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[VicHockeyFan]

Peninsula News Review - Old technology is made new again at Vantreight Farms - Mobile Edition

Vantreight Farms is turning back the clock on technology in an effort to turn out more organic produce and flowers in coming years.

The Vantreights recently purchased a Red Dragon flame weeder from Connecticut and are beginning trials this week on some of their fields.

“This is a new technology to us but not new in the fact that it’s been used for years and years all over North America and Europe,” said Ryan Vantreight of the farm equipment.

Central Saanich Fire Chief Ron French said that the flame weeding won’t pose any risks in terms of fire, and that residents should be aware that over the next weeks they may notice the flame weeder doing trial runs in Vantreight fields.

“We don’t want people to be concerned if they see or smell smoke in the air,” said French.

“We’re working with Vantreights to make sure everything is working as planned with the weeder and hope that this can be a good option for them in terms of weed control. This is an area where we have a delicate mix of farmland and residential and we need to make sure people know this is a safe practice.”

Whoops...turns out some of the flames did not go out and it spread underground and caused the fire that torched $250k of stuff.

[sebberry]

Sounds like a scene from Lethal Weapon.

Back to RoundUp I suppose?

[Holden West]

Read these comments on using flame weeders. Some say not to actually torch the ground and light it on fire, just heat the weeds to the point of death.

Will my weed torch cause an underground fire? - weedtorch fire | Ask MetaFilter