What is electric weedkilling?
Electric weeding is an innovative method of weed control, which kills weeds by passing an electric current through them. It is systemically acting, and is currently gaining popularity due to increasing public and legislative pressure to move away from using harmful and environmentally damaging chemical herbicides.
Whilst the technology has only been gaining ground in recent years, it has actually existed since the Victorian times. In it’s earlier days, however, the low cost and ease of application of herbicides, along with a lack of awareness of their side-effects, pushed them to be the dominant method used for many decades.
How does it differ from weed burning?
If you look up ‘electric weeder’ on a search engine, most results will be small equipment which use electricity as a source of power, rather than as a means to kill weeds. Typically, these are weed burning or weed brushing mechanisms which remove the visible parts of the plants above the soil surface, but leave the root underground in tact.
An electrical current, on the other hand, will pass from the leaves and stems of the plant into the root, causing damage throughout. In this way, electric weeding is a systemic form of control which can kill the whole plant.
What equipment is currently available?
There is a range of equipment available for different scales of operation, and different areas or ways of applying the electric current.
On the large-scale commercial side there are tractor mounted systems suitable for use in orchards, vineyards, or urban settings such as roadside embankments.
The systems that NaturaVolt operate are smaller systems. Our spot weeder works well for smaller or sensitive areas where individual plants need to be targeted. For urban areas we use the eWeeding Roller powered by Zasso. It’s ideal where hard surfaces such as pavements, kerbsides, or AstroTurf need to be kept weed-free.