How to kill weeds in rock wall?

Even when I pull vERY carefully, they break off. I don't want to use Roundup, as everyone suggests.

Thanks!!

You could use vinegar, a warm sunny day is best for using it since it kills things faster then. Just be careful not to spray it on any plants you want to keep if there are some in the area. Boiling water will work too, take it and pour it over the area. Or if you like playing with fire, I think one of those weed dragon propane torches would probably do a good job for something like that.

There are plants close...so I won't try vinegar.
The boiling water would probably get on me since the wall is vertical and the weeds are in the cracks.
Hey...I think I'll buy the torch....Home Depot?

Thanks!

If you would have been comfortable spraying Roundup (except for the chemical aspect of it) then you should be able to work with vinegar too--you put it in a spray bottle and spray carefully. Or paint it on with a paintbrush if there are plants that are really close.

You can get plain propane torches at HD, etc but I'm not sure if there was something special about the one for weeds, or if they just put a fancy name and a fancy price on a plain old propane torch. Here's a website that sells a bunch of different ones, if you read what they have to say maybe you can figure out if a plain old propane torch would do the job or if these that are designed for weeds would be better http://www.flameengineering.com/ I've never used the torch...living in fire country I figured things like that probably aren't the smartest idea!

I've never used Roundup...that's just what my neighbors (who all have dry stack walls here in the hill country) tell me to do!
I thought you meant that the overspray might harm surrounding plants (and I do have a lot of surrounding ones. Hmmm...I'll try this today!

And....another "ah ha" moment! I'm a lampwork beader, so of course I have a little portable propane torch that I started on! I thought perhaps the Dragon had something special in it. Now I really sound like a dummy! :-)

Thanks so much for all your advice. We appreciate the way you help all of us!

The overspray can hurt the surrounding plants, but if it's not windy and you spray carefully then you should be fine. If your neighbors have similar walls and similar proximity of desirable plants and they are able to use Roundup, then there's no reason you should have problems with vinegar (a pinch of overspray from vinegar is probably less likely to do damage than a pinch of overspray from Roundup) But the torch is probably more fun!

ecrane3 is right. The best organic weed killer is vinegar. But, in all of my years in the landscaping field I have found that there is nothing you can do to weeds once they get themselves established in your garden. Also, you can fight certain weeds with vinegar or Round-Up, but have to re-apply the herbicide more than once so that the actual root dies. Up here in PA crown vetch can only be killed by renovating the area and burying the plant to a depth that it will not rejuvenate or spraying gallons of a strong herbicide in multiple applications. I hope your battle goes well.

Thanks to both of you! I'm armed and ready for the weekend!