How does road salt affect weeds and the environment?
Road salt consists of 98 percent table salt, which penetrates the soil and initially damages bacteria and microorganisms. As a result, the earth becomes muddy and poor in nutrients. The dissolved salt is absorbed by the roots and penetrates the plant, where it destroys the cells. The leaf margins are brown and the shoots wither. If plants ingest large amounts of salt, they perish.
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If you look at the trees on busy roads after a long winter, it quickly becomes clear that the agent used against black ice has a very negative effect on growth. This not only affects unwanted weeds, but also crops.
How is road salt used as a weed killer?
Because of the far-reaching consequences for the environment already described, the use of road salt as a weed killer is not without controversy. If you still want to use this remedy for individual, very stubborn weeds, you should proceed as follows:
- Dissolve 100 grams of road salt in one liter of water.
- Wet the weed plant thoroughly.
The dissolved salt that has penetrated the earth is absorbed by the plants. As a result, the above-ground parts of the plant wither and you can easily remove the weeds.
Caution: road salt is not a permitted weed killing agent
Section 6 of the Plant Protection Act regulates which herbicides may be used. The following applies to house and garden owners: The use of pesticides is prohibited in all open spaces that are not used for gardening. These include the terrace, the courtyard entrance and all paths around the building. But not only weed killers are prohibited here, even supposedly harmless household remedies such as road salt or vinegar may not be used in these areas for the purpose of weed killing.
What alternatives to road salt are there?
Hot water is completely harmless to the soil and nature, as it destroys the roots of the plant and the parts of the plant above ground. For example, you can use the potato water that is produced in the kitchen anyway and pour it directly onto the weeds. The weeds perish and can then be removed without any problems.
If you want to get rid of weeds that have spread in the cracks in the pavement slabs, you can remove them mechanically with the joint scraper. However, this can be quite tedious for larger areas. Here it has proven to be useful to use a special device to flame the unwanted green. The heat damages the plants so permanently that the paths remain weed-free for a long time.
Tips
So that weeds do not even settle in the joints of the pavement slabs, you should add weed-inhibiting joint sand or rock flour (€ 14.95 at Amazon *). These materials fill even the smallest cavities and compact so much that weeds are deprived of their livelihood.
