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🔗 Save $6,000 A Year with My Complete Amish Home-Saving Method I teach:
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You walk out to the gravel driveway and find them. Small green tufts pushing up through every crack. The fence line behind the barn is worse — sticker bushes, vines, sprawling grass weaving through the wire.
You walk into the hardware store and stand in the herbicide aisle. Bottles of Roundup at fifteen dollars. Glyphosate-and-diquat combinations at forty. Long-residual soil sterilizers at forty-five. The man behind the counter tells you these are the only things that work.
The plain truth is there are six honest old methods of killing weeds that have been used by careful farmers in this country since before any commercial herbicide existed. Cost almost nothing. Work as well as the bottles for most jobs. And the weed-killer companies have no reason to teach you, because there is no money in any of them.
In this video, I walk you through all six — the methods my grandfather used, the methods Esther's mother used, the methods the careful folks in this country have used for a hundred and fifty years.
✔ The 30% vinegar + dish soap spray that browns small weeds within hours (real Purdue resea
https://eliasyoder.com
You walk out to the gravel driveway and find them. Small green tufts pushing up through every crack. The fence line behind the barn is worse — sticker bushes, vines, sprawling grass weaving through the wire.
You walk into the hardware store and stand in the herbicide aisle. Bottles of Roundup at fifteen dollars. Glyphosate-and-diquat combinations at forty. Long-residual soil sterilizers at forty-five. The man behind the counter tells you these are the only things that work.
The plain truth is there are six honest old methods of killing weeds that have been used by careful farmers in this country since before any commercial herbicide existed. Cost almost nothing. Work as well as the bottles for most jobs. And the weed-killer companies have no reason to teach you, because there is no money in any of them.
In this video, I walk you through all six — the methods my grandfather used, the methods Esther's mother used, the methods the careful folks in this country have used for a hundred and fifty years.
✔ The 30% vinegar + dish soap spray that browns small weeds within hours (real Purdue resea
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00You walk out to the gravel driveway in the morning, and there they are, small green tufts of grass and
00:06weeds pushing up through every crack, every joint, every gap in the gravel.
00:13You walked it clean two weeks ago. Today, they are back. By next week, they will be ankle high. By
00:21the end of the summer, they will have taken the whole driveway back if you do not do something.
00:26And the fence line behind the barn is worse. Sticker bushes, vines, sprawling grass weaving up through the wire, every
00:36one of them needing to be hand-pulled or sprayed or cut down before the property looks neglected.
00:43You walk to the hardware store, and you stand in the herbicide aisle. Bottles of Roundup, $15 to $30 each.
00:53Bottles of glyphosate and Diquat combinations for $40. Bottles of long residual soil sterilizers that promise a full year of
01:04nothing growing for $45.
01:07The man behind the counter tells you these are the only things that really work. You walk out with a
01:14bottle, spray it, and three months later, the weeds are back, and you are spending $45 again.
01:21And every spring, for years now, you have been spending $200 or $300 on commercial weed killers, and the weeds
01:30keep coming back.
01:32Now, I want you to sit with this. There are six honest old methods of killing weeds that have been
01:39used by careful farmers in this country since before any commercial herbicide existed that cost almost nothing, that work as
01:49well as the bottles in the hardware store for most jobs, and that the weed killer companies have no reason
01:55to teach you because there is no money in any of them.
01:59My grandfather killed weeds the same way Esther's grandmother killed weeds, the same way the careful farm folks have killed
02:08weeds for 150 years.
02:11And every one of those methods still works today, exactly the same as it always did.
02:18My name is Elias Yoder. I am Amish, and I farm in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
02:25Today, I am going to walk you through the six honest methods, the pantry vinegar recipe, the vinegar salt mix
02:34for fence lines, boiling water from the kettle, the propane flame torch, the newspaper and mulch smothering for problem patches,
02:44and the simple business of pulling them out after the rain when the soil is soft.
02:50All six work. Each one fits a different situation. Knowing which to reach for is the whole skill.
03:01I will be honest with you about the bold words in the title. Folks will tell you stop them for
03:07good.
03:07The plain truth is, there is no honest way to keep weeds from coming back forever in this country, because
03:15the seeds blow in on the wind every spring, and the birds carry them in from the next field over.
03:22But these six methods will knock down what you have, keep your fence lines and driveways clear for a full
03:30season, and save you the $200 a year you have been spending on bottles at the hardware store.
