DIY Nontoxic Weed Killer

How to make a safe, nontoxic weed killer from common household ingredients

Hello and welcome to Joe Shows How! Spring has sprung and in most of the country, so have weeds. In this week’s video I’ll show how to make an effective, yet nontoxic, spray that will kill even the most stubborn, tenacious weeds and invasive plants.

Here’s the recipe:

Into a one-quart spray bottle add 1/2 cup of Epsom salt, about 10 small squirts of liquid dish soap, then top off the bottle with distilled white vinegar. Swirl the bottle around for about 60 seconds until all the salt is dissolved. Then, go out and spray the solution directly onto any weeds in your yard or garden. Just be careful not to get the vinegar/salt solution onto any adjacent plants that you want to save.

If you have a large yard with lots of weeds, consider using a pump-up garden sprayer: mix together two cups of Epsom salt, 1/4 cup of dish soap, and one gallon of white vinegar.

The reason this spray is so effective is that the sodium in the salt and the acidity of the vinegar causes weeds to shrivel up and die, and the soap helps the solution stick to the leaves so it lasts longer. For best results, apply the spray on a clear day with no rain in the forecast for at least 24 hours.

Now, if you run across some super-stubborn plants — such as wisteria, English ivy or bull thistle — that you can’t eradicate with standard white vinegar, then try home & garden white vinegar, which is six times more acidic than standard white vinegar.

Hope you find this video helpful, and best wishes for a weed-free summer!