Sheen X300 Flame Gun, any users?

I've got a fairly large plot, and am trying to grow veg for a producers market. The weeding of the carrots is pretty time consuming, and I'm thinking of getting a flame gun. Plan is stale seedbed, flame it and then plant the seeds. The questions are:
1.Is it worth it?

2. Can the gun be used after germination?

3. How good is it against thistles etc?

thanks

 

learning from anothers misfortune, dont use flame gun in dry conditions:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/new...ientist's-blowtorch-weedkiller-backfires.html

 

amongst plants its a no no.

Against thistles and seedling weeds its excelent. With woody tap root weeds like dock Ive got mixed opinions, I think sucess may depend on the amount of moisture the individual plant is holding. Ive used a big tractor mounted rig before with very mixed results and similar with a smaller wand.

However I have not used one four four years after I acidently set light to a conifer shrub whilst tidying a driveway mutch the same as the above link!!!

Personally id rather now just use glyphosate and a fork!!!

 

"glyphosate and a fork"

I agree with that too.

 

I don't reckon a flame thrower is very selective either! Pre-cooked carrots instead of just washed perhaps?

 

so for relatively weed free carrots:

1. Remove weeds & prepare bed
2. Let weed seeds germinate
3. hoe weeds and plant carrots
4. spray weeds with roundup before carrots emerge

is that the way to do it?

Back to the flame gun, how effective is it at killing the weed seeds at stage 2?

 

By using roundup at step 3 will that mean less soil disturbance, and less fresh weed seeds likely to germinate?

 

Yes. Also probably obviouse but use a sprayer not a watering can as you get better results and use less chemical.

Back to the flame gun, how effective is it at killing the weed seeds at stage 2?


In answer good, however they are a bit of a fiddle to light and there is the risk of fire.

 

Had the free use of one some time ago,completely useless!
Will not burn anything up unless it is timber dry and dead.
Green grass was barely touched, and paraffin, it went through paraffin like there was no tomorrow.
I personally would give it a miss,especially if you have to buy the gun.

Cherrio !!!!

 

The point with flame weeding isnt about burning the weeds it is merly about passing the flame over the plants so it scortches and burtsts the plant cells.

The trouble is judging the period of flame contact, further with tap root weeds like dock unless there is a good area of leaf the flame isnt very effective and may take several further treatments.

 

Had one for several years. Just great if used sensibly and with care. One advantage over other methods of weed killing is that it burns off any weed seeds lying on the soil surface.

 

I use one too, mostly for the paths. If I put chemical on the weeds they just sit there yellow for ever ... with the flame thrower I can use once to kill them, then when yellow I can use again to make them disappear! Obviously not advisable if the weeds are 4 feet high, covering an acre, and tinder dry :rolleyes:

 

found this on flame weeding

http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/flameweedveg.html