Will white vinegar hurt plants?

[Mosey]

What would white vinegar do to plants? I'm wondering if I could put some on the plants or on the ground around them to keep cats out.

[Hank]

The continuing saga of "the cats" [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

I think mothballs will do the trick.

[Argee]

Danny,
I don't think white vinegar will hurt your plants, but I'm not to sure it will have long term effects on keeping your cats out. You may want to consider cigar stubs. If you don't smoke them, maybe you know someone who does, that could save some for you.

[Mosey]

The reason I'm asking this is because we have some warm air humidifiers that require cleaning every so often and they say to use white vinegar to clean the element. So I'm just trying to see if I can get double use out of the white vinegar rather than just throw it away. Hank, I'm posting a comic in the pets forum that I can really relate to!

[AndyF]

It depends upon how much you use and how strong it is. Just a little of the store bought kind probably won't hurt anything, but if you use a lot you could end up killing the plants.

Here is some info on testing done to determine vinegar's efficacy as a herbicide.

ARS News Service
Agricultural Research Service, USDA
Don Comis, (301) 504-1625, comis@ars.usda.gov
May 15, 2002
___________________________________________

Some home gardeners already use vinegar as a herbicide, and some garden
stores sell vinegar pesticides. But no one has tested it scientifically
until now.

Agricultural Research Service scientists offer the first scientific
evidence that it may be a potent weedkiller that is inexpensive and
environmentally safe--perfect for organic farmers.

ARS researchers Jay Radhakrishnan, John R. Teasdale and Ben Coffman in
Beltsville, Md., tested vinegar on major weeds--common lamb's-quarters,
giant foxtail, velvetleaf, smooth pigweed and Canada thistle--in
greenhouse and field studies.

They hand-sprayed the weeds with various solutions of vinegar, uniformly
coating the leaves. The researchers found that 5- and 10-percent
concentrations killed the weeds during their first two weeks of life.
Older plants required higher concentrations of vinegar to kill them. At
the higher concentrations, vinegar had an 85- to 100-percent kill rate at
all growth stages. A bottle of household vinegar is about a 5-percent
concentration.

Canada thistle, one of the most tenacious weeds in the world, proved the
most susceptible; the 5-percent concentration had a 100-percent kill rate
of the perennial's top growth. The 20-percent concentration can do this in
about 2 hours.

Spot spraying of cornfields with 20 percent vinegar killed 80 to 100
percent of weeds without harming the corn, but the scientists stress the
need for more research. If the vinegar were sprayed over an entire field,
it would cost about $65 per acre. If applied to local weed infestations
only, such as may occur in the crop row after cultivation, it may only
cost about $20 to $30.

The researchers use only vinegar made from fruits or grains, to conform to
organic farming standards.

ARS is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief scientific research
agency.

[Chuck52]

That's interesting research. It does bug me that:

<font color="blue">The researchers use only vinegar made from fruits or grains, to conform to organic farming standards. </font color>

since the acetic acid in vinegar is acetic acid is acetic acid. Kinda like ascorbic acid=vitamin C. Doesn't make any difference where the atoms in the ascorbic acid came from. If it's ascorbic acid, it's vitamin C. Stepping down from chemical soapbox.

Chuck

[Stoneheartfarm]

I was watching morning TV the other day (yes, occasionally I DO get up that early [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img] ) and they were talking about something called "Bitter Apple" spray. Apparently it tastes bad and keep dogs from chewing things. Might work for cats too. It does have an alcohol base though, and might not be so good for the plants.

I don't know what kind of plants you are trying to protect. Have you tried mouse traps? My cat didn't like them at first and stayed out. Then decided not to be deterred and would just push the mousetrap off the counter and watch it snap when it hit the floor. [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img] I also tried double sticky tape. Didn't work. Then I tried tinfoil. Didn't work. I put stuff up there to make it uncomfortable. Didn't work.

Soon, I started throwing the cat up on the counter. She would get down, I'd put her back up. After several weeks I realized it didn't work. I was DBC (defeated by cat).

SHF

[PhilNH5]

Danny,
As was pointed out the vinegar can act as a herbicide. I used it for dandelions in the cracks of a sidewalk and it worked great.
In regards to cats - good luck. Where I lived before we had a crazy "cat lady" in the old farmhouse behind us. According to the cable guy (who refused to enter the house) she had 50 plus cats. Not for me but her choice. Except it seems all 50 used my yard as a bathroom. We had to keep my daughters sandbox covered at all times. They also loved my fresh tilled veggie garden and the mulched flower beds.

I tried every possible remedy short of death.
-Talk with cat owner. No luck.
-Cayenne pepper sprinkled in gardens. Effective but short lived so to expensive for continual use.
-Blackberry brambles cut and laid across their common paths. Supposedly cats don't like the stickers. No effect.
-Rocks (as in hand launched projectiles). While very satisfying to me it only startled and scared them off but no long term effect. They came right back.
-Water from garden hose or a slight ammonia solution in a SuperSoaker type water gun. Again very satisfying to me but no long term effect.
-Dog - part whippet and fast as heck. My favorite method. Let her out. Cats had numerous trees to climb but they always tried a made dash back to the farmhouse. Shadow the wonder dog always caught them. First time she thought it was a game until the cat bit her ear and ripped two slices in it. From then on Shadow bit back. But as all else there was no long term effect.

One spring there were less and less cats. All the other neighbors started thanking me. My dislike of these cats was well known so every one assumed I was killing them somehow. But I am to much of a wuss and could not bring myself to do that. Turns out that coyotes were moving back into our part of MD at that time. Apparently they considered the farm house as a sort of McDonalds.

I never did try the mothballs but other neighbors reported it to be unsuccessful.

Phil

[Hank]

<font color="purple"> You may want to consider cigar stubs </font color>

This is something I never tried with cats, but did with chipmunks; this might be something to try.

When I lived in MD, we had a chipmunk family living under our front porch. I'd sit outside and smoke a cigar on the front porch, and leave the butt right outside their hole. Next day, it wasn't just pushed aside, it had been moved five feet down the sidewalk !!. I started pushing the butt inside their hole every day, and they finally gave up and moved.

[Hayseed]

Yeah, but knowing Danny's luck with his kittens, he will open his front door one morning and find the two standing there with see-gar butts in their mouths, meowing for a light! [img]/forums/images/icons/shocked.gif[/img]