Advice - flame gun

babs01

Hi All

I have recently got an allotment that is very overgrown with weeds and old plants etc.
I spent the whole of Saturday clearing a tiny square, so am dreading having to clear the rest.
Someone at work however can organise the use of a flame gun for me - apparently they are more environmentally friendly to use than any other kind of weedkiller.
Have anyone used one before? Do the weeds come back, should i blast them more than once, do you then just dig the 'ash' back into the soil etc?
Any advice/tips appreciated.

Thanks

alanobrien

I use one one occasion. Just have to be careful in the height of summer and make sure you have a bucket of water handy. They are supposed to scortch the root system and kill it off but i am not sure i believe that. The main benefit i see is that they are quick and clean to use and get rid of all visible evidence of weeds so they are useful things to have.

Fliss_Harper

I've seen my neighbour use one, and I'm interested whether or not they work well.

pixiepp

A flame gun will not generally kill any perennial weeds; e.g. dandelion, creeping buttercup, mares tail, dock etc, you really need to go around the site and dig these out by hand. My advice is to matk out the plot into "do-able size strips" with some garden line, then just work your way systematically down the strip using a fork. I know its hard work but you can see your progress more easily this way which encourages commitment. i "ROUNDUP" in the past which was really good and it breaks down naturally in ther soil. You could use the flame gun a few weeks after to kill all the small weed seedlings which will surely sprout!
pixiepp

babs01

Thanks for all the input.

Am planning on trying out the flame gun this weekend, then going round and digging everything up after.
Am hoping the flame gun makes it all slightly easier, will 'post' with results!

Davesnave

The ordinary flame guns you can buy for about £20 - £25 and use canister gas (may be called 'The Weed Wand' or something) are next to useless, except for tiny weeds, and then the area would have to be small. I have one, so I know! The old paraffin ones, which are larger, may be better.

I can't see anything wrong with glyphosate, like pixiepp says. That is particularly important for perennial weeds, like dandelions, which will just come back if you flamegun or don't otherwise dig them out.

In areas where I just get odd weeds, I put wallpaper paste into a strong mix of Roundup, then add some red food colour and 'paint' individual nasties with a brush. The food colour just helps me see which ones I've done & the paste makes the mix adhere.

You can put old carpet over areas you want to clear, but it takes about a season to kill tough weeds by excluding light.

hippydave

i use a sheen x300 flame gun that i run on kerosene (cheaper than parrafin)
I find that at this time of year when the annual weeds are just starting it clears them in minutes, i use it all year round and find that it saves loads of effort and time, it even kills the seeds dropped from weeds before they can germinate.
you can find them quite often from ebay, buying spare parts direct from sheen from nottingham is much cheaper than buying spares from ebay.
mine didnt work at all, spending less than £15 on spares got it up and running in less than 20 mins.