Kitchen Garden Forum

I've heard a lot about flame weeding carrots just before they emerge to give them a head start over the weeds. Does anyone know how long after sowing the carrots I should flame weed to fry the weeds but not the carrots?

Sounds very risky to me!

John

Fen

According to my data (Growing Green - Jenny Hall and Iain Tolhurst)

Prepare a stale seedbed 10 days prior to sowing carrots.

'Growers can lay a pane of glass on wooden blocks (above the soil not on it)to bring on early emergence of a few seedlings knowing then that the rest of the seedlings are just chitting under the surface. At this point the whole bed is flame weeded.'

The book says that this technique is likely to harm beneficial insects such as beetles...