Redneck weed control

[JKR]

I use Ground Clear from Home Depot. It work the year and only cost $36.00

 

[rgr33]

Interesting that we have opposite views of how to kill a weed with fire. I have found that if you don't kill the root on a weed, whether from chemicals,heat, or hand pulling, you just p!ss
off the weed and it comes right back.
Respect your opinion, just have a different one.

 

[bcp]

Some articles mentioning how flaming works:

University of Vermont

Another look at thermal technology weed control | [primary-term] content from Western Farm Press

Bruce

 

[mapper]

Weed flaming is an accepted method of weed control for organic farming. My sister and her husband's family run a fairly large organic farm at LaConner and have been using this for a number of years now. I have used this method as well, it is a bit difficult to resist the urge to burn the little huggers to crisp though.

 

[Ed of all trades]

I have found a better way for me. We plant our green beans and peas in rows that are close together (6" to 8") and just cover the entire area with them. We weed when we pick the peas or beans and then till it all under for more organic matter in the ground. Well we do go out one day before the crop is ripe and pull about a dozen weeds that out grew the crop. With the crop planted that close it shades the weeds and keeps them down. the one rule is a few weeds are not bad but never let one go to seed. We do have to mulch around the tomatoes ect. but I LIKE this way of gardening. The work is cut in half, just mostly plant and pick, works for me.

 

[Jim Timber]

If you can out-compete with desirable plants, you're way ahead of the game. I thought I'd achieved that with my cool season fescue and gotten the Canada thistle suppressed, but then the township mowed and it was game over for my small victory. Now I'm back to fighting the stuff and it's gotten a year of roots grown in the meantime. If I had a tiller, I'd till it. If I had a plough, I'd plow it. My 10% gly didn't do the job (or they're just not showing it after 5 weeks?), so now I'm wondering what it's going to take. Flame would be good, but now there's the dead stuff from what did get burnt by the gly to fuel grass fires. I'm dealing with a 20x400' patch that has a lot of wood debris in it too (slash piles).

I may just scrape the whole area with my root grapple and see if that sets them back or just exposes more seed.

 

[2grit]

Weed flaming is an accepted method of weed control for organic farming. My sister and her husband's family run a fairly large organic farm at LaConner and have been using this for a number of years now. I have used this method as well, it is a bit difficult to resist the urge to burn the little huggers to crisp though.

Curious, how can anyone consider using a petroleum fuel as "organic"? There's little doubt in my mind that the propane leaves behind some residue, carbon, whatever. Just wondering and hoping someone who knows for sure can chime in

 

[clemsonfor]

I had to post my newest idea.:ashamed: So i was getting sick of pulling the weeds out of the garden. I sit having a beer and think " must be a better way". The light bulb goes off in my head (maybe 15watt):laughing:. I came up with a blow torch idea for controlling the weeds. So i look at the harbor freight flyer and sure enough there it is propane blow torch with a 25% off coupon to boot. I said why not. $15 dollars later i arrive home with the new toy, unscrew the propane tank from the grill. So i head to the garden with torch and tank in hand. Fire up the torch and pull the trigger. Off i go with a smile on my face hoping none of the neighbors can see me. I look over and see my wife walking over with our son (3yrs old) to the garden. Her exact words " Your such an idiot". My son says "Dad what are you doing". I said son i like to think of it as my new method of redneck weed control. My wife later said she should have filmed me and posted on You Tube. End result guys it works pretty good. One word of advice don't get to close to the bean plants. My question now really is does this still qualify as an "ORGANIC GARDEN"? I had to share with the guys of TBN firgure some may like it.

Thats not an original idea. Lots of the organic guys do it and they adversie torches for weed control in mags like Mother Earth news for that purpose and for burning weeds out of the sidewalk.

Yes its organic

 

[clemsonfor]

I've seen commercial weed killers used on the sidewalk in organic neighborhoods around here basically a big steam cleaner that squirts hot water/steam at the plants cooks them it works well but is more expensive than chemical weed killers

organic Neiborhoods???

Like you cant poisen your weeds. Cant use pesticide to kill your ants much less roaches and spiders that may be in your house?

 

[dstig1]

If you can out-compete with desirable plants, you're way ahead of the game. I thought I'd achieved that with my cool season fescue and gotten the Canada thistle suppressed, but then the township mowed and it was game over for my small victory. Now I'm back to fighting the stuff and it's gotten a year of roots grown in the meantime. If I had a tiller, I'd till it. If I had a plough, I'd plow it. My 10% gly didn't do the job (or they're just not showing it after 5 weeks?), so now I'm wondering what it's going to take. Flame would be good, but now there's the dead stuff from what did get burnt by the gly to fuel grass fires. I'm dealing with a 20x400' patch that has a lot of wood debris in it too (slash piles).

I may just scrape the whole area with my root grapple and see if that sets them back or just exposes more seed.

2,4-d seems to work a lot better on thistle than glyphosphate. Give that a whirl , perhaps. I have found there are a couple different thistle types around here , and 2,4-d kills one of them almost instantly. They curl up within an hour or two, and turn to dust within 3 weeks or so. The other type will die, but takes a lot longer, so if it is close to going to seed, you either need to cut it or pluck it, etc.

 

[bwalley]

Vinegar works but the torch is more fun. :laughing:

 

[Oaktree]

Any tips on controlling weeds around slow-to-germinate crops like carrots or beets? Seems like by the time the carrots have sprouted the weeds have already taken over. Hard to pull 'em without damaging the carrots at the same time.

 

[Creamer]

I've seen commercial weed killers used on the sidewalk in organic neighborhoods around here basically a big steam cleaner that squirts hot water/steam at the plants cooks them it works well but is more expensive than chemical weed killers

I have seen irrigation on a wheat field when it was too hot cause the sun to scald the plants and kill the field. The farmer was new to irrigation and did not understand the subtleties.

 

[super55]

Any tips on controlling weeds around slow-to-germinate crops like carrots or beets? Seems like by the time the carrots have sprouted the weeds have already taken over. Hard to pull 'em without damaging the carrots at the same time.

We face a lot of similar problems in our garden. What we have found that worked best especially in controlling weed growth between rows is to let the grow until just before heads turn to seed and mow it down with a push mower at the lowest setting. Doing this will almost always take care of your annual weeds.

Perennials like crabgrass, quack grass and orchard grass take a little more follow up effort. We usually have to follow that about 5 days later with either a torch or the vinegar/salt/dishsoap concoction and then spot spray the remaining weeds.

As for around your vegetable plants just good old hand weeding and light hoeing will be your best bet.

Big thing to remember when cultivating your garden for weeds is you want to disturb the soil as little as possible. Even if you do a shallow till with rototiller all you are doing is creating a brand new seed bed for annuals to take off and deteriorating your % of organic matter in your soil.

Buy a cheap used lawnmower off craigslist, Block the discharge chute and make sure your rows are wide enough to run the push mower down.

We have tried all sorts of things and so far this seems to be the quickest and least labor intensive approach for us in our weed control. Only downfall is that when the plants are just starting to take off they are slow to establish due to competition but once the weeds are handled they usually make up the difference in short order.

 

[mapper]

We raise fairly large vegetable garden (50X100),plenty big for my wife and I and a couple of not so welcome deer. I have found that using soaker hoses really cuts down on the weeding after the weather days out a bit. Tilling between the rows for the first month or so then the soil is dry enough that the weeds will not germinate. I also till a 5' buffer with a tractor mounted motivator around the perimeter to keep the pasture grasses from invading as well.

 

[jack707]

I used a weed burner to get rid of weeds last year but there back this year!.