A BIG thank you to the person who, last year, told us about vinegar spray. I haven't looked up the original poster in the archives but Gerbil said she tested it and it worked. So two days ago I mixed a quart ( 50/50 with water), put it in a spray bottle and went after the thistles I've been battling for 3 years. Today I found them all black!! It works.

-- Peg in NW WI (wildwoodfarms@hushmail.com), April 12, 2001

Answers

This sounds like a great idea dos it hurt other plants or just the thistles as I have quite a few in new patch of yard. Indiana Country friend Jack Bunyard

-- Jack Bunyard (bunyard@cnz.com), April 12, 2001.

The thistles were in the yard. The grass was unaffected. Today I sprayed a couple I missed and a couple of dandylions to see if they would turn black also. I still have snow on a big part of the garden.:(

-- Peg in NW WI (wildwoodfarms@hushmail.com), April 12, 2001.

Diluted household bleach works too.

-- Hendo (redgate@echoweb.net), April 13, 2001.

I have used the mix of vinigar and water to kill grass and weeds around the basement walls. It worked faster than any weed killer I purchased and I feel safer useing that mixture. It keeps the area around the nat. gas meter clean. The best part is that I no longer need to use the weed whip in those areas.

-- Jeanie in WI (jeaniech2020@yahoo.com), April 18, 2001.

Peg, did it kill the dandelions? I am excited about this! Did you use regular white vinegar (the cheap stuff)? We have thistles too, also some other really bad perennial weeds such as johnsongrass. We're thinking of using a flamethrower on some of this stuff because we don't want to use chemicals either. But vinegar is cheaper! Thanks! -- Barb in SW MO

-- Barb Johnson (bdjohnson@atlascomm.net), April 19, 2001.

This is an answer to my prayers. Am tired of buying Roundup which just seems to fertilize the nettles. Will try on both! Thanks!!!

-- Duffy (hazelm@tenforward.com), April 19, 2001.

I used apple cider vinegar diluted half and half with water. I had to spray a couple of times to kill some, but the stronger plants have had to be sprayed more often. These are called bull thistle or Canada thistle here- I don't know if that's botanically correct though. They grow 5-6 feet tall. I sprayed as they were just rosettes coming out of the ground. It is working, and infinitely better than toxic chemicals in my opinion. It doesn't seem to kill anything else here but try it anyway. Can't hurt.

-- Peg in NW WI (wildwoodfarms@hushmail.com), April 20, 2001.

Thankyou, thankyou, thankyou! I found this thread finally. I posted a question titled "Dandelions and Thistles" as I was inundated with dandelions. I came to the conclusion that unless I could get rid of them I was going to have to become a weed wino. Not on my list of things to do LOL. So with sheer tenacity, I explored in here and presto! For all you hard working sould with less hands than work that want to get rid of those dandelions and thistles - read this thread!!

Catch ya later

-- Deborah (djdangel@mb.sympatico.ca), May 17, 2001.

Thanks for bringing it up to the recent answers section, Deb. I was going to be looking for this soon, too.

If 50/50 vinegar & water isn't entirely effective, what about 100% vinegar? Or is there too much chance it will kill something you WANT to keep. My thistles are going to get a dose. I plan to use white vinegar -- it's cheaper, but more importantly (to me), it doesn't have any particles to clog the sprayer. Any thoughts?

-- Joy F [in So. Wisconsin] (CatFlunky@excite.com), May 17, 2001.

As an update on the thistles- they turned black but did come back after a few days. I happened to see the "gardener guy" on t.v. and he said cut the tops off, THEN spray the stump with undiluted white vinegar. That worked. It's been a couple of weeks now and the sprayed thistles didn't come back at all--finally!

-- Peg (wildwoodfarms@hushmail.com), May 21, 2001.

Peg, thanks for the undate. I sprayed the standing thistles with diluted vinegar two days ago and some weeds around them. The weeds are dying and the thistle has a "burned" look to it but not dying. Will cut and spray the stumps with straight. This is great....I have been losing the "thistle battle" and can finally see some light ahead.

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), May 21, 2001.

Somebody found the old thread, it's at http://hv.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=0031DR

That one says to use vinegar "straight", maybe that works better than 50/50?

-- Joy F [in So. Wisconsin] (CatFlunky@excite.com), May 22, 2001.

Hi everyone! As soon as the wind stops blowing here, I am going to first whack off those golden yellow heads and redo the straight vinegar treatment. Going now to get rocks to put in my pockets so I can keep my feet on the ground. Bye.

-- Deborah (djdangel@mb.sympatico.ca), May 22, 2001.

Really a thank you . I'm heading out to try vinegar. Thanks for a daughter in law who suggested I look here for an answer to this prickly problem, we're in a thistle haven ( or hell ?)

-- Margie Turner (margiegt@denroc.com), August 13, 2001.