Onion hoe, or by hand?

[HeyWayne]

I guess the reason there is such a thing as an onion hoe is borne out of necessity - a normal hoe is just too big and cumbersome. But, do you bother, or do you weed by hand?

On a recent trip to the plot I had to weed in amongst the onions shoots by hand and it takes me a while, which wasn't so much of an issue previously, but now with Bean in tow things need speeding up a bit.

[Flummery]

I never had an onion hoe till I saw one in a bargain bin last year - for £1.25. Once I'd used one I wondered why I'd been such a tight ass all those years! I find they do make the job easier and quicker.

[SarzWix]

Swoe! I don't have a seperate onion hoe, I just use the swoe sideways on, it's narrow enough to fit in the gaps

[Alison]

This is probably a me thing but I don't really get on with hoes at all - I weed almost all my beds by hand. It takes longer but does a much better job. I own several hoes and only this weekend was thinking of freecycling the lot of them as they're just not used. Could be the sort of weeds I have (a lot of couch grass, bind week, mares tail etc) which don't take well to just being cut off and so it's much better to pull out as much of the root as I can. Also, I plant quite close so tend to be clumsy and damage plants with a hoe so not good for me.

[Two_Sheds]

Or just don't weed your onions. I know, you're meant to, but I didn't last year (on my old lotty) and it didn't harm them at all: in fact they seemed to be really healthy. I think the weeds acted as a living mulch, keeping the onions moist)