[HesterF]

We have loads of gravel paths and a big gravel courtyard as well as plenty of paved/brick areas. I was hoping to stay on top of the weeds by hand but by the end of last season was struggling. So for this season I was going to go over it all with a back-pack and weedkiller. But I've just been perusing the Harrod Horticultural catalogue (one of my favourite things to do) and saw they have two weed wand/flame gun type things. Have any of you used them? Are they worth it? Easy to use? Easy to cover a large area? Do they kill the weed completely or will they just come back from the roots (in which case I'm better off with a systemic weedkiller)?

Thanks

Hester

[goosepimple]

Hi Hester, I found the back pack thing a pest actually and I just ended up making up the mixture in a designated watering can and using it, it was quicker.


We inherited here a weed want of humungous proportions - its a calor gas bottle on a wheelie thing with a big wand attached to it.  Much more of an industrial scale than a domestic version and you just torch everything in site. 


We're just about to lay a large gravel area and it's a must have I'd say. 

[HesterF]

Well I went for it! I've got to clear our fence line prior to planting windbreak hedging so I reckoned it's wet enough I could probably do it with that without risking a field fire. Then started to think of all the other places I could do with blasting weeds and it just sort of bought itself! I'm now expecting miracles.

[Fleecewife]

I have a flame gun but I use it only for killing red mites in the polytunnel and henhouses.  I worry that out in the open ground too many insects, spiders and so on are being frazzled.  They are great fun though and fuel the amateur pyromaniac in us all 

[HesterF]

Ooooh, yes, add that to the list! At this rate I'll be lighting the log burner and bonfires, perfecting crème brulee, scorching the bee hives, blasting red mite and writing messages across the lawn. The world is my oyster  .

[Fleecewife]

 

I haven't tried the crème brulee but we always use the flame gun for bonfires now - saves singeing your eyebrows from using a match, or ending up in the Burns Unit from throwing on petrol 

[goosepimple]

   what about that unwanted hair on the bikini line 


actually, another serious addictive toy is a strimmer, you can start going mad with it and strim everything in site and then regret it later of course 

[HesterF]

Oh no, it's going nowhere near my lady bits  - no doubt the sort of thing my husband would have tried in his rugby playing days.

Personally I hate our strimmer. It seems to eat cord and I can never get it to feed properly (that light tap just doesn't ever work). Mind you, husband has used to successfully so I might give it another go sometime when I'm feeling high on patience.

[shygirl]

i found them quite expensive over the area we needed so resorted to weedkiller, though i hate using that. weedgun is more fun though. now we have more bargain shops here the gas is alot cheaper so i spose it depends on how much the refills are.

[HesterF]

This one will run on paraffin. No idea how much it'll drink - or even where to buy quantities bigger than 1l bottles. I thought I'd try the camping/bbq/lawnmower shop tomorrow to see whether they'll do bigger quantities for less.

[HesterF]

First flame throwing attempts today! Turns out the local garage sells paraffin from the pump (mostly for heating, I believe). It's slower work than I'd hoped. I managed to clear about 20m of grass along the fence line to help prep for the hedge planting - that took the best part of 3 hours! So I reckon it'll be a full time job for a wee while to clear the whole 200m. Mind you the grass is still really wet -  and it continues to rain on and off - so a lot of the heat is just going into drying the grass before actually burning it. The big upside is that weedkiller would be even less effective at the moment.

[HesterF]

Yep, too slow for the clearing. I think it'll be good for spot weed clearing the gravel and paving but I resorted to spraying weedkiller today. I reckoned it was taking me 15mins per square metre with the flame gun and could do the same area in less than a minute with the weedkiller. Mind you, it remains to be seen how effective the week killer will be.

[hexhammeasure]

the trick I was taught with the flame gun is not to burn the weeds in one go, just scorch them 1 week and then they will die back and can be burnt clean in no time the next week. remember that this will also germinate weed seeds that are killed in the second pass

[HesterF]

It said that in the instructions too. I wasn't sure how much scorched they meant. I aimed to get everything blackened - and that's what took 15 mins. Clearing it entirely would have taken much longer.

[hexhammeasure]

two seconds is long enough you just need to pop the outer cells. do it in frosty conditions an d it may work quicker, although I like the theory I never tried it