How to Choose Organic Herbicides

Herbicides were created to kill weeds and plants that you don't want around your garden. There are two kinds of herbicides. One kills weeds and a list of certain plants, and the other kills weeds and all the plants in its path. The problem with herbicides is they are dangerous to your health and bad for the environment. Organic herbicides are must safer and should be considered even if they cost a little more.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• List of ingredients

1. Check to see if the organic herbicide is safe to use around pets. Most of them should be, but you don't want to take a chance on harming an animal if you don't read the labels carefully. This information should clearly be on the front of the bottle.

2. Find out how long it takes to kill weeds. The organic herbicide should take no more than 20 minutes to activate and kill weeds. If a product takes any longer, than that it might not be effective enough.

3. Check the active ingredients. If the product is truly organic and effective it will have a combination of the following active ingredients: clove oil, and citric acid. To find this information look at the ingredients section and you should see also "active ingredients".

4. Look to see if the bottle comes with an adequate sprayer. You can't distribute the product evenly if you don't have a good sprayer. The companies that want you to kill weeds on the first try will often provide a sprayer with the bottle. They are usually attached and packaged together.

5. Read the label to find out if the product is recommended by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Not all organic herbicides are. If the product is recommended the company will proudly display this information on the bottle.

Tips & Warnings

• Don't spray your herbicides on a windy day. The herbicides can blow back in your face and even though organic herbicides are safer they still have chemicals in them.
• The active ingredients are what you want to look at since they are what will kill the weeds.
• Wear a mask and gloves when you spray the organic herbicides.