weed guns any good?

[wilki]

has any of you guys ever used a parrafin fueled weed burning gun?
just wondered if they are any good or will it end up cluttering the shed ???
the sites that sell them obviouslly rate them.
what do you think?

[wilki]

[windygale]

Hi Wilki, flameguns work well, the more you do the better the results, burn over your area every two weeks should keep the soil free of growing weeds, but you have to remember, everytime you move soil, up comes more weed seeds, flamegums can be like hoes, take a week or two off and we all now how the a plot looks like when we get back there, i must say it's a lot easier than hoeing, cleans out wire mesh fencing well, but will not kill long rooted weeds,
good luck
windy

[joji]

We got one. Mind you the state of our lottie when we took it over we needed one. It was one of the best things we ever got. Useful for setting off the bonfire too. ;D

[wilki]

Thanks for the advise guys  ;D
looks like i'll take the plunge!
We only took over our lottie last year and it was in a very poor state, wish i had got one last year now :-X, can i ask would you consider buttersups as deep rooted?, they are a real menace.
Also do they create alot of smoke?
and whats about the legal side of burning/ smoke?

[windygale]

hi wilki, as for the smoke, it shouldn't give of much on weeds, but dry grass, and starting bonefires, you'll have to watch what you place on them, no plastic, carpets or wet materials,

other than that not problems, buttercups, and any long rooted plants i fork them out when digging,, i double dig ONE bed every year where my potatoes goes adding loads of recycled greenwaste from the Local Recycling Center, at a £1.00 Per Bag ( if filled by myself) or £60.00 per 3ton skip = 268 bags approx,

if you can keep to a crop rotation and you move your potatoes down through your beds each years you'll complet the double digging of the hole plot in four years,
hope this info helps
windy

[Robert_Brenchley]

Buttercups aren't deep rooted but they're persistent. You'd need to keep going over them regularly, but you'd kill them in a season easily. Bindweed takes several seasons. I have  flamegun I acquired last year, but it needs cleaning out and I was too unwell to do it last summer. I'll try to get it going for this year. It's too cold to sit and do it now though; it was freezing on the plot today.

[Gardenantics]

Flame guns are great at killing off newly germinating seedlings on soil that you turned over and exposed the seed. What you should not do is use it like a flame thrower, trying to incinerate established plants. You can do more harm than good by playing the flame over one spot for a long time. A quick pass over seedlings boils the water in them and they are goners, anytime you see red embers, and soil drying out, you are killing the mico-organisms that keep the soil healthy.

Brian

[Melbourne12]

I'm a fan of flaming.  Obviously they can't do everything - you'll still need to weed around delicate plants.  I'd emphasise Gardenantics' advice - don't burn the weeds, just heat them up enough to "cook" the leaves.  That'll do much more harm than scorching the tops off, which just encourages the roots to throw again.

The other thing to be aware of is that they're not very effective on established grasses, like couch grass.  You need to flame grasses when they're young, otherwise they develop a sort of heatproof sheath on the leaves.