03:37That is the honest math.
03:40Quick word before we go further. The old methods my family uses, there is more of it than fits in
03:48any one video. I gathered the whole of it into a book at EliasYoder.com.
03:54The book is the long version. I will not bring it up again. Now let me show you how it
04:01is done.
04:02The first method is the strong vinegar plus dish soap. Plain pantry white vinegar from the grocery store is 5
04:11% acetic acid, not strong enough to do much against an established weed.
04:16What you want for serious weed killing is what they call horticultural strength vinegar, 20 to 30% acetic acid.
04:26You will find it at the hardware store or feed and garden store, sold in gallon jugs for $15 to
04:34$20.
04:35One gallon will treat a great many weeds. Here is the chemistry. Plain.
04:41Acetic acid at 20% or higher draws the water out of plant tissue, breaks down the waxy cuticle on
04:50the leaves, and burns the foliage within hours.
04:54On a hot, sunny day, you will see the weeds start to brown within the first hour and be completely
05:01toasted by the end of the afternoon.
05:03Purdue University Extension has tested this carefully and confirmed a kill rate of 85 to 100% on above ground
05:12weed tissue at all growth stages with 20% or stronger vinegar.
05:18Real science. Real results.
05:21The recipe. One gallon of 20 to 30% vinegar. Add about 2 tablespoons of plain dish soap. Any brand
05:28will do.
05:29The soap is just there as a surfactant to help the vinegar stick to the waxy leaves instead of running
05:35off.
05:36Stir gently. Pour into a clean garden sprayer. Apply on a sunny day with no rain in the forecast for
05:43at least 24 hours.
05:45Spray the weeds directly, soaking the leaves until the solution drips off.
05:50Within an hour, the leaves curl. Within 4 hours, they brown. Within a day, they are crisp and dead-looking.
05:57The limitation of this method is honest. The vinegar burns the foliage but does not always reach down to the
06:04root.
06:04Small weeds with shallow roots, the kind you find pushing up through driveway cracks, usually die completely.
06:12Larger established weeds with deep root systems, dandelions, dock, thistle, established crabgrass,
06:19will brown out on top, and then slowly regrow from the surviving root within 2 to 3 weeks.
06:26For those, plan to spray 2 or 3 times over the growing season, each time when new growth appears.
06:33This method is best for flower bed clearing, driveway cracks, walkway joints, and small annual weeds.
06:40Genuinely useful, cheap, on character.
06:44The second method is the same recipe with one addition, salt.
06:49For places where you want nothing growing back for the rest of the season,
06:53gravel driveways, fence lines, the gaps between flagstones, the cracks of a sidewalk, add salt to the vinegar mix.
07:01The recipe, one gallon of 20 to 30% vinegar, two tablespoons of dish soap, and one full cup of
07:09plain table salt or rock salt.
07:12Mix thoroughly until the salt is fully dissolved.
07:15The salt is what gives this mix its long-lasting kill.
07:18Here is the chemistry, plain.
07:21Salt is a desiccant, meaning it draws water out of plant tissue and out of the surrounding soil.
07:27Where the salt soaks into the ground, the soil becomes too saline for plants to take up water through their
07:33roots,
07:34and any seed that lands there cannot germinate.
07:37The salt does not break down in the soil the way vinegar does. It persists.
07:41On a typical sprayed driveway crack, you will get 6 to 12 weeks of nothing growing back.
07:48With repeated applications through the season, you can keep an area essentially bare for a full year.
07:54Two honest safety words about the salt method, because they matter.
07:581. Salt does not stay where you put it.
08:02Rain washes it. Snow melts carry it.
08:05On sloping ground, salt drift can damage flower beds, lawn edges, and tree roots downhill from where you sprayed.
08:12I have seen folks salt a fence line, and a year later watched the maple tree 40 feet away, yellow,
08:19and start to die,
08:20because the salt reached its root system through groundwater.
08:24Use this method only where you want nothing growing for a long time,
08:28and only where the runoff cannot reach plants you want to keep.
08:312. Salted ground stays salted.
08:35If you ever decide later that you want to plant something where you sprayed,
08:39a hedge along the fence line, a tree, even grass, the salt will keep it from growing for years.
08:46The only way to undo salt damage is to wait it out for many seasons of rain, or to dig
08:51up and replace the soil.
08:53Choose your spots with care.
