Vinegar is chemically called Acetic Acid. It’s an inexpensive product easily available worldwide. It’s used in kitchens generally in a concentration of about 5 percent. By saying Vinegar, we refer to the 5% white vinegar or the distilled white vinegar.
Can it be used as a Fertilizer for Plants? The Answer is Both Yes and No! Let me explain:
NO: Not directly because it’s chemically made up of Carbon Hydrogen and Oxygen – CH3COOH and the plants can easily get these elements from the air.
YES! It can be used Indirectly using a simple trick to help your plant growth and treat acute deficiencies. We will discuss and demonstrate this in this episode. Please watch it till the end.
Now let’s look into 10 powerful uses of Vinegar for your plants and garden.
- Soil PH amendment: Acid loving plants like hydrangeas, gardenias, Rose, Hibiscus and many others need an acidic soil PH of around 6 or even less. First test your soil PH. This simple PH testing gadget is really handy and inexpensive device to test your soil PH. If your soil tests neutral or alkaline, then you need to amend your soil PH. To do this, Mix one table spoon of white vinegar to one litre of water and water you acid loving plants with this solution once every 15 days to reduce the soil PH.
- As a Pesticide or Insect Spray: Vinegar is an effective solution for eliminating unwanted garden insects and pests. To make this vinegar spray, Add one cup white vinegar to 1 litre of water and load it in a spray bottle and now add some 10 drops of dishwashing or handwash liquid soap. Shake the spray bottle well to mix the contents thoroughly before spraying on the plants. This is a reasonable remedy to control pests like white files and mealy bugs, especially for those who do not have neem oil.
- Treatment of Powdery Mildew Fungus: To make this spray add One cup of White Vinegar to 1 litre of water and shake well and spray it on the affected leaves to treat the fungus.
- Animal and Rodent Repeller: Yes the pungent smell of vinegar can drive away some animals like Cats, dogs, deer, squirrels, rodents and many other animals. How to use vinegar for this purpose? Well, the simplest method is to soak a cloth in vinegar and place it in those potential spots or entrances of these animals into your garden. But the problem with this is the pungent smell fades away within a few hours and you might have to do this daily to prevent the animals. Another method to do this is using Food grade Diatomaceous Earth powder, DE powder in short. Mix some pepper mint or lemon oil along with some vinegar in DE powder and keep it in small containers or caps in your garden. This DE powder has the ability to retain this odour for a longer time. You can watch a detailed video on DE powder from a link in description below.
- To Control Slugs and Snails who eat away a lot of your garden. To kill slugs and snails, spray the vinegar directly on the snails and wait. The vinegar will dissolve the snails. Though this looks a bit cruel, but If you want to save your food grown out of your hard work, you need to control these creatures.
- Ant Control: Vinegar can be used to drive away ants from your garden. Just pour undiluted solution around the ant hills or around the plants – I mean around your potted plants and not into the soil or near the roots.
- Weed Killer: Just spray undiluted white vinegar on the unwanted weeds or unwanted grass in your garden. This works very well in cracks and crevices. But you have to be very careful when applying close to your favourite plants. The mechanism of action involved is, it dissolves the cell membranes resulting in desiccation of tissues and death of the plant.
- Drive away fruit flies from your plants. You need to make a Vinegar bait with a cup of water and half a cup of vinegar, ¼ cup of sugar and 1 teaspoon of Honey. Mix it all together and put that solution in an empty container or tin can and hang it on affected fruit tree you’ll see how it will attract and trap the fruit flies. This solution can be used for housefly control in your home or garden.
- Cleaning Your Garden Stuff: It can be used to clean rusty and dirty garden tools. Pour or dip the tool in vinegar for about 20 minutes and then rinse. You can also clean your pots and containers. Just immerse the pots in a vinegar solution like 1: 2 or 1: 3 dilution in water and clean after 20 to 30 minutes.
- To Provide Free or Soluble Calcium to your Plants, particularly in acute deficiency of calcium which causes Blossom End Rot (BER) disease in tomato and pepper plants. Adding egg shells, lime, gypsum or calcium tablets to treat acute deficiency of calcium will not help. You need to provide free soluble calcium that can be easily absorbed by the roots. To make this, you can take a source of calcium like lime or even powdered egg shells and add white vinegar to this and shake well for an hour and then add more water to this. Water this solution to your plants and give them instant source of free calcium for absorption.
Vinegar – chemically called Acetic Acid with the Chemical formula – CH3COOH (that means the elements are Carbon, Oxygen and Hydrogen in it). This is an inexpensive product and easily available and used in kitchen worldwide in a concentration of 5 percent generally and here we refer to the white vinegar or distilled vinegar.
So, In Gardening, Can it be used as a Fertilizer? No! because its chemically made up of Carbon Hydrogen and Oxygen –CH3COOH and the plants can easily get these elements from the air. SO it’s a MYTH, not a fact.
So what are the actual proven uses of Vinegar or Acetic acid in Gardening. Lets list out one by one:
1. It Kills Weeds or unwanted grass when sprayed directly without diluting. This works very well in cracks and crevices. But you have to be careful when applying close to your favourite plants. The mechanism of action here is it dissolves the cell membranes resulting in desiccation of tissues and death of the plant.
2. To Drive away Ants around your plants. Just pour undiluted solution around the ant hills or around the plants / soil. If you have faced this problem practically and the difficulties when ants burrow around your favourite plant and you fear that your plant might be destroyed, you will realize the importance of this benefit.
3. To Drive away some animals like Cats and dogs who can damage your plants by digging the soil or breaking your soft plants and succulents. This is because of its pungent smell which animals hate. The hack here is to soak any cloth in vinegar and place in important areas in your garden.
4. It can be used to clean rust and dirt easily from your garden tools. Pour or dip the tool in vinegar for about 20 minutes.
5. TO preserve or Freshen up Cut Flowers or even liven drooping flowers – for this you make a solution of 2 tablespoons vinegar and 1 teaspoon sugar in 1 litre of water. Pour this in your vase or container.
6. You can also used to to clean Clay pots – immerse the pots in a vinegar solution 1: 2 or 1: 3 in water and clean after 20 to 30 minutes.
7. Insect Spray: Vinegar is an effective solution for eliminating garden insects. To create a vinegar spray that works on garden insects, combine three parts water with one part vinegar in a spray bottle and add a teaspoon of dishwashing or handwash detergent. Shake the spray bottle to mix the contents thoroughly before spraying on the plants. This is a very effective remedy to control white files and I have successfully used this on my hibiscus to eliminate white flies. This is also effective for eliminating fungus from your plant.
8. Drive away fruit flies from your fruit plants. You need to make a Vinegar bait with a cup of water and half a cup of vinegar, ¼ cup of sugar and 1 teaspoon of molasses. Mix it all together and put that solution in an empty container or tin can and hang it on affected fruit tree you’ll see how it will attract and trap them. The similar solution can be used for houseflies too.
9. Useful for Acidic PH loving plants like gardenias, hibiscus etc. Mix cup of white vinegar to a gallon of water and water you acid loving plants with this solution.
10. To Kill slugs and snails. spray the vinegar directly on the snails and wait. The vinegar will dissolve the snails. Also magnesium sulphate salt has similar effect on them.