a small tree without cutting it down would require a slightly different method for removal than just spraying an organic weed killer recipe with just 3 ingredients all over its very thick bark.

Girdling is a popular method where a strip of bark is removed all the way around the trunk of the tree. The idea is that it will prevent the nutrients from reaching down into the roots and the tree will eventually die.⁶

For some trees, this works. For others not so much.

The top of the tree will suffer and possibly die off, but the bottom half can sometimes continue keeping on due to the nutrients being absorbed from the roots and just plain stubbornness.

Option two is similar to getting rid of a tree stump.

Several deep holes need to be drilled at steep downward angles at the base of the trunk and into any exposed roots. Mix a heavily concentrated solution of vinegar and salt and completely fill each hole.

Afterward, wrap the base of the trunk in plastic – and wait.

It will take a few weeks for the tree to die, and repeated applications of the concentrated solution into the holes as and when needed.

Weeding Out the Facts

Did you know that of the 250,000 species of plants in the world, 8,000 of them are classed as weeds?

Related Reading: How Many Tree Species Are There? See All 60 Different Kinds of Trees (Types)

What makes them unwanted and why you should care about them, is their overpowering compulsion of monopolizing light, nutrients, and water.⁷ They can also be irritants when coming into contact with exposed skin, they can aggravate allergies, and some of them are possibly poisonous for kids and small animals.

Getting rid of them is a must, either by employing an organic weed killer recipe or making a natural homemade weed killer using the ingredients listed above.

Frequently Asked Questions About Organic Weed Killer Recipe