Salting weeds

[eimilesmom]

I ran out of weed killer and frankly it's expensive, and I thought I remembered reading somewhere that sidewalk salt will work.  So I spread some along my fence, should I expect my weeds to die or have I committed an environmental crime of some sort?

[lavender]

Salt will kill weeds or anything else.  Historically armies salted enemy field so the population would starve. The only problem is that if it gets into desirable plants it will kill them too. Some plants are more sensitive than others.  It also takes some time to leach out of the soil. We have a heck of a time with some of the beds in town because they salt the sidewalks. Boiling water works too and is probably safer.

[Petee]

If you're doing a crack in a sidewalk then salt might do it but I wouldn't put it near other plants.

 

If you have a salt problem in a planting bed then add powdered Gypsum.  

[eimilesmom]

I paid 20 bucks for a gallon of weed killer and I could have used boiling water?  

[lavender]

Kind of depends on what you are trying to kill. Boiling water will kill small weeds quickly but it may take some time to do in something with a tap root like burdock. I wouldn't want to use it on a large field but it is good for sidewalk cracks and individual plants.

[badmonkey]

I have used salt before and it worked. As mentioned, one of the problems is that it takes a long time for it to leave the soil which means that almost nothing will grow in the treated spot for a long time.  

[Guest snellma]

I tried the salt and boiling water on the weeds in the cracks of my sidewalk.  Worked like a charm.  I don't care if they don't grow back there.