Does burning your beds help? (garden beds pleeeze)

stormymater · January 7, 2012

I am thinking of hooking up the Garden Dragon & DH is rolling his eyes... He implies I am simply wanting to exorcise my hidden pyromaniac BUT I wonder if burning the top say 1/2 - inch of soil (where there just may be spores & leaf detritus harboring disease for next year) wouldn't be good. Plan then to turn, amend & proceed. Think it would help of would I just be wasting propane? TIA

biscgolf · January 7, 2012

i think it helps kill annual weed seed more than anything else... i burn my asparagus bed every year.

bcday · January 7, 2012

Some of those nasties are buried deeper than the top 1/2 - inch. They'd be brought to the surface ready for action when you turn & amend. Also keep in mind that you'd be burning beneficials as well. I vote to save your propane for the weeds.

chiefbeaz · January 7, 2012

When the farmers use to grow tobacco around here , they would always burn their plant bed off.

runcle · January 7, 2012

Flaming is a common method for controlling weeds on certified organic farms. I use one on my farm mainly to take out tenacious weeds in the spring to get a jump on plantings.

In western Washington chickweed is very difficult to kill by tilling in the spring as it easily comes back with rain showers. Flaming it until the cell walls are have burst knocks it back enough so that I prep the ground for planting. Flamers can be attached to a cultivator frames and used in lieu of herbicide. Does it kill beneficials? Definitely! It does not work well on grass.

It can also be used in a pre-emergent scenario effectively to kill weeds before crops emerge, e.g., prepare soil, plant seeds, irrigate, let weeds emerge, burn, crop germinates (hopefully) weed free. This can work wonderfully if you get the timing right. It can also be a disaster if you don't. I used to burn all my beds with a simple hand flamer attached to a backpack frame with good results. I have both a hand flamer and a tractor towed multi row flamer that runs off a 60 gallon propane tank. It sounds a lot like the space shuttle going off but it works! For any garden smaller than an acre, a hand flamer with a regulator will suffice.

Chances are good that if you are buying certified organic produce from a large organic farm, a flamer is just one of many tools used to control weeds. ATTRA has alot of good info on weed burners) or ag flamers. .......https://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/sum...ry.php?pub=110

stormymater · January 8, 2012

I am really liking burn now & till/amend & then reburn before transplanting. HA! TY Tomatovillians for your input!

rockhound · January 8, 2012

I used to burn off the whole garden, it always seemed to help with the weed seed situation. Altho logic would tell you fire can damage some beneficials, it only reaches down a little ways. If your topsoil is healthy there should be lots of good stuff down below that will re-populate the top layer. Now I'm just doing a few containers, so no burning. In fact no wood stove any more so no wood ash, what's my world coming to? LOL.
If this warm weather continues I will have a hard time holding back on starting seeds.

runcle · January 8, 2012

Beneficials, eg., bees, flies, frogs, snakes, slugs, rats, voles, ants, fungi, bacteria, herbs, flowers, etc. can be and are are often killed in the flaming process. It's definitely beneficial for the gardener/farmer in terms of saving labor but I not so sure about the benefits to the ecosystem!

Tracydr · April 3, 2012

We used to always burn our grass hay fields in the spring. The grass came in thick, green and almost weed free. It saved a lot on weed spray, too.
Don't know if it killed bugs as we had a literal army if guineas at the time and they would hunt the fields for grasshopper and ticks so bugs weren't a big problem. June bugs were, sometimes but water buckets seemed to catch a lot of them.

January 7, 2012	#1
stormymater Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Pleasure Island, NC 8a Posts: 1,162	Does burning your beds help? (garden beds pleeeze) I am thinking of hooking up the Garden Dragon & DH is rolling his eyes... He implies I am simply wanting to exorcise my hidden pyromaniac BUT I wonder if burning the top say 1/2 - inch of soil (where there just may be spores & leaf detritus harboring disease for next year) wouldn't be good. Plan then to turn, amend & proceed. Think it would help of would I just be wasting propane? TIA

January 7, 2012	#2
biscgolf Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: Virginia Posts: 353	i think it helps kill annual weed seed more than anything else... i burn my asparagus bed every year.

January 7, 2012	#3
bcday Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: NY z5 Posts: 1,205	Some of those nasties are buried deeper than the top 1/2 - inch. They'd be brought to the surface ready for action when you turn & amend. Also keep in mind that you'd be burning beneficials as well. I vote to save your propane for the weeds.

January 7, 2012	#4
chiefbeaz Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: Middle, TN Posts: 271	When the farmers use to grow tobacco around here , they would always burn their plant bed off.

January 7, 2012	#5
runcle Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Port Angeles, WA Posts: 2	Flaming is a common method for controlling weeds on certified organic farms. I use one on my farm mainly to take out tenacious weeds in the spring to get a jump on plantings. In western Washington chickweed is very difficult to kill by tilling in the spring as it easily comes back with rain showers. Flaming it until the cell walls are have burst knocks it back enough so that I prep the ground for planting. Flamers can be attached to a cultivator frames and used in lieu of herbicide. Does it kill beneficials? Definitely! It does not work well on grass. It can also be used in a pre-emergent scenario effectively to kill weeds before crops emerge, e.g., prepare soil, plant seeds, irrigate, let weeds emerge, burn, crop germinates (hopefully) weed free. This can work wonderfully if you get the timing right. It can also be a disaster if you don't. I used to burn all my beds with a simple hand flamer attached to a backpack frame with good results. I have both a hand flamer and a tractor towed multi row flamer that runs off a 60 gallon propane tank. It sounds a lot like the space shuttle going off but it works! For any garden smaller than an acre, a hand flamer with a regulator will suffice. Chances are good that if you are buying certified organic produce from a large organic farm, a flamer is just one of many tools used to control weeds. ATTRA has alot of good info on weed burners) or ag flamers. .......https://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/sum...ry.php?pub=110

January 8, 2012	#6
stormymater Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Pleasure Island, NC 8a Posts: 1,162	I am really liking burn now & till/amend & then reburn before transplanting. HA! TY Tomatovillians for your input!

January 8, 2012	#7
rockhound Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Dec 2011 Location: Tennessee Posts: 285	I used to burn off the whole garden, it always seemed to help with the weed seed situation. Altho logic would tell you fire can damage some beneficials, it only reaches down a little ways. If your topsoil is healthy there should be lots of good stuff down below that will re-populate the top layer. Now I'm just doing a few containers, so no burning. In fact no wood stove any more so no wood ash, what's my world coming to? LOL. If this warm weather continues I will have a hard time holding back on starting seeds.

April 3, 2012	#9
Tracydr Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2011 Location: Laurinburg, North Carolina, zone 7 Posts: 3,207	We used to always burn our grass hay fields in the spring. The grass came in thick, green and almost weed free. It saved a lot on weed spray, too. Don't know if it killed bugs as we had a literal army if guineas at the time and they would hunt the fields for grasshopper and ticks so bugs weren't a big problem. June bugs were, sometimes but water buckets seemed to catch a lot of them.