Weed Burners

What are your thoughts on these very powerful weed burner things for paths etc?  Has anyone used one?

I owned one and used one and ....  I ended up thinking that there are better ways.

First, you can only use it during certain times of the year that won't start a big fire. 

Second, if you have something growing there and you would rather that that something was not growing there, then shouldn't you really be growing something there that you want?  Otherwise, you burn the plant and then it will just come back - now you have a chore that you have to do every couple of weeks. 

The mission is to eliminate chores!

Well the chore in question is keeping a gravel drive looking decent.

To keep a gravel drive looking decent, the key is to have a good crown - no part should ever be level.  Once you have that, hardly anything can grow in it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Fig_Opuntia

Apparently they can be used to remove spines from prickly-pear cactus for cattle feed.  Sounds pretty clever.

I just read that a wheel hoe (if the blade is spring steel, rather than some softer metal) is a good way to clear weeds from gravel.

I tested that prototype all spring and summer in my garden. I also used it to slice through weeds that were encroaching into my gravel driveway. The stone in my driveway is hard-packed crusher run. I forced my hoe blade through the densly-packed stone and it sliced through the weeds about 1/2” down. This kind of work was, essentially, wheel hoe abuse, and I abused that prototype repeatedly all summer long. I can report that the tool took such abuse without complaint or ill effect.

from: http://thedeliberateagrarian.blogspot.com/2009/03/introducing-planet-whizbang-wheel-hoe.html

Presumably a non-wheeled hula (aka "stirrup") hoe would also work.

I used a weed burner once.  I found it cumbersome and ineffectual.  While it did the job of killing off the growth quickly, the roots remained from which the plants sprang back up in a couple weeks.  The black dead plants were unsightly and tracked into the house.  Taller thicker growth presented a fire hazard.  The things are an accident waiting to happen.  The fuel would be better served boiling water to wash dishes.

For a road, I would use salt if the weed growth is widespread and must be removed, vinegar if the area is limited, or my hands if just a few weeds.  Another useful method is a sheet of plywood or a tarp over the affected area for a week or so.

I've read the idea with the weed burners is merely to damage the flesh of the plant, not to burn it completely by setting fire to it. If you burn it completely the reaction of the plant will be as if you merely cut off its top. It will grow back. However, if you merely burst the surface layer of plant cells, it sets off a chain reaction, killing the plant, roots and all. The desired look is more like boiled veggies, not veggie ala charcoal.

Caveat, I have never used a weed burner. This is a result of the research I did when I was considering buying one. No personal experience here.

I have been using them along my wire fence lines for years. Wouldn't be without one.

I just got a message from samiam.  He's having some problem posting.
He offers boiling water as a weed control solution. 

in my rock only drive way/ rock bed i use ice cream salt  last about 4 months for 5 dollars . just watch for leaching

Over the years I have gotten rid of the weeds I don't want and are left with one that doesn't bother anyone: it barely covers the gravel at a nice even < 1" and when you run over it with bare feet it doesn't scorch and just being near the gravel isn't hot.
So who cares if my gravel is green all over? I am allowing more sequestering of CO and producing more O2 and now wild chrysanthemums are growing beside the pigeons and will be allowed to stay

In my experience on a one acre homestead, the power weed burner must step aside for a smaller invention: the utility torch! This trigger style topper for a 1 lb tank of propane (the little green camping tank) is a marvel of usefulness. Use it for precise weeding of rock gardens, concrete gaps, and other places where roots cannot be reached. The torch arrangement is perfect to burn seeds that blow into the gaps of a rocky garden. Last year, the squash bugs nestled into the stone walls of a raised bed and only the utility torch could solve the infestation problem quickly and without damaging the garden.
I use the utility torch for other purposes: lighting hundreds of luminarias (candles inside brown lunch bags for Christmas Eve in New Mexico), lighting wood pellets (skip that jellied fuel), lighting the earth oven on baking day, stripping paint on outdoor projects, releasing stuck hose fittings, thawing out frozen pipe, lighting camp-size fires and so forth. It’s even useful in the kitchen for melting sugar on creme brûlée. I highly recommend the inexpensive utility torch as a lightweight precision rock garden weeder and multipurpose tool.