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Fire Your Weeds! 

Growing For Market Article

By Stephen Meyer   

Darkness was descending on the carrot patch, but we could not stop. It was the magic moment for flame weeding. Tomorrow morning would be too late. That afternoon our hands-and-knees investigation had verified that the carrot plants were just about to break the soil surface in our one fourth acre of fall carrots. The Colorado wind had died down - it was now or never. As the blue flame of the propane torches glowed, the apprentices were excited that our prototype flame weeder would end the yearly ritual of days of hand-weeding in the carrot patch. The next morning we were pleased to see the carrots starting to come up in weed-free rows. 

Flame weeding gives pre- or post-emergent weed control in a variety of horticultural and field crops. In contrast to broad-spectrum herbicides, it does not pollute the soil or water, and there are no worries about spray drift or weed resistance. My first exposure to flame weeding was the previous year in Europe while farming, teaching and touring organic produce farms with apprentices. Along with the care of the soil and the outstanding quality of the produce I was impressed with the innovative implements, especially the flame weeders. They came in all sizes and shapes. Back in Colorado, the ten-acre market garden that my brother managed for Eden Valley Institute became the testing ground for these ideas. After many prototypes we settled on a four-torch walk-behind model that our apprentices could operate easily. With several hundred foot beds seeded to carrots, beets and onions every two weeks, April through June, flame weeding proved to be a life saver. With this technique we have been able to direct-seed our storage onions instead of transplanting them, saving time and yielding onions with smaller necks and better storage quality. Pre-emergence flame weeding can greatly reduce hand labor on slow germinating crops ranging from parsnips to Larkspur.