A weed burner can be a homeowner’s dream come true for getting rid of weeds without resorting to herbicides or mowing. Here are some tips for buying a weed torch that will do the job for you.

How a Weed Burner Works

Weed burners do their job by heating the water in the leaves of the weed until it wilts. As the water evaporates from the wilted plant, it pulls all the moisture out of the roots so it completely dies. It’s a common misconception that a weed burner should be used to fry the weed into ash. All this does is kill the leaves, while the moisture stays in the roots and the plant lives to make your life miserable another day.

Parts of a Weed Burner

The wand is the business end of the weed torch. It consists of a length of metal tubing rated for flammable gas application. Some wands have a bell at the end to direct the flame from the jet. The other end has a fitting that attaches to a propane tank. The really good models come with a cart or a backpack so you can use a larger capacity tank, and use a hose to connect the wand and the tank.

Avoid Cheap Weed Torches

The budget model weed burners that screw directly into a small disposable propane cylinder don’t get hot enough to do the job properly, and they eat up propane like it’s going out of style. If you only have a few dozen weeds to kill, it’s cheaper and easier to just pull them by hand. To weed a large area, you’re going to want a weed torch rated at 100,000 BTU, like the Weed Dragon. There are no-name brand imitations of the Weed Dragon made overseas, but be cautious and make sure all the fittings are securely sealed so they won’t start leaking and cause an explosion after you use it a few times. Some things just aren’t worth saving money on.

Fueling Your Propane Weed Burner

Weed Dragon sells a nifty backpack setup that allows you to carry a refillable 10-pound propane tank on your back while you toast weeds. This gives you the most mobility and convenience. If you’d rather not carry the weight, there’s also a cart for a standard 20-pound tank that comes with a six-foot hose. The first thing to do if you go this route is get rid of the short hose and get the longest one you can find—at least 10 feet, and 20 is better. That way you can move around freely and kill weeds without moving the cart every two minutes or getting the hose tangled up.

Good Weed Burner Technique

Weed burners work best on weeds less than 4 inches tall. Anything taller will be hard to kill completely, so make a point to start burning early in the spring while the weeds are small. If you’re starting late in the year, you might be better off just mowing and putting off torching until next year.

Make safety a priority. Keep a fire extinguisher or a garden hose handy in case you start a fire accidentally with your weed torch. Don’t work at all during dry spells. And in gardens and around plants you want to keep, keep the flame jet a safe distance away. Hand dig weeds with a trowel next to delicate plants. Finally, don’t even think about killing poison ivy with a weed burner. The oil in the plant will smoke and cause a severe allergic reaction in your respiratory system.

Chainlink Fence Weed Control

One place where the Weed Dragon really shines is under chainlink fences. Most homeowners control weeds under their fencing with a string trimmer, or use an herbicide like Round-Up. Mowing next to chainlink fencing with a string trimmer is hard work, and the metal fence eats trimmer string fast. As for herbicide, the initial results are pleasing, but you won’t be happy the next year when the weeds come back twice as thick and tall as last year without any grass to slow them down.

The beauty of a weed torch is that one or two treatments last most of the season, the results look good, and the technique is safe as long as you take proper precautions against fire. Give it a try and you’ll never go back to string trimmers and herbicide again.