Wheel hoe - is it worth it?

Hi everyone,
Those of you who have a wheel hoe, do you use it often? Was it worth the cost? I'm in FL, so I'd want to buy a Glaser metal one, and it's about $500 with the weeding blade. That's a lot of money. The grass here is impossible to pull up by hand in the garden and around my baby fruit trees, and I was hoping this would save me a lot of weeding time going forward. Thanks for any advice!

I have a very ancient wheel hoe with lots of attachments and I love it for lots of things. For example, it's great for making long rows in prepared ground or light weeding between rows. I doubt you would find it useful though for the purpose you indicated. Mulching over the grass might be an easier and more effective way of dealing with the grass, especially around the trees.

It is an ongoing process but gets easier over time. The mulch rots and as you replace it the roots of any surviving grass and other perennial weeds move up into the looser soil where they pull out easily. Then you can just drop them back on top to become part of the next layer of mulch.

I would put down 4 or 5 layers of newspaper all around the tree and dump wood chips on at least a foot thick if you can get them.

Trace is absolutely right layers of newspaper and cardboard. If you are dealing with the same grass I am (very likely in your location) it will just smile and thank you for mulch alone.  I have managed to kill sections using that method and waiting a year or to but they quickly came back through the sides of the beds.

Think of it as a miniature of the worst kind of bamboo you have ever heard of. If you can't dig out all the roots to a depth of at least 6 inches you haven't gotten rid of it.  Can a wheel hoe dig that deep?

I agree that it probably is not going to work for "around fruit trees",
However we are thinking of making one for our field of "fruit trees in the milpa" But more for going between the rows of trees to and not risking either a tractor or an ox team stepping on the young trees.