To be certified as an organic farmer, the use of synthetic herbicides or pesticides is strictly prohibited. So, what do the farmers do? Some use a giant flame-throwing tractor to blast the weeds away!
As insane as it sounds, it’s a real thing. Tractors can be rigged with a giant flamethrower attachment connected to a tank of propane that spits fire down the gaps between the rows of crops. The technique is called “flame weeding,” and it’s an ancient tool in the fight against those unwanted plants.
The attachment is placed in front of the tractor, and the farmer drives through the fields slowly. The process doesn’t set fire to the crops or burn the weeds to a crisp. Turning the unwanted pests to ash is not necessary, so the tractor must keep moving at all times when the fire is flowing.
There’s a company that specializes in flame weeding equipment called Flame Engineering, and it explains on its website that the technique has scientific backing. The fire destroys the plant structure in leaves so they can’t perform photosynthesis to grow anymore.
It writes:
Flame weeding is what we like to call a ‘slow kill.’ Essentially, you are destroying cell structure in the plant leaf. The weed will no longer put energy toward growth (photosynthesis) taking the kill though the root system. YES, flame weeding will kill the roots too! Even on big weeds (over 6″), you will see a stunning effect and even a kill within a few days, depending on how established the root system is and how long the plant was exposed to heat.
If you’re on the hunt for a chemical-free way to manage the weeds in your garden that doesn’t involve getting dirty or hurting your hands, then get a flamethrower! It kills those weeds to the roots – which is another hassle when trying to pull them out by hand as sometimes the stem breaks leaving the roots in the ground, and the plant grows right back. With the fire, that weed is gone for good.
Here are a couple of videos of the big bad tractors working the field:
