ACID TEST Safer weed management trials

Nine schools, 20 passionate science leaders and 500 budding scientists, with support from researchers at Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology, advisors from Tauranga City Council’s Toxic Agrichemical Advisory Forum (TAAF), and council staff, have collaborated in an applied research project exploring the efficacy of acetic acid for weed control. (Acetic acid is the main component of vinegar.)

This citizen science collaboration has the potential to influence policy change for local government, driving a reduction in the volume of toxic agrichemicals being applied in our local parks and reserves.

WHAT IS A WEED?

The starting point for this project was a shared problem, based on a definition of weeds being ‘plants growing in the wrong place’ – where we don’t want them. While there is a variety of physical, biological and chemical control methods available to us