Vinegar is a Safer Alternative to Chemical Herbicides in Your Garden

I don’t use synthetic chemical herbicides and I don’t think you should, either.

I know I’m liable to upset a few people with my views on this topic. But plain old vinegar does a good enough job for me.

As far as I know, no one has ever accused vinegar or causing cancer if you get it on you. Quite a few people have made that claim against some popular herbicides like glyphosate, the main ingredient in RoundUp, and 2,4-D, the active ingredient in over 1,000 products sold in the United States.

The company Monsanto developed glyphosate and brought it to the market in 1974 under the brand name RoundUp. It’ll definitely kill weeds. Over the years, ag researchers developed genetically modified varieties of corn and other crops that can tolerate RoundUp. This helped increase yields for farmers, since they could spray their fields to reduce weed competition while their crop was growing.

In 2013, an article in the journal “Interdisciplinary Toxicology” linked glyphosate with the increase of celiac disease in North America and Europe. In 2015 the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) published an assessment that determined glyphosate was “probably carcinogenic to humans.” That started a wave of lawsuits against the company. You’ve probably heard the ads on the radio. The next year, a group of supposedly-independent researchers published a study in the journal “Critical Reviews in Toxicology” that cast doubt on the IARC’s assessment and reaffirmed glyphosate as safe for humans.

Bloomberg News published an expose on that so-called independent study. Bloomberg obtained internal Monsanto emails from lawyers suing the company on behalf of cancer patients and family members. Those emails detail how Monsanto worked with an outside consulting firm to get that favorable study published in “Critical Reviews in Toxicology.”

The academic controversy even spurred the journal’s editors to publish an “Expression of Concern,” in which they criticized the study’s authors for not disclosing their relationship with Monsanto.

The chemical herbicide 2,4-D is also very effective at killing broadleaf weeds but not most grasses. That’s why it’s so popular for use on lawns, golf courses, sports fields and livestock pastures. Many of the “weed and feed” lawn products contain 2,4-D. It was also one of the ingredients in Agent Orange, the Vietnam War-era pesticide that was used to deforest that country during the guerilla war. Agent Orange has been linked to cancer and other health issues among Vietnam War-era veterans.

Today, our pets and children trod through this stuff every time they play in a park or on a sports field. Schools and city parks departments love using it.

In 2015, the United States Environmental Protection Agency decided that 2,4-D was so safe that it didn’t need additional testing to see if it caused medical problems in humans or other animals. That’s despite a large body of scientists who believe the chemical to be an endocrine disruptor that affects the human hormone system. Some researchers have linked longterm exposure of 2,4-D to nonHodgkins lymphoma, loss of smell, developmental disorders in children and a host of other maladies.

I’m sure a lot of smarter people than me will disagree with what I’m saying. Maybe it’s debatable.

But again, I don’t think anyone has ever accused vinegar manufacturers of scheming to discredit their critics. The only thing vinegar has ever done is make cucumbers taste better, but I know some people don’t like pickles.

So how do you use vinegar to kill weeds?

You need to buy strong vinegar, not the kind you cook with. Grocery stores sometimes sell 10 percent “cleaning” vinegar. That product will work for killing weeds. A better product is the 20 percent vinegar you can find in many garden sections at local stores. I know La Grange Farm and Ranch and D&D Ace Hardware in La Grange both carry it. I hear Farmer’s Lumber started carrying 20 percent vinegar recently as well. While you are at one of those stores, pick up a bottle of orange oil as well.

Mix one ounce of orange oil and one teaspoon of Dawn dish soap with a gallon of the undiluted vinegar. You can also add one tablespoon of molasses. The molasses especially helps kill nutsedge. The molasses is not necessary, though.

Do not add any water.

Pour the solution into a pump-up sprayer and spray the leaves of anything you want to kill. This natural herbicide is non-selective. It will kill almost every broadleaf weed within a day. You have to spray the leaves, though. It is not effective on woody parts. It won’t really kill trees or big bushes. You’ll have to dig those out.

Lots of folks have been asking me about my plant sale I mentioned a few weeks ago. I’m happy to announce that I’m planning to hold the sale next Friday, March 19, outside the Fayette County Record office. We’re located at 127 S. Washington Street in La Grange. I’ll have several dozen tomatoes of different heirloom varieties. I’ll also offer a few dozen basil plants for sale — mostly Genovese and Persian varieties. The Persian basil is a very rare variety that I started growing last year. It has a beautiful mix of purple and green foliage with purple and white flowers. It tastes a lot like Thai basil. I’m very excited to share this unique herb with all of you. I plan to set up the plant sale around 8:30 a.m. and I’ll be there until I sell out, which won’t take long.