Presenting you amazing invention of a Russian gardener Vladimir Fokin: ploskorez, Fokin's cultivator or Fokin's hoe, Ploskorez Fokina ("ploskorez" means flat-cutter) - a simple and versatile hand tool to replace usual gardening tools like spade, hoe, rakes etc, simplifying 20 gardening operations and essential for no-till gardening. See details and video here:https://ecominded.net/fokin-ploskorez
I do remember Sepp mentioning this. And I do remember it being called a fokin hoe - because the name is so fun.
Through interpretive dance, Sepp demonstrated this over and over again. Only I am pretty sure that he did not put it into the soil. Instead he kept the edge really sharp and would use it to cut unwanted plants on a hugelkultur. It sounded like he would go down a row rather quickly discouraging unwanted plants with this thing.
The picture showing him holding a tool... That looks like the thing that he would describe. His description would be to get the blade up to the plant that was no longer desired and to twist the handle, thus cutting the base of the undesired plant.
Leave the soil alone, just keep moving and cut back what you don't like. I have a friend who is complaining about thistles in his sheep pasture. A tool like this could help with thistle. No, one cut-back wouldn't kill the plant, but it would keep it from going to seed, and eventually you'd kill the plant if only by being shaded out by its (unpruned) neighbors.
Leave the soil alone, just keep moving and cut back what you don't like. I have a friend who is complaining about thistles in his sheep pasture. A tool like this could help with thistle. No, one cut-back wouldn't kill the plant, but it would keep it from going to seed, and eventually you'd kill the plant if only by being shaded out by its (unpruned) neighbors.
hmm, "everything in its place, and a place for everything" i suppose. A lot of annual expect disturbance cycles, animals create them in praries. It all depends on what your doing, your bioregion, a lot of things.. i won't disagree however, 'tilling' tends to be excessive in the world.
I just ordered the Russian one from ecominded.net (the link at the top of this page), after reading a review by Nathan Rutz at poopaculturezero. He says he tried both the stainless one and the regular carbon steel one, and the carbon steel hoe is much stronger. The stainless steel version bent very easily. The price for a set of two different sizes, without handles (you can easily make them with a tablesaw), was about $25 plus $23 shipping, in Canadian dollars. That's $24 each; US dollars it would only be about $20 each or less, if you buy the set of two.
Seems to me they'd be easy and fun to make from a band out of a leaf spring (these are generally good for tools: a very strong and flexible steel alloy). Heat, bend, sharpen, temper, done! If you really wanna get fancy you could forge them out of leaf springs too.
I just got my hoes from Yuri Smirnov a little while ago; I used a hockey stick for the handle. It works fantastic! Best hoe we have ever used. No regrets. We will probably buy more. Great for finest weeding, for grubbing out roots or rhizomes, for tillage and every task we've set it to so far.
Looks like a giant mocotaugan, aka crooked knife, on a stick. Pretty neat design for a hoe. Though I am still more impressed with the Magna Grecia hoe design.
Marvin Weber wrote:I just got my hoes from Yuri Smirnov a little while ago; I used a hockey stick for the handle. It works fantastic! Best hoe we have ever used. No regrets. We will probably buy more. Great for finest weeding, for grubbing out roots or rhizomes, for tillage and every task we've set it to so far.
Thanks for your service, Yury. I have posted a review.
Devin, I was looking at these Magna Grecia hoes last week, and I think they look like a good tool for breaking up small plots of ground. I can't imagine weeding with one, though. Have you tried one?
Marvin Weber wrote:Devin, I was looking at these Magna Grecia hoes last week, and I think they look like a good tool for breaking up small plots of ground. I can't imagine weeding with one, though. Have you tried one?
Yes I tried one a friend owns, and am planning to buy one for myself soon now I have land where I can put it to use. And yes they are more for breaking tough ground rather than weeding. Definitely the two tools are intended for different tasks and neither would replace the other.
Sepp Holzer is one of my favorite permaculturists. In his recent book, Desert or Paradise on two pages Sepp recommends the Fokin hoe (Russian flat-cutter or ploskorez Fokina). Vladimir Fokin is the name of the inventor of this tool. It does not look like much, but the great Sepp Holzer says it saves him loads of time, Please watch the video below to see it in use and place an order here: https://ecominded.net/garden-tools
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