Is Vinegar Good for Magnolia Trees?

Breaking Dormancy

• Like those of most trees, magnolia's seeds go dormant over the winter. This dormancy consists of a hard outer shell that protects the seed from the cold and prevents the seed from blooming prematurely into a climate in which it cannot survive. Gardeners frequently collect seeds and force them out of dormancy prematurely so they may grow new trees in a controlled environment. Placing magnolia seeds in vinegar for an hour is one of the safest and easiest ways to do this.

Forcing Blooms

• Many people regularly take cuttings from magnolias for decorative placement in the home, but sometimes their blooms have not quite taken off at the point of cutting. Place cuttings in a mixture of water, sugar and vinegar to encourage them to bloom quicker.

Adjusting the Soil

• The application of vinegar to the soil around a magnolia tree can have potential benefits as well. Magnolias do best in a slightly acidic soil, with a pH of 6 to 6.5. Generally, Vinegar has a pH of 3, and adding it to a more alkaline soil can, at least temporarily make the soil more acidic and more amenable to magnolia growth.

Effectiveness

• Vinegar has a few potentially beneficial uses with the magnolia tree, but none of these are the most effective means to an end. A magnolia seed can be scarred with sand paper instead of being left to soak in vinegar. Bleach is more effective than vinegar for encouraging blooms in magnolia cuttings, though both will work. Using vinegar to adjust the pH of the soil for the benefit of a magnolia is a quick and unsustainable fix that may kill smaller roots in the magnolia as well as kill some of the microorganisms that help to get nutrients to the magnolia. While vinegar can be good for magnolias, it is not necessarily the most effective way to benefit the tree or its parts on any front.