Has anyone got any experience of using those weedkilling flamethrower/blow torch wotsits? Any good? The drive and patio at IHN Towers need doing, and I’d like to avoid using chemical weedkillers.

Has anyone got any experience of using those weedkilling flamethrower/blow torch wotsits?

Yes. I have one.

Any good?

No…. Not really.

They only burn off the top growth. I use mine for getting rid of the dried up , dead weeds that i’ve already killed with glyphosate. It’s more bother than it’s worth if i’m honest.

The drive and patio at IHN Towers need doing, and I’d like to avoid using chemical weedkillers.

I’d recommend glyphosate. I’d like to avoid having weeds

Not had much success with fire either. We dig up as much as possible by hand but the stuff in the cracks in the path needs chemicals. You don’t need to go crazy with the chemicals. A small amount on a dry day then leave it to work.

I’d recommend glyphosate. I’d like to avoid having weeds

+1

Partial to a bit of weedkilling here, but on the look out for new solutions. There’s a hot debate about if glyphosate is carcinogenic with no conclusive evidence on either side….yet

Glyphosate

My dad had one and it worked well – and fun. Yes you might have to go back over the area a couple of times if they regrow but you will kill them.

Burners are OK, but need persistence. The thing to remember is not to burn the things, a quick flash is all it needs, if it goes brown or black you’ve over done them and it won’t work as you just burn the surface.

I forget exactly how it’s supposed to work but overheating them (without burning) prevents photosynthesis but encourages the plant to divert effort to regrowing/healing the burns which still won’t photosynthesise so eventually it kills it. Actually burning the plant kills stuff and it just grows new carrying on as before.

The weedkillers work and they work well. Just use sparingly – i.e. trigger gun onto the leaves. Don’t get it near your lawn, even to treat a weed in it, it will nuke the grass nearby, no matter how careful you are.

The flame throwers are far more fun.

They only burn off the top growth. I use mine for getting rid of the dried up , dead weeds that i’ve already killed with glyphosate. It’s more bother than it’s worth if i’m honest.

That’s what I do too.

I use this stuff – they had it on offer at Aldi earlier this year, annoyingly about a week after I had bought a supply of it.

I have a block-paved driveway so I just mix it in the watering can and pour it on – a couple of weeks later and it’s all died back.

There’s a hot debate about if glyphosate is carcinogenic with no conclusive evidence on either side….yet

Hmmm, there may be a hot debate but given how widely it’s be used for decades it’s pretty clear it doesn’t cause cancer:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p075mwd3

I use one, works well for me on tall weeds where you can burn the stem and they don’t seem to come back as fast. Doesn’t work so well for flat stuff like dandelions, I still use weedkiller on those.

Hmmm, there may be a hot debate but given how widely it’s be used for decades it’s pretty clear it doesn’t cause cancer:

The problem according to an arable farmer friend isnt the glyphosate itself, its the surfactants its mixed with to help it absorb into the leaves.

The trouble is the process to develop a new surfactant mixture would take years, and then decades to be approved by regulators.

So yea. Read the label and just use it. If you buy the commercial stuff by the gallon and dilute it into a sprayer (about 2/3 of a cup in 5l iirc) then its much weaker than the trigger sprays so doesnt have the same instant gratification but is more effective at being drawn down into the roots and killing the plant rather than the leaves.

actually OOB its now pretty clear it does. Whether it is carcinogenic in the doses a home gardner will get is a different thing but despite decades of biased “research” from monsanto its now clear it is carcinogenic ( but then so are a lot of things)

actually OOB its now pretty clear it does. Whether it is carcinogenic in the doses a home gardner will get is a different thing but despite decades of biased “research” from monsanto its now clear it is carcinogenic ( but then so are a lot of things)

I take your point, but people will have to listen to More or Less and make their own minds up.

Glyphosate (something like Rosate 36 is good) won’t contaminate the soil and only affect the plants. It’s better than roundup, as you can really bump up the dose for something like brambles/ground elder etc

if it’s for a path/patio you’re never going to plant anything then Ammonium Sulphamate is very good. Officially not used as a weedkiller anymore, but very effective. It will kill anything

I have an X300 Flamegun rusting in the shed.
I get it out when I cant keep up with the weeds in the gravel drive.
Makes a terrific noise and smell and costs about £7/hour to run or whatever the going rate is for paraffin is at the time.
You are supposed to go over it twice once to stop the weeds growing and the second time to burn off the remains.
I prefer hand weeding.

