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Over the years, I have fiddled around with different homemade poison ivy and weed killer recipes until I found a combination of ingredients that really works for me.
It took years before coming up with this weedkiller recipe. We use this to get rid of the native weed Canada Thistle here as well.
Poison Ivy:
I had a huge poison ivy patch that I fought for years with all kinds of herbicides, including homemade organics.
I experimented with recipes using vinegar and salt in varying proportions. Some of them almost did the trick.
I finally found that straight vinegar (no water added) with lots of salt and a hefty dose of detergent is most lethal to poison ivy and other noxious weeds.
The full recipe for this weed killer is included below. The once-huge poison ivy patch has been gone for over two years now.
I’ve had to zap a few survivors now and then, but they are manageable. This homemade spray works better than anything else I’ve tried.
I have found that the poison ivy plants that are not too old (less than a year old) respond extremely well to this treatment.
Plants from older, more established roots will die but may come back a year later. You will have to spray the plants again.
Zap the new growth again with the killer. The roots will die of exhaustion because its energy is wasted in putting out all that new growth for nothing.
Some really old roots are made of mutant zombie stuff, and may need a few more repeat doses.
Canada Thistle:
This weed killer works on our worst flowering weed. We never want Canadian Thistle weed going to seed!
We have to spray these thistles several times to get them to die and it seems some always get away from us.
So whenever I see a flowering thistle, I make sure to cut it down right away. They are easy to see when they are flowering with those bright purple flowers.
Never ever let a Canadian Thistle go to seed on your property if you can at all help it!
If one is too far gone and the seed heads are ready to let go, cover it with a plastic bag, then cut it down at the base.
This way, the seeds will let go while they are in the bag. Don’t let any get blown away by a breeze!
This is a really safe way to get rid of thistle that is past the flowering stage.
Weed control should be done regularly, although it is always hard for us to actually DO it every couple of weeks. Spending extra time weeding and spraying in early Spring will really pay off later.
You can completely get rid of the weeds just by being able to stay on top of the spraying schedule. Here’s the full recipe for Homemade Poison Ivy and Weed Killer.
Homemade Poison Ivy and Weed Killer
3 cups vinegar
1/2 cup salt
1 tablespoon liquid detergent or soap(I use Dawn) for stick-to-itiveness.
Mix vinegar and salt until the salt is completely dissolved. Stir in liquid detergent, and pour into a sprayer. Spray onto the green growing leaves of the plants.
Wait a week, then repeat on any survivors. Best time to apply: during a dry spell. Do not spray on plants you want to keep.
(This recipe is an excerpt from Mrs. Tightwad’s Handbook #5 : QUICK SUBSTITUTES & EASY FORMULAS FOR OVER 100 CANT’-DO-WITHOUT ITEMS)
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