Vinegar for weeds

**"Jeff Lowenfels" jeff@gardener.com>**

I asked Dr. Elaine Ingham, soil foodweb guru to comment on the issue. Here
is what she wrote. Hope it is helpful:
Hi Jeff -

The person needs to look for acetic acid, not vinegar, in the scientific
literature.

There are a few recent publications on acetic acid.  Most of the work on
acetic acid in soil was done back in the 1920's, if I recall correctly.

Usually, acetic acid is used rapidly by aerobic bacteria in soil.  That's if
there's any aerobic bacteria left after hitting them with herbicides,
pesticides and high levels of inorganic fertilizers for years.  And
compacting the soil into solid bricks year after year.

If you use vinegar, and the vinegar smell persists for more than a few hours
in the soil, that's a clue from Mother Nature that your soil life is in
trouble.  Mainly, that you don't have ANY healthy, active soil life.  Get
some GOOD, AEROBIC compost (no stink, smells good, like earth.  Not like
mildew - that's not a good earth smell) and apply around the plants.  Or
spray the soil until well-moist with compost tea made from a good, aerobic
compost.

In about another month, the SFI website will list all the good composts
we've tested.  There's already a listing of good compost tea makers on the
web site.

Hope this helps!

Elaine
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