Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Garden Poll

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Monday, August 5, 2013

How to create Super vinegar weed killer or Vinegar-Up

How to concentrate vinegar for garden use : We use a concentrated vinegar instead of a roundup ready type poison for weed killing. Most household vinegar sold in stores is found to be 5% acidity and can usually be good enough for the creation of the weed killer. This means that you might have to use multiple applications to kill denser or stronger weed patches ( just like with roundup ) but that can get annoying and in the case of roundup too excessive.This system is minimalist so if you are anal retentive or OCD and after reading this you INSTANTLY have a better idea and want to design all kinds of gadgets you think will work better than this.... do it ! As far as my life is concerned the less specialty equipment I have, the better. Most equipment i use and keep around me have multipurpose uses but that's how i do things, you of course are different. You are only limited by your imagination and of course your storage capacity.  
Here is our system and it works for us .

Materials : Enough empty two liter bottles to accommodate all your vinegar plus a general storage container for the concentrate , a large funnel, an empty five gallon bucket, a couple of empty two liter bottles, a couple of pounds of gravel of any kind. a long screwdriver or dowel rod long enough to reach NEAR the bottom of the bottle. a old towel or a bunch of rags, a mix bowl and two ounces of dish soap and a mix ounces of regular vinegar 

First of all you will be cold distilling because most folks do not own a home still with a condensing column but if you do have one or are creative enough to make one, skip this part. Put your vinegar into two liter bottles and plais is your weep hole from which your acid will drain out of. Make sure your empty two liter with funnel is nearest to the corner. Push the towel in the five gallon bucket in front of the two liter ( this is a support trick to help support the empty bottle from tipping. You want to design something else...do it ). Place the frozen two liter upside down into the funnel and allow it to drain.The corner is used so you can lean the upside down frozen bottle up against it aiding you in supporting the inverted frozen bottle.. If you want to come up with a support mechanism of your own ...do it. As the bottle warms up to room temperature the acetic acid will melt first before the water will draining into the funnel and into the empty two liter below. When a head space is created at the top of the frozen bottle ( which is actually the inverted bottom of the bottle ) of about 1.5-2 inches more than your original frozen head space  , then that bottle is done. You may now proceed to repeat the process with another frozen bottle of vinegar.



Be very careful with handling this material and do not splash it around. This is acetic acid and can be VERY dangerous when concentrated.You are COMPLETELY responsible for what you do yourself if you act stupid and we are in no way responsible for your actions.

You may now proceed to part two and that requires you take about 3 ounces of vinegar ( unconcentrated ) and add two ounce of a dish soap in a separate container. Carefully mix the two together until the dish soap is dispersed into the vinegar. You are NOT trying to create suds but instead just mixing the two into one. Take your pump action sprayer and remove the pumping head. Place this mix into your sprayer and then CAREFULLY add a gallon of your concentrate. Your vinegar/soap mix will be easily dispersed into your concentrate effectively and you may now begin spraying.... that is after you have replaced your top. Be very careful as to what you spray and that also means yourself. Concentrated vinegar can be very painful to get in your eyes and mucous membranes and you way want to wear safety glasses and a respirator. Another effective way is to use a heavy duty kitchen glove that you wear and dip a rag into this mixure ,wiping it on the leaves of those plants you want to kill. Some plants like yucca may still require multiple treatments . Since the removal of the plants ( pulling, burning , mowing ) means the removal of most of the acid , there's no PH change . If you got sloppy a dusting of hardwood ashes would counteract the acid residue and you would also be  adding potassium , a necessary nutrient .