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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] Weed control advice?
  • Date: Thu, 4 Feb 2010 13:12:04 -0500


On Feb 4, 2010, at 9:51 AM, Ryan Platte wrote:


3) If I've got, say, 10" between rows in a particular bed, would I use a 10" hoe for that, or an 8"?

4) If I'm doing 16" between rows in a particular bed, would you recommend 8", 14", or 16"? Soil is on the clayey side.


Bear in mind that the crops are going to grow. You want a tool narrow enough to get through them for more than one cultivation: so it needs to be narrower than the row spacing you're going to use.

You can often get multiple sized attachments for the same wheel hoe. You need to consider also the size and spacing of the wheel(s) on the wheel hoe; the hoe itself may be designed to fit between the rows, and/ or to straddle a row and do both sides of it. You can't generally straddle a row after the crops have gotten much size to them, though.

You'll also need at least one non-wheel hoe for working between plants in the row; probably at least one long handled and at least one short handled per person likely to be working simultaneously. If possible, try using different styles of hoe in the field before buying; different hoes (and trowels, etd.) seem to fit different people better. And you probably need different styles for different sorts of job: weeding carrots and weeding winter squash aren't the same sort of situation, and grubbing out an overgrown clump of grass isn't the same job as cultivating weeds barely big enough to see (yes, I know, you should always be doing the latter and then you won't have to do the former. Tell the rain that it must never fall for three weeks straight, please.)

Let me third or fourth the advice to buy quality tools. A $15 digging fork isn't cheaper than a $75 digging fork if buying the $15 tool means a) that you have to buy a new one every year and b) that you spend part of every season trying to work with a tool with bent tines. -- The trick, of course, is judging whether you're paying the extra for actual quality, or for fancy decals and advertising. And, having bought them, you need to take care of them; and to get any workers you hire to take care of them. Some people are very hard to persuade that a swan hoe isn't a grubbing hoe, and mustn't be treated like one.

In some areas, you can find high quality tools cheap at yard sales, auctions, and estate sales, if you know what to look for (take someone experienced with you, if possible). In other areas, this is nearly impossible, either because there isn't any supply or because there's an area population of other small farmers trying to do exactly that and bidding up the price.


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







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