Burners are OK, but need persistence. The thing to remember is not to burn the things, a quick flash is all it needs, if it goes brown or black you’ve over done them and it won’t work as you just burn the surface.

This is what I’ve read, ta.

@mariner. That’s the ticket. Something that makes a noise like a Vulcan at full chat and has the potential for serious (manly) damage is the STW way. Everything else is just messing about.

I’ve just had a Google about Ammonium Sulphamate, interesting…

Have you tried a good old fashioned hoe?
Or just dig them up.
I sometimes get brambles coming from next doors ecosystem ,I just cut it back.

I’ve just had a Google about Ammonium Sulphamate, interesting

It had 0 impact on my allotment, I’ll be sticking with glyphosate.

Have you tried a good old fashioned hoe?

Aye but what about the weeds? 😉 I tried one of those once, the Wife threatened to chuck me out if there was a repeat performance…

Loads of cheap table salt in watering can and water as long as you don’t want anything to grow there again.

I used ammonium sulphamate on the mare’s tail (and dug it out) on an allotment I took over. I gave it up 3 years ago and the mare’s tail hasn’t reappeared, seems pretty efficacious to me.

We are 5 years into pulling up weeds in our larger garden.

It’s a slow process, but we are now seeing a huge reduction in the numbers of weeds we see.

I have used a bit of weed killer, but I really don’t like the environmental effects.

The garden had been ignored for 12 years before we got it – and my father reminds me it takes twice as long to get rid of weeds…

Napalm?  Also sterilised the top 6 inches of soil so nothing can grow back.

I keep trying to persuade work to use it, but the ecologists don’t seem too keen on the idea for some reason.

Good source of info on glyphosate here:

Pesticide Action Network UK

Whether fire works or not it’s bloody good fun pretending you’re Ripley. I have a block paving (hateful stuff) driveway and patio. What’s the STW recommendation for killing the weeds? I have two young kids and want to avoid weed killer. Never going to grow anything in the space, so complete devastation is a possibility.

its now clear it is carcinogenic ( but then so are a lot of things)

Including the fumes from a flame thrower.

Electric weed burner FTW

Matt, What environmental effects?

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/may/13/monsanto-cancer-trial-bayer-roundup-couple

White vinegar with loads of salt in kills them off. It’s less than a fiver a gallon. I’m going to be doing the top end of the garden to get rid of the bind weed (hopefully).

Why have you got weeds in your patio, does it need repointing? Shouldn’t be anywhere for them to grow.and what’s the drive made of?

Let’s grass grow fine, kills weeds. Birds too probably.

May not be economic to import though.

Why have you got weeds in your patio, does it need repointing? Shouldn’t be anywhere for them to grow.and what’s the drive made of?

Well, the off-site car storage area at work is an old industrial site that recently had extensive areas ripped up and new reinforced concrete laid down. There are large numbers of weeds of various types happily growing in the joints between the new sections.
There really shouldn’t be anywhere for anything to grow, but it is.

+1 for vinegar I know a couple of professional gardeners that use it. They say use it when its not going to rain.

I tried the vinegar, salt and washing up liquid mix with some success. Then I found just salt works best, sprinkle it on and it soon gets washed into the soil. Costs nothing, a 25kg bag was 4e from the cash and carry.
Apparently sterilized the soiled so make sure it does not run into your lawn, or neighbours garden.

+1 for vinegar I know a couple of professional gardeners that use it. They say use it when its not going to rain.

There have been trials of concentrated ethanoic acid as a substitute for glyphosate, but it hasn’t proven to be terribly successful. There are also H&S problems (it burns skin) and it smells.

I love this, some people don’t want to use licenced, tested, type approved, targeted chemicals because, erm, they’re chemicals but are quite happy to chuck copious amounts of non regulated chemicals around which are persistent, much worse for the local environment, probably in much higher quantities than are required. If a commercial gardener used any o these things to kill weeds they’d be prosecuted.