[NorthEssexsmallholding]

I had my acre for my veg plot ploughed up and harrowed about 2 months ago, it was a lovely seebed, and of course now its a carpet of weeds apart from where I put the potatoes in.  Loads of dock and thistle among other weeds.  I started weeding by hand using a fork but its going to take forever and I do not have time on my side, I have loads of veg that needs to go in.

I refuse to spray it off as I want to stay organic, but is there any mechanical method of getting rid of the weeds?.  Many of them are small and at the white stringy stem stage.

Do I have any options other than doing it all by hand, or is there another way of doing this without spraying them?

Thanks in advance.

[SallyintNorth]

I think you might find a hoe less time-consuming than a fork.  If you can get one of those that's shaped like a stirrup with both edges sharp you can really motor when the weeds are small as you describe.  If you can do it on a hot day you can save time (and your back) by just leaving the spoil to dry to a crisp in the sun.  Yes, hoeing may leave some roots which means you will need to hoe again later, but when the plants are so small they mostly just get pulled out in their entirety. 

In your situation I think I would hoe where I want to plant, and plant.  Then carry on hoeing between the planted areas as time and energy allows.  If you want to clear the whole acre in one go, someone will have to tell us both what tool or machine to use!

[Fleecewife]

A hoe requires dry soil but does work well on seedling weeds, but not on perennials - those you have to take out by hand.

Another option you could try is the weed wand, like a blow torch on a stick.  You just pass it over the tiny weeds and they will curl up and die.  I worry about what happens to any spiders etc on the soil, so I only use mine to clear red mite from the hen houses (OH set fire to one big time this way yesterday  ).  A weed wand is excellent for pre-emergence weeding for carrots - you need to cover a small area with glass which will bring that patch on by a day or so - as soon as those peep through you can safely go over the rest of the row with the flame, which will kill off the weeds so the carrots emerge the next day to clean soil

Yet another option is covering the soil with weed suppressing fabric then planting through holes in this. This works best with plants started off in pots, and onions and the like.  LBS horticulture sell giant rolls for not too great a price.

You will never have a completely weed-free plot so concentrate on where it matters.  Onions really object to weeds, for example, but potatoes can cope with more and still produce a good crop. Carrots will be totally swamped, but brassicas don't need perfection.

[Llandovery Lass]

I've got abot an acre to get prepared.... I did some last year and followed my old habit of removing the turf, take out two spits or there abouts with the clay I now have, then bury the turf in the bottom, upside down and sliced up with the spade, throw in some bone meal and refill with next row. Tiring work. I did not know I had silver weed in the turf and I did not know how tenacious it was but up it came, buried two spits deep. A lot of time was wasted when I cleared last years crops digging out the silver weed. I confess to having used roundup on some of the new plots this year, it has not solved the silverweed, so if there is any sign of it the turf is put to dry out.
I also can not believe the number of buttercup seedlings.
I probably will not use roundup again as it seems a little pointless as the grass will die anyway, just need to watch for dock, dandelions, rushes and silver weed.

[Frieslandfilly]

Vinegar seems to be the main ingredient in organic weedkiller recipes found online

[Blonde]

I had my acre for my veg plot ploughed up and harrowed about 2 months ago, it was a lovely seebed, and of course now its a carpet of weeds apart from where I put the potatoes in.  Loads of dock and thistle among other weeds.  I started weeding by hand using a fork but its going to take forever and I do not have time on my side, I have loads of veg that needs to go in.

I refuse to spray it off as I want to stay organic, but is there any mechanical method of getting rid of the weeds?.  Many of them are small and at the white stringy stem stage.

Do I have any options other than doing it all by hand, or is there another way of doing this without spraying them?

Thanks in advance.

doyou have  a small rotary hoe or can you hire one that will go over the land in a jiffy

[NorthEssexsmallholding]

thanks for everyones advice, its really helped me, on Friday I felt like it was an impossible task doing it by fork but then Saturday I bought a dutch hoe, and managed to really go for it and got all the small ones out and they dried out in the sun, I got the big docks and thistles out with the fork.  I will look at rotary hoes, never seen one before so that could be a possibility, just want the docks out because they grow huge.

[NorthEssexsmallholding]

update, I used a rotavator today after diggin out the big docks by hand, its seems to have took some weeds up but its left quite a lot, maybe I will go over it a few times. Its a hellish job as there seems to be an abundance of thistles on one area that will be an absolute nightmare.

What keeps me going is, my principle of organic, I've seen loads of small beetles in the soil, spiders and other good insects, the wagtails come and take the grubs out as I dig and there is the fact that Im doing this the way nature intended rather than just spraying. everything

[Fleecewife]

Good sentiments   
If by a rotary hoe you mean a rotavator, be careful because you will be chopping creeping roots into lots of small pieces, each of which will become a nice new plant    Once chopped and regrown they are quite easy to lift by hand, certainly easier than before chopping, but there will be lots more of them.  The types of weed to be wary of rotavating are things like couch grass, bindweed, creeping thistle, nettle.  Rotavating also brings dormant weed seeds back into the top layer of the soil so it doesn't help the problem of millions of tiny new seedlings - your best plan there is the dutch hoe.  However, sometimes needs must and rotavating is the only way.  If it's hot and sunny, you can rake off the biggest weeds after rotavating which saves some of them from regrowing.
For your thistles, are they creeping or spear, which has a single tap root and big flowers?  For creeping thistle, dig them out by hand.  It's an endless job but try to get the deep roots which can run for a yard or so.  For spear thistle, they are best dealt with by leaving them until the flower spike is about to open, so they have put all their effort into that, then dig them out, making sure you get the long tap root intact.  If you go for them sooner they just regrow.  Don't leave them lying around after digging them out as the flowers will open and seed even on a dead plant - best to burn them and check through the ash carefully - demons 

[suziequeue]

It's been very helpful reading this thread as we are just about to do the same and develop a plot in our middle field.

Our plan is to rotavate the surface then cover it with a big layer of manure and then leave it for three or four months covered in black poly then dig it all over in the autumn.

[Fleecewife]

We are doing a similar thing for next years potato patch.  We will mow the grass and weeds short then lift all the dropped hay, which has been liberally treated with manure and urine by the feeding sheep, from around the hay hecks (with front loader)  and lay it over the surface of the ground, to about a foots depth. We will cover with a large tarpaulin held down with old stobs etc, then leave it until next spring.  We did that last year with a patch and we hardly needed to do anything when it was time to plant the spuds. There were a few persistent thistles, weak and pale, which were very easy to lift as the soil was so beautifully soft, and a few nettle roots which pulled out very easily.  I planted the potatoes directly into that and am looking forward to a bumper crop.  If you can leave it for a year it's a very simple and pain free method to clear a weed infested area.

[Cinderhills]

I did the same with my veg area.  Farmer ploughed it for us, we covered with manure then black plastic for the whole winter.  We still had to rotivate with our Mantis and it did the job well.  We still get weeds a year on obviously, but really if you can keep on top of them it's not as bad as I thought.  Defintely black plastic helps.  We use silage bags cut open.

[NorthEssexsmallholding]

its creeping thistle, I've dug most of the couch grass out by hand and the docks, and thistles, all gone on the bonfire.  As I've only took on the land this year its tough, its been organic for a number of years and its infested with weed seeds, but I'll get there in the end.  As long as my crops grow and I keep the weeds at bay then it will be ok.

[Fleecewife]

Good luck with it and have fun