Yes, the question is crazy BUT the person asking it is crazier!
How about this: it's against the law
How about this?: it's against the law for me to tell you how to break the law.

Geez, you might want to rethink ths whole gas thing.

How about using a flame thrower instead ? Perfectly legal and highly effective . Uses propane cartridges . Great way to start a fire in a firepit too . Of course , you would follow all the rules and check with the Fire Department - right ?

Swflagrner, Instead of using gas, have you tried the newpaper and mulch or corrigated boxes with mulch? This year has been bad for weeds IMOP, but don't use gas, it poisins you ground. I'm not getting on you behind but you knew better or you wouldn't be asking. Hope I gave you a better way to do your weed patrol?

Wow... talk about lazy gardening. What do you hope to grow in your poisoned field? Food for your family?

I wonder what that will do to your well water. And your neighbors....

Actually, you can get pretty good weed death by covering your area with rolled plastic from HD. A huge roll is about $30.00

You will need to weigh it down. The sun should cook most everything in several weeks.

O.K. so round-up doesn't mix with your hard well water. Wouldn't it be much more simple to treat a couple of gallons (or ever how much you need) of this water with a softening agent so it will mix? Sure would be the way to go for me.

Is this a serious question or a joke? I hope you are joking because believe me what you suggest is not going to be good for anyone including you.

Thanks for your responses.

I dont want to burn the weeds because there are some plants nearby that I don't want charred. Plus, I am afraid that it will just grow back from the roots. Thanks for the constructive suggestion, however.

Unfortunately my weeds have sprouted up into a little meadow, so laying plastic on top is impractical since somce of the weeds are 2-3 feet high. Again, thanks for the constructive suggestion.

Why don't you mow the "meadow" and then put down the plastic?

Clear plastic sheeting works better for solarization than black plastic . Doesn't make sense but the clear works better . Mow very low and then leave the plastic on for 6 weeks or more . Cooks the dickens out of weeds and even kills nematodes . It's worth a try !

I don't think that the poster was serious with this question. Anyone who has lived in Florida for more than a few weeks knows that our drinking water is supplied by an aquifier that is just a few feet under the surface. Just a few drops of gasoline spilled on the ground can contaminate wells for several hundred feet. I am especially careful when pouring gasoline into lawn equipment and immediately wipe up any spills. Herbicides such as Roundup breakdown into natural components and don't cause permanent damage.

i've tried all those other enviro friendly methods to get rid of aggressive thistles and none work. After 3 years I started asking farmers what they use and ivariable they use gas. So, I tried a bit and finally found something that works. I use a little metal watering can with a tubular spout. This works because i can get only the thistles. Hope this helps.

did anyone not read this part from the poster?

"Also: I do not wish to be lectured by anyone about the fire danger (that's obvious) or how my methods are not organic (that's also obvious) but if anyone does have experience doing this, I would be interested in hearing about "your mileage"
Respect people, whistle blowing and calling out a non "green" idea is easy to do. Put your damn thinking caps on and respond with some intelligence even if you don't think it's a good idea or don't respond at all. Gracious!

Might want to try a pest control sprayer most parts appear to be made without plastic. Best of luck getting rid of those weeds!

You dug up a nine-year-old thread just to be sanctimonious?

I just spoke to two of my farmer friends, and both said they DO NOT use gasoline to clear fields of weeds. Many, many years ago, farmers would use a mixture of 2-4D and diesel fuel to clear fields, but they started dying of cancer -- specifically prostate cancer. Plus, if you don't mix it right, you can poison your field to where nothing will ever grow there again. BTW, 2-4D is one of the components of Agent Orange.

Both of the farmers said that if they are going to burn a field (mostly used for hay fields), they use acetylene torches to do a controlled burn. They plow a fire break around the edges of the field and then burn it starting at one end and following it the entire time to make sure it doesn't get out of control.

google dug it up for me, I'm trying to kill weeds too. Neat thing the internet. Just need to respect the original poster that's all. Not better than anyone by any means. I guess I forgot to add my bit about lectures.. oh well. Happy weed killing everybody and stay safe.

I don't feel like I was being disrespectful. I wanted to give the best information I could, so I went to the trouble to call actual farmers, who gave me the info I needed. I wasn't lecturing. I just think you need to have all the info before you make a decision, especially one that may affect your health or the health of those around you.

Dirty, you aren't being disrespectful, I was responding to writersblock (see context)

The original question is about dispensers for gas only, with a bit about not lecturing about gas in the first place. Its just funny that everyone decides to be sanctimonious (thanks writersblock) and not answer or be helpful to the question and do the exact thing the poster asked not for. In a face to face conversation can you imagine how obnoxious that would be?

