This year we began using burners to control weed and insects. Burning kills weeds by vaporizing the water in the plant’s cells, causing the plant die. It also controls insects through the vaporization of water. We performed numerous burns in both corn and soybeans, and compared these yields to areas we did not burn. The areas we did not burn were hand weeded to maintain comparable weed control.
There was no yield difference between the burned corn and soybeans versus the un burned corn and soybeans. This shows that burning is an effective weed and insect control when the burning is done to crops in field, and not damaging as long as the growth portion of the plant is higher than the torches on the burner.