My mother used to sprinkle salt onto pavers and sweep it into the cracks, then lightly water it. It would probably work either way but making up a salt water mix would probably make the salt go further. The thing is knowing how strong a mix you would need.

hi mm, the pool salt will be fine, I do what your hubby has suggested and dissolve it in water then water it on the clover. trance

Thanks GH and TG a much better idea, not so hard on the back....Cheers..MM.

Greetings, I've worked out the calculations albeit with some guessing as to what sort of salts are in pool salt. My calculations (which I would show you if GW was not currently compressing everything into a single block of text) indicate you need 4-5 grams of salt per litre. This does not seem like a lot to me to be honest so take these values with a grain of salt...*grin* If you think about what 40-50 grams of salt looks like in a 10L bucket though, perhaps it will be enough? You could easily double it to be absolutely certain - a 25kg bag will provide 250-300 L of salt solution at the "double rate".

Disclaimer: those calculations are for white clover. Depending on the tolerance of the species, if there were other weeds to kill you'd need to change the concentration. Also, older plants are not as sensitive as young plants.

Hi MooQuack and Thanks.... Its not like the clover that used to grow in the back yard in Melbourne that had a white roundish spikey flowers.............This one has very small leaves and flowers they are purple/brown even the leaves look purple at times...gee I was just going to go out and take a pic but I cannot put it on this forum. I think I will put one heaped cup of salt into a 9 litre watering can that should fix it probably overkill it......Cheers..MM.

Hi MooQuack and Thanks.... Its not like the clover that used to grow in the back yard in Melbourne that had a white roundish spikey flowers.............This one has very small leaves and flowers they are purple/brown even the leaves look purple at times...gee I was just going to go out and take a pic but I cannot put it on this forum. I think I will put one heaped cup of salt into a 9 litre watering can that should fix it probably overkill it......Cheers..MM.

I wouldnt even bother buying salt,boiling water straight from the jug acts as a very effective path weeder.

I kill the path weeds with boiling water no need to use salt Bev

When we were in NZ we just used the merest pinch of the cheapest salt onto the centre of the offending weed and bingo--it dies, it will start to shrivel in minutes!!!! Gorse, clover, dandelions and any of the flat weeds in particular are dead.

won't you end up with problems of salt residue in your soil? whenever I get an outbreak of bindi - - I pour boiling water over them. Works a treat and doesn't leave a residue in the soil.

Hi Everyone....Mine is not a path its a driveway Blue Metal Road Base 100mts long by 5mts wide (330ft long and 16ft wide ) the mind boggles at how many kettles of water I would need to boil I think I will stick to the bag of swimming pool salt at $6 and if that does not work I will have to buy a clover weed killer................................ I did notice this morning that the bit I did the other day is starting to shrivel........Cheers...MM.

I would not be doing this on my property. the last thing you want is a high concentration of highly mobile soluble salt in the soil. It's such an inefficient way of killing weeds, the concentration of salt you need to kill a plant, say 1 gram, compared with glyphosate. Glyphosate breaks down in the soil. Salt doesn't, it will be tehre forever. I don't want to sound like an advertisment for chemical companies, which I am NOT, but: The recommended dose for glyphosate is 1Lper hectare = 360g/hectare. One hectare = 10,000m2. So 0.036g per square metre is more than enough, that's 36mg. If there are 20 weeds in a square metre each weed gets 1.8mg. For comparison, a drop of water weighs 50mg! Also did you know the lethal dose of Glyphosate for an adult human is 350g. The lethal dose for Sodium chloride is only 210g. Consider it...

MM, I have to agree with Jamus on this point. I really don't think using salt is the ideal way to go. It does accumulate in the soil, adding to a problem that Australia could well do without. Please do consider his argument. Glyphosate is really not that expensive if you use it wisely and only where necessary. I like to do things the green way where possible, but you have to weigh up the circumstances for each case.....Cheers, Dee.

yeh salt in soil is bad for the environment, pretty much once the soils are contaminated with salt there is almost no cure, and the only plants that can grown near it is salt tolerant plants. Salt will kill just about all plants but it also makes it impossible for plants that you would want to put in unless you replace all the soil. Just imagine the dead salt lakes.....fertile isn't it

Just a question are the cloves your killing the ones the bees eat?

you'd think there'd be some cut-off point. Charmonyindustries - the original post is 10 years old. This dredging up only started after the houzz transfer. And sadly anyone who ever posted, gets notified, unless they opt out.

Salting the earth like the Romans at Carthage is one of the worst things you can do to soil. It kills plants, microbes, fungi, creates sodium toxicity in the soil and destroys soil structure.

If you wanna kill just plant above the ground I would suggest using vinegar on a hot day, anything the vinegar sits on with the sun out will die.

Or Chop it down with a strimmer. Cardboard on top, weed proof liner on top of that, your nice white stones on top of that. It'll take them a fair while to break back through.

10 Alternatives to Using Salt to Kill Weeds

I know the post is more than 10 years old but I thought this information could save the earth.

Cheers,