08:55Used on the right spots, driveway cracks, gravel around the mailbox, fence lines you never want to plant against,
09:02this is one of the most effective and cheapest weed methods known.
09:07My grandfather used the same recipe.
09:10Costs about $2 per gallon of mix,
09:12kills small weeds within hours, keeps the spot bare for months.
09:16The third method is the simplest of all.
09:19Boiling water from the kettle.
09:21This one I want you to take seriously, even though it sounds too simple to be true.
09:26Plain boiling water poured directly on a weed kills it.
09:30No chemicals, no spraying, no drift, just hot water from your stove.
09:36The chemistry is the same as the flame torch we will get to in a moment.
09:40Heat ruptures plant cells, denatures the proteins, and cooks the plant from the inside out.
09:46The water and sap inside the cells boil and expand and burst the cell walls.
09:53The plant goes from green to limp within hours, fully dead within a day.
09:58The roots near the surface are cooked too, which is why this method actually does better than vinegar at reaching
10:05the root on small weeds.
10:07The method.
10:09Put your kettle on the stove.
10:11Bring it to a hard, rolling boil.
10:14Carry it carefully to the weed you want to kill.
10:17Pour the boiling water slowly and directly on the weed, soaking the foliage and the base of the plant.
10:24One full kettle handles about three or four good-sized weeds, or a stretch of driveway cracks about two feet
10:32long.
10:32Safety word plainly, boiling water burns skin instantly and badly.
10:39Wear closed-toe boots.
10:41Wear long pants.
10:43Carry the kettle with two hands, with the pour spout pointed away from your body, and pour slowly so it
10:51does not splash back.
10:52Never pour on a windy day where the steam can blow back on your face.
10:58Never let a child near the kettle while it is being used outside.
11:02A spilled kettle of boiling water on a foot or a leg is a serious burn.
11:08Treat the kettle with the respect it deserves.
11:11This method costs literally nothing beyond the gas or electricity to boil the water.
11:18It works best on driveway cracks, walkway joints, gravel paths, and small, isolated weeds you can target precisely.
11:27It is non-selective.
11:29It will kill anything green it touches, so do not pour boiling water on a weed growing in your lawn
11:36unless you want a dead patch around it.
11:38The careful U.S. botanic garden plant specialists confirm this method as one of the most genuinely effective non-chemical
11:47weed killers for spot use.
11:50The Romans were using this method 2,000 years ago.
11:54The old folks knew.
11:56Before I show you the next three methods, let me pause for a moment.
12:00If you want help putting these old-fashioned home-saving methods to work in your own house, join our Amish
12:09home savings system and community.
12:12Esther and I are inside answering questions, and the community helps you stay with it.
12:17The link is in the description.
12:20Now, the fourth method.
12:22The fourth method is the propane flame torch.
12:26This is the upgrade of the boiling water method and one of the best tools any homestead can own.
12:32A hand-held propane torch connected to a standard 20-pound propane tank with a long wand and an adjustable
12:40flame nozzle.
12:41You walk the area and pass the flame quickly over each weed for about a second.
12:48That is all.
12:49You are not setting the weed on fire.
12:52You are giving it a brief, intense heat shock that ruptures its cells.
12:57The leaves wilt within minutes, brown by the next day, and dead by the end of the week.
13:03The University of Minnesota Extension and the Iowa State Extension both confirm this as one of the most genuinely effective
13:12non-chemical weed methods,
13:14especially for broadleaf annual weeds in driveway cracks, gravel paths, and around the edges of garden beds.
13:22A flame weeder costs about $40 to $100 at any hardware or farm supply store.
13:29Add a 20-pound propane tank and you have all the equipment you need.
13:35Propane lasts a long time on this use.
13:38A full tank handles many weeding sessions across a season.
13:43Five honest safety words for the flame torch because this one matters most of all in our six methods.
13:511. Wear leather boots, long pants, gloves, and eye protection.
13:57The flame is intensely hot, well over a thousand degrees at the nozzle.
14:032. Check with your local fire department before the first use.
14:09Some areas have burn bands during dry summers.
14:13A small flame in dry conditions can become a brush fire faster than you can step back.
14:193. Have a bucket of water or a hose at the ready before you start.
14:25Always.
14:26Never start without water within arm's reach.
14:304. Do not use a flame weeder near mulch, wood chips, dry leaves, fencing, or anything that can smolder.