Stewart, I hear you and I know there are two sides to every coin. However, in a face-to-face conversation, only one person hears the response. In a forum, potentially hundreds of people read the response ... and may think actually this was a good idea! In the interest of good public policy, not to mention how incredibly outlandish was this idea, I support those who cried out for better judgement.

Carol in Jacksonville

Unfortunately, there are far too many people who care not one whit about the environment, only getting the results they want. I remember when my grandmother would pour motor oil around her wooden fence posts to keep them from rotting, and toss her garbage out into the tidal creek in front of her house. Of course, there was no nasty plastic crap back then, so it probably all decomposed eventually, but still, it wasn't good to throw it into the creek.

Back in the day, before we were all green and organic, I used something called Isotox on my houseplants. It was a combination of Diazinon and Orthene. I'm surprised I'm not dead, the way I sprayed Diazinon everywhere and tossed Sevin out like it was baby powder. But I didn't know any better, and to be honest, I had a lot better yield on my vegetables back then.

So by not asking for an lecture he obviously knew it was a bad idea yet wanted help from a gardening group on how to poison everyone's water. This clues me in that the op did not know how serious a threat it was to our water. This would be the person who would need a lecture the most and he posted in a public forum so must bare the responses of that public.

Pea, when someone asks for no lecturing, they usually know EXACTLY how dangerous something is, are going to do it anyway, and don't care what anyone has to say. I do that on some diet forums when I don't want to hear from the vegan fanatics about how I need to give up meat and dairy. I'll usually say something like "And, yes, I know vegans think meat and dairy are bad. I don't care. Please don't bother berating me," but someone always does anyway.

Funny story. You know how you always start hearing your own words out of your children's mouths when they start to talk? Well, when my younger son was 3, I found him trying to eat green plums off a tree in the back yard. I told him they would make him sick, and he said "I don't wanna hear it." He kept saying that all his life. He just said it the other day, and he also said "I will if I want to." I couldn't help but laugh. He's 33 now, and angrily asked why I was laughing. I told him he gave me a flashback to when he was three. He said "I'm not three anymore." I said "Then stop talking like a 3-year old."

I guess then my advice would be to stop publically asking for advice on how to poison the water supply. But i will always warn someone when they are about to poison themselves and others no matter if they ask for no lectures.

Pea - plus, it's only courteous to warn someone when they are going to be breaking the law, or putting themselves in danger. One lightning strike or spark from a car could set off a gas explosion.

How do you permanently kill weeds and grass permanently in dolomite driveway!!!

Why don’t you rinse your sprayer out with a little soap and water spray it through the hose to clear it out I can tell you that much

I call BS on poisoning the soil because gasoline evaporates very quickly the only thing that's left over is the oils and that's what kills the weeds you need to mix with water and just mist the leaves of the weed.

Thanks HU, can you tell us where you found this information so we can read it ourselves?

Buy a small chemical resistant hand held spray bottle. They hold up much longer and are cheap. I buy two every year for the same purpose. As far as contaminating ground water? Bull! You'll not be saturating the ground. Lightly spraying weeds is sufficient enough to kill weeds. And it is not illegal to spray gasoline in such small quantities on your own property. You seen intelligent. That said I won't lecture you about not spraying in veggie gardens or spraying heavy near sources of ignition. Oh and about contamination? Roundup? Other toxic chemicals? Yep.... Go right ahead and kill those weeds!

These responses are some of the funniest ive ever seen all the Karens are all ”why pollute the soil” or calling this dude lazy for using a widely technique for killing weeds, i can almost garuntee none of you bashing this dude even has a garden or does any sort of manual labor. pouring or better yet ”misting gasoline” onto plants does not ”contaminate” your soil, it would evaporate way before touching the ground further more, how do you think gasoline is made? and where does it come from? look at the ingrediants in weed killer, and then the ingrediants in gasoline, props for taking care of your weeds the way millions of farmers, growers, and landscapers take care of ours. Dont listen to the tree hugging city slickers that favor being your key board warriors

Ive read most of your comments and respect all of them except for the ones with wording that calls someone crazy for asking for adivce. if you believe gas is a bad thing tell her, don’t degrade her. Not nice.

FWIW, the remediation process for soil contaminated by hydrocarbons is to spread it in a thin layer over a large area which allows the hydrocarbons to evaporate. I'm not sure if thats environmentally good practice, but that's the way the world works. Spraying gasoline on plants works like a hot damn and costs way less than Round Up.