Editing Weed control (section)

==== Thermal ====
[[File:Speicherkoog Kartoffelacker Abflammgerät Envo-Dan.jpg|thumb|Pesticide-free thermic weed control with a weed burner on a potato field in [[Dithmarschen]], Germany]]
Several thermal methods can control weeds.

{{visible anchor|Flame weeding}} uses a [[flame]] several centimetres/inches away from the weeds to singe them, giving them a sudden and severe heating.<ref name="Vougioukas-2019">{{cite journal | last=Vougioukas | first=Stavros G. | title=Agricultural Robotics | journal=[[Annual Review of Control, Robotics, and Autonomous Systems]] | publisher=[[Annual Reviews (publisher)|Annual Reviews]] | volume=2 | issue=1 | date=2019-05-03 | issn=2573-5144 | doi=10.1146/annurev-control-053018-023617 | pages=365–392| s2cid=242732172 | doi-access=free }}</ref> The goal of flame weeding is not necessarily burning the plant, but rather causing a lethal [[wilting]] by [[denaturation (biochemistry)|denaturing proteins]] in the weed. Similarly, hot air weeders can heat up the seeds to the point of destroying them.  Flame weeders can be combined with techniques such as stale seedbeds (preparing and watering the seedbed early, then killing the nascent crop of weeds that springs up from it, then sowing the crop seeds) and pre-emergence flaming (doing a flame pass against weed seedlings after the sowing of the crop seeds but before those seedlings emerge from the soil—a span of time that can be days or weeks).

Hot foam causes the cell walls to rupture, killing the plant. Weed burners heat up soil quickly and destroy superficial parts of the plants. Weed seeds are often heat resistant and even react with an increase of growth on dry heat.

Since the 19th century [[soil steam sterilization]] has been used to clean weeds completely from soil. Several research results confirm the high effectiveness of humid heat against weeds and its seeds.<ref>Research report of DLR Rheinlandpfalz, September 2010: [http://www.soil-steaming-steam-boiler-blog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/steaming-research-results_dlr2010.pdf ''Weed control in seed cultures, especially arugula''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924103450/http://www.soil-steaming-steam-boiler-blog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/steaming-research-results_dlr2010.pdf |date=2015-09-24 }}, Author: Dr. Norbert Laun, Institute "Queckbrunnerhof", Schifferstadt (Germany). Viewed on 14. February 2011.</ref>

[[Soil solarization]] in some circumstances is very effective at eliminating weeds while maintaining grass. Planted grass tends to have a higher heat/humidity tolerance than unwanted weeds.{{citation needed|date=January 2021}}