14:38I have seen folks start a real fire in a pile of dry wood chip mulch using a flame weeder
14:44six feet away,
14:45because the embers carried on the wind.
14:47Mulch and dry plant material can smolder for hours underground and burst into flame after you have packed up and
14:54gone inside.
14:565. After you finish, walk the area again 10 or 20 minutes later and check for any smoldering spots.
15:03If you smell smoke or see any wisp of vapor, douse it.
15:08Better to soak the area lightly with water as a final step.
15:11Used with these cautions, the flame torch is the cleanest, fastest, most genuinely satisfying weed killer the homestead can own.
15:20No chemicals, no drift, no residue in the soil.
15:23The fence line that took you three hours to hand pull last summer takes 20 minutes with the flame torch
15:29this summer.
15:30And it works on the same patches year after year.
15:33The propane is the only ongoing cost.
15:36The fifth method is the slow but unbeatable one, newspaper or cardboard plus mulch.
15:42For large patches, you want to clear and keep clear.
15:46A section of yard you intend to convert to a garden bed, a problem area along a fence, a patch
15:52where invasive grass has taken over.
15:54No spray and no torch beats the simple business of smothering the weeds.
15:59The method.
16:00Mow or knock down the existing weeds first.
16:03Lay down four to six layers of plain newspaper or a layer of plain cardboard directly on the soil over
16:10the entire patch.
16:11Wet it thoroughly with the garden hose to weight it down and start the decomposition.
16:17Cover with three to four inches of mulch, wood chips, straw, shredded leaves, anything organic.
16:23That is all. Walk away.
16:25What happens next is slow but complete.
16:28The newspaper or cardboard blocks all light from reaching the weeds below.
16:33Without sunlight, photosynthesis stops and within two to three weeks, the weeds underneath die back.
16:39The newspaper and cardboard break down naturally over four to six months, enriching the soil as they decompose.
16:46The mulch on top keeps the ground cool, holds in moisture and prevents new weed seeds from germinating.
16:53For an area you can walk away from for a full season, this method is the most thorough.
16:58It does not damage the soil.
17:00In fact, it improves the soil by adding organic matter as everything breaks down.
17:05It does not poison anything you might want to plant later.
17:08It does not drift. It does not splash on the cat.
17:11And it works on the worst weed problems.
17:14Established perennial grasses, thistle patches, even brambles.
17:18By the next spring, the area is bare, workable soil, ready for whatever you want to plant.
17:25This is the method Esther uses for converting a new piece of ground into a garden bed.
17:30It takes time.
17:31It does not give you the quick satisfaction of the vinegar or the torch.
17:35But it gives you a better result than any of them on a hard problem area.
17:39The sixth and final method is the one nobody wants to hear, and the one the old folks did most
17:45of all.
17:46After a rain, when the soil is soft, walk the area and pull the weeds out by hand.
17:52I know. The other methods sound more interesting.
17:55But here is the honest truth about weed pulling that nobody on YouTube wants to tell you.
18:00Hand pulling weeds after rain is the only method on this list that removes the entire weed, root and all,
18:07in a single pass.
18:09The vinegar burns the leaves. The torch wilts the foliage. The salt poisons the soil.
18:15Only your hands actually take the whole weed out of the ground and put it in the compost where it
18:20belongs.
18:21The trick is timing.
18:24Wait until after a good soaking rain or after deep watering.
18:27The wet soil releases the root.
18:29A weed that would break off at the surface in dry ground pulls out cleanly in soft, wet ground.
18:35Get a hand tool, a small cultivator, a hoary hoary knife, a dandelion fork, and work your way down a
18:43row.
18:43On a good evening after rain, you can clear a hundred feet of garden bed in less than an hour,
18:48and every weed comes out roots and all.
18:51The careful old folks did not see weed pulling as drudgery.
18:55They saw it as one of the small, honest rhythms of a healthy garden.
19:00Fifteen minutes a day, a few times a week, walking the rows, pulling what comes up, keeping the bed clean.
19:08Nothing is ever truly out of hand if you walk the rows every few days.
19:12Weeds become a problem only when they are left for weeks until they go to seed.
19:18This is the method the entire human race used for 10,000 years before chemical weed killers existed.
19:25It still works.
19:27It costs nothing.
19:28It improves the soil.
19:30It gives you 15 minutes outdoors in the evening light, which is itself worth something.
