How long after using salt to kill weeds and grass can I plant perennials?
Question:I'd like to create a few new flower beds. There are areas on my property that I'd like to plant perennials but are now full of weeds and brush, including a couple areas of grass in my front yard that a herbicide won't kill. I found a "recipe" using salt and vinegar that is supposed to kill anything. How long after applying this concoction can I plant my perennials? Or will I have created a desolate wasteland?
Answers:
Salt contamination of soils is a serious environmental issue. Affected soils have poor physical properties and can prevent water percolation, causing runoff and erosion. Salt can strip nutrients from the soil depriving plants of the proper nutrition for growth.
To remove salt from the soil, flush the soil with water. Apply 2" of water over a 2-3 hour period and repeat 3 days later. Provided that you have adequet soil drainage, this should leach much of the salt from your future perennial's root zone. Improve the soil before reseeding because salt can prevent germination and damage seedlings. For this reason, it would be wise to incorporate lots of organic material into any soil that is exposed to salt before introducing new plants.
With a pH of 3.0, vinegar acts as a contact herbicide by burning plant tissue. While vinegar may burn off the tops of Canada thistle and other perennials, it will not control the root system responsible for regeneration of plants. Furthermore, vinegar may not control larger weeds. Once in contact with the soil, the acidity of vinegar would be mostly neutralized by the chemistry of the soil.
Salt and Vinegar are considered food products. While they may act as a ‘herbicide’ in some cases they are not registered as such by the EPA. Using them outside of your residence as a herbicide is prohibited by law. If your use of salt or vinegar causes environmental damage or public harm, you would be liable for the injury caused.
Depending on the amount of salt and vinegar used -- weeks, months.
Roundup will kill anything that grows. You can paint it on undiluted. Death to weeds. 24 hours after aplication, you may plant.
Yikes... you sent that down to the aquifers?
I would suggest that you wait at least 6 months before trying to grow anything in that area. It will take that long for the chemicals to "leech out" of the soil.
Probably years if you use enough salt to kill plants. It will permanently damage the soil. A nearby neighborhood with water wells had an abandoned salt water well leak into their groundwater; killed the grass, trees, everything! By roundup or spectracide and use that. If you are trying to kill bermuda grass with roundup, give up and give up the idea of a flowerbed there. Flowerbeds will encourage bermuda to grow exponetially.
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