Posted: 5/23/2010 6:34:13 PM EDT
| Anyone use a weed torch in their garden? I just started so the jury is still out. Although while learning to use it properly and adjust the flame correctly, I may have gotten a little overzealous and killed a couple pepper plants and a couple bean plants :( Be careful and keep the flame setting on very low and not F15 afterburner and I'll be ok. |
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I use one,a cheap Harbor Freight job, leave the 20# tank in the little red wagon behind the mower, makes things easy. Not in the garden or around the wifes flower beds but all around the driveway and other paved areas. Along the fence line too (have a 2 1/2 gal can just in case) Works GREAT. I probably could use it in the garden but I don't get that many weeds and I wouldn't want to accidentally torch a veggie.
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I Use one. The neighbors look at me like I'm nuts but it dose work. Yeah, my neighbor came out when I had it on F15 afterburner (it is kinda loud like this) setting while I was learning the correct way to use it. He was "What the hell are you doing?" I'm like (with a childlike grin) "What does it look like, I'm weeding my garden" He thinks I'm a bit nuts anyway and just shook his head and went back inside. |
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I Use one. The neighbors look at me like I'm nuts but it dose work. Yeah, my neighbor came out when I had it on F15 afterburner (it is kinda loud like this) setting while I was learning the correct way to use it. He was "What the hell are you doing?" I'm like (with a childlike grin) "What does it look like, I'm weeding my garden" He thinks I'm a bit nuts anyway and just shook his head and went back inside. I have neighbor like that....cranky old fart. Gonna be a thorn for some time....thankfully he's old and I'm young. |
| Update. Maybe I have a little too much torch for the apparently delicate work that is flame weeding your garden because I killed 3 pepper plants and most of my beans (about 6-8 plants). I'll have to buy more banana peppers and plant more beans today. I need to find a torch with a little flame head and not the F15 afterburner model. Lesson learned, not everything is solved by setting it on fire. |
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Quoted:
Update. Maybe I have a little too much torch for the apparently delicate work that is flame weeding your garden because I killed 3 pepper plants and most of my beans (about 6-8 plants). I'll have to buy more banana peppers and plant more beans today. I need to find a torch with a little flame head and not the F15 afterburner model. Lesson learned, not everything is solved by setting it on fire. Maybe just use one of those handheld propane torches? I'm curious......does the heat definitively kill weeds with very long tap roots such as thistles? I'm wondering if it doesn't just stun those kind of weeds and then they grow back. |
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Update. Maybe I have a little too much torch for the apparently delicate work that is flame weeding your garden because I killed 3 pepper plants and most of my beans (about 6-8 plants). I'll have to buy more banana peppers and plant more beans today. I need to find a torch with a little flame head and not the F15 afterburner model. Lesson learned, not everything is solved by setting it on fire. Maybe just use one of those handheld propane torches? I'm curious......does the heat definitively kill weeds with very long tap roots such as thistles? I'm wondering if it doesn't just stun those kind of weeds and then they grow back. They use them down south of here to burn the spines off cactus so the cattle have something to eat when it gets real dry. (Un)fortunately the cactus grow back. |
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Update. Maybe I have a little too much torch for the apparently delicate work that is flame weeding your garden because I killed 3 pepper plants and most of my beans (about 6-8 plants). I'll have to buy more banana peppers and plant more beans today. I need to find a torch with a little flame head and not the F15 afterburner model. Lesson learned, not everything is solved by setting it on fire. Maybe just use one of those handheld propane torches? I'm curious......does the heat definitively kill weeds with very long tap roots such as thistles? I'm wondering if it doesn't just stun those kind of weeds and then they grow back. I know you have to keep up with it a little more. But honestly, if it keeps me from spraying chemicals on my food, I'm all for it. If I have to go out every 3-4 weeks and do it again I'm cool with it. Remember, you aren't trying to incinerate the plant, you are just hitting it long enough for it to start to wilt. By doing that you are destroying the chlorophyll and making the sun kill the plant. They will be brown and dead about 24hrs after torching. Lowes and amazon has them with about a 1" flame head. I think that size would be the ticket rather than the afterburner sized model. The one I have has about a 4" flame head and it puts out way too much radiant heat so in this case smaller would be better. Weed dragon is the brand I think. The little hand held torch doesn't work because it is at the wrong angle when pointed at the ground and it doesn't burn right because it tries to spit liquid propane out. |