19:36Now I want to take a moment, because here is where it all matters.
19:41Look at what we have just walked through.
19:43Six methods, each one for a different situation.
19:47For small annual weeds in flower beds and walkway cracks, the vinegar and soap.
19:54For fence lines, gravel driveways, and places you want bare for a full season, the vinegar with salt added.
20:02For isolated weeds in driveway cracks where you have boiling water already on the stove, the kettle from the kitchen.
20:10For larger areas of small weeds in driveways, paths, and around garden edges, the flame torch.
20:18For converting a problem patch into bare, clear ground over a full season, the newspaper and mulch smother.
20:26For the small daily upkeep of a clean garden bed, your own hands after rain.
20:33Not one of these methods needs a commercial herbicide.
20:37Not one of them needs a glyphosate bottle.
20:40Not one of them needs a soil sterilizer that poisons the ground for years.
20:45Every one of them costs almost nothing.
20:49Pantry vinegar, table salt, water from the kettle, a $40 flame torch that lasts a lifetime, free newspaper and cardboard,
20:59and your own two hands.
21:01The hardware store will sell you a bottle of glyphosate for $15 that does the same job as the vinegar.
21:09It will sell you a bottle of long residual soil sterilizer for $45 that does the same job as salt,
21:17plus contaminates your soil for a year or more, and can damage trees whose roots run under the area you
21:24sprayed.
21:25It will sell you another bottle next spring when the weeds come back.
21:30Every year.
21:32$200 a year easy on the bottles.
21:35There is no money in teaching folks that the answer is a gallon of vinegar, a cup of salt, a
21:41kettle on the stove, and a willingness to pull weeds after the rain.
21:46There is a great deal of money in selling $16 bottles of chemical herbicide to every household twice a year.
21:55So the hardware store stocks the bottles, the commercials run, and a whole country sprays Roundup on their driveway cracks
22:03every spring when the answer is in their kitchen and their kettle.
22:08You can be one of the ones who remembers the old way.
22:12So here is what I want you to do.
22:15This week, look at the weed problem you have on your property.
22:19Be specific.
22:21Where is it?
22:22What kind of weeds?
22:23How big?
22:25How bad?
22:26For small weeds in flower beds and walkway cracks, buy a gallon of 30% horticultural vinegar at the hardware
22:34store,
22:35add 2 tablespoons of dish soap, and spray them on the next sunny day.
22:41$18 total, and the bottle lasts you a year.
22:45For fence lines and gravel driveways, you want bare for the season.
22:49Same recipe, plus a cup of salt per gallon.
22:53Pick your spots carefully where the salt cannot reach things you want to keep.
22:58For one or two driveway crack weeds, boil the kettle.
23:02Carry it carefully.
23:04Pour slowly.
23:05For larger driveway and path areas, invest in a $40 propane flame torch and a 20 pound propane tank.
23:15Use it with care.
23:16You will have it for the rest of your life.
23:19For a problem patch you want to convert to clean ground, lay down newspaper or cardboard, soak it, and cover
23:27with 3 inches of mulch.
23:30Walk away for a season.
23:31Come back in spring to clear, plantable soil.
23:35And for the daily upkeep of your garden beds and yard edges, walk them after the next rain with a
23:41hand tool, and pull what comes up while the ground is soft.
23:4615 minutes a few times a week.
23:48Forever.
23:50Tell me in the comments below, what is the worst weed problem on your property right now, and what part
23:57of the country are you in?
23:58And if your grandmother or grandfather had an old weed killing trick we did not cover, share it.
24:05The little family methods are exactly the kind of knowledge that gets lost when nobody writes them down.
24:11I read every single one.
24:15Next time, since we have been speaking of keeping the property clean and well tended, I am going to show
24:21you the old way my people sharpen knives and axes with stone and strop.
24:27The angle, the pressure, the small daily habit that means your kitchen knives and your work tools stay sharp for
24:35a lifetime instead of going dull in 6 months.
24:39It is the natural next step after today.
24:42Until then, pour the vinegar, boil the kettle, light the torch, lay the cardboard, and remember that the cheapest weed
24:51killer in the world is the one already in your kitchen.
24:55That is how the old folks did it.
24:57That is how it is still done in any farm or homestead that remembers.
25:03Now it is the middle of the forest.
25:03After all, I have to eat peoples, the cocked vegetables.
25:03Now I know that as a littleibil
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