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market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] Push-handle basket weeders

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  • From: "William B. Evans" <wbe AT ra.msstate.edu>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Push-handle basket weeders
  • Date: Fri, 01 Sep 2006 16:53:48 -0500

Steve, 

        This won't be much help but I just got back from Bolivia where I took a photo of two women pulling a plow through a soon-to-be-planted potato field, with a third woman steering the plow and "team".  You asked for human powered implements!  In fairness, nearly all other fields I saw were prepped by Massey-Ferguson tractors, with subsequent maintenance tillage mostly done by pushing sweeps or forked cultivators through the middles.

Ohio State's Muck Crops Branch in Celeryville, Ohio has some old rolling blade cultivators (like a reel mower with straight blades) that work on the histosols except when road gravel gets in.  The blade wheel binds up when it hits any gravel or rocks.  Great for rock free, organic rich soils only, blades about a foot wide.

Bill

At 10:20 AM 9/1/2006, you wrote:
One year I visited an elderly woman in Kansas who
lived in the country and was proud of her vegetable
garden and the canned vegetables she put up. 

She had a single-handle push basket weeder that
also had tines on side.  So you can flip the weeder
over and dig thru the soil with tines or flip it over
the other way and just push the basket weeders
to stir the soil between rows.   It was about 10 or 12
inches wide so it would fit between row crops.

I saw this on a garden tools web site a couple years
ago so it might be available, only I don't know recall
which website.  (I'll pass it along if I see it again)

In general, are you familiar with sources of hand-pushed
basket weeders of any kind?   

Another source I'm wondering about is a star-weeder that
can be widened or shortened with a gang of stars, to again
stir the soil between crops.

In fact, I'll be glad to hear any other suggestions for
human-powered market farming tools, including
your favorite wheel hoes and attachments. 

Much appreciated,

Steve Diver
http://www.attra.ncat.org




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Dr. William B. Evans, Research Coordinator, Assist. Res. Prof.
Mississippi Truck Crops Branch Experiment Station
P.O. Box 231
2024 Experiment Station Rd.
Crystal Springs, MS 39059
601-892-3731 x 11 phone   601-892-2056 fax
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