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  • From: Road's End Farm <organic87 AT frontiernet.net>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Glaser wheel hoe
  • Date: Sat, 31 Jan 2009 13:44:35 -0500


On Jan 31, 2009, at 11:40 AM, Beth Spaugh wrote:

I personally thing the wheel hoe takes more energy than a good hand hoe.
Easiest hand hoe I have is a diamond blade. I have not yet bought, but plan
to a Dutch diamond hoe that has a nice long handle and is reputed to be very
efficient and easy to use, and costs over $100 so it better be good.

I probably am not using the wheel hoe correctly, but the height adjustment
is very important. I end up pulling and pushing and pulling and pushing,
which is harder with the wheel hoe than with a small hand hoe. Maybe in
lighter soil, in more level soil, etc with a wheel hoe you could just fast
forward. The stirrup is larger so should cover more ground with fewer
strokes.

For weeding up in the row between the plants, the hand hoe is essential. (My favorite long handled hoe, unfortunately, doesn't seem to be anywhere available; it's an oddly shaped hoe that was on the market for only one or two years some years ago, called a Doug Black hoe. This has a flat blade that's used like a diamond hoe, but is shaped differently: the front and back edges are curved and sharpened (and hold an edge like nobody's business, even in rocks); the sides are straight and dull, allowing the hoer to work in very close to crop plants with much less risk of damaging them. The blade slides right under the leaves of crops to get right next to the stems.

For cultivating row aisles, I find a wheel hoe much faster and easier than a hand hoe; though the Troybuilt set to cultivate very shallowly is faster than either, so easier per square foot covered. (The Troybuilt is however much noisier, vibrates, needs gas, is more expensive to buy and to maintain. It also throws some soil to the sides of the cultivated path, which is nice for corn and beans, but a problem for lettuce.)

I can't speak to the Glaser specifically. I have a collection of wheel hoes of various makes that I bought at yard sales over a period of ten or twenty years, most of them for $5 to $10. I am 5' 2" and find some of them easier to use than others. I think some modern wheel hoes may have adjustable handle heights. I do indeed use it with a push-pull motion, but find with a little practice that the motion comes fairly naturally. I use various attachments, depending on just what I'm doing.

I have moderately heavy stony loam with some clay.

-- Rivka; Finger Lakes NY, Zone 5 mostly
Fresh-market organic produce, small scale



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