Kitchen Garden Forum

Hi Ya, I was talking to a mate who has an allotment and he mentioned he has a broadfork for turning his ground. I looked it up but only found one and it's like a beet fork with 5 tines wooden handles each end and it takes the strain off your back when turning the soil. Has any one got one? used one? or do you use one? I would be interested to find out more as I suffer a twinge to my back if I do to much. Cheers

Sure he isn't confusing a potato fork with a digging fork?
Potato lifting fork had flattened tines, flat at the front with a shallow V for the back.
Bit like touching both thumbs and index fingers together without bending any.

peter wrote:Sure he isn't confusing a potato fork with a digging fork?
Potato lifting fork had flattened tines, flat at the front with a shallow V for the back.
Bit like touching both thumbs and index fingers together without bending any.

This is the make of potato fork I purchased about 3 years back.
Have hardly used it.
I have to say the idea of the blunt tines doesn't work well for me. The fork is heavy even when not lifting soil. By the time the potatoes are ready for harvesting the ground is hard enough to make it difficult to get the fork in
Because of its size and weight I find it much easier to use a normal fork, also I find I still manage to pierce some spuds so might as well not have spent around 70 quid on it as even my fit son in law struggled with it

Hi Pa Snip
This looks rather like a tarmac fork and not a potato fork. Must be difficult to dig with as I guess its designed more for shoveling.
Regards
John

If you've got a bad back you would be better using a smaller fork as it's much easier to lift and turn the soil. The one you show looks more for scooping things up.

Hi Ya, Saw the picture and that what I call a scubbins, We use to use them on the farm to feed mangles to the cattle in winter to feed. A potato fork is similar. If you do a search on line for broadfork it will come up with this tool and video of it in use. they seem expansive to me but people swear by them including my mate, I must ask him where he got his. I tried to post a picture but to no avail I'm afraid. Be interested in your views. Happy gardening

John wrote:Hi Pa Snip
This looks rather like a tarmac fork and not a potato fork. Must be difficult to dig with as I guess its designed more for shoveling.
Regards
John

I agree with you John, but it is marketed as a potato fork.
Personally I think it has only had slight modification from a tarmac fork.

Whatever any of us may think the url below clearly shows it marketed as a potato fork


http://www.bulldogtools.co.uk/products/ ... rk-114737/

I'd call that bulldog fork a manure fork.

Dear All,
we have one of those forks at work and the ONLY job we have found it any good for was scooping up bark chippings as it is far too heavy for any other use. Perhaps more use than a chocolate fire-guard but only slightly.
On further reflection the reason it may be listed as a potato fork is because it was used before mechanisation to move them about from heap to heap and for transportation and storage rather than as a tool for extracting them from the ground. When we got ours it was described as a beet fork.
Regards Sally Wright.

Hi Ya, I agree sally, we used them because of the balls on the end stopped the times digging into the tubers, I thought a potato fork had flat tines to allow less damage to lifting spuds. Ba a bit of drain to dig with it. Any way it seems obvious that like me no one has heard of or used a broadfork so I will have to do more research. A lot seem to be American and I did find a no dig follower uses one to aireate his beds prior to applying mulch. I will do further research.

Totally agree with Sally, miles too heavy to be of practical use in garden or plot.

My biggest, and heaviest, mistake of recent years

Lez , we used to use a broad fork for digging bait on the beaches then again we would use anything that was free ,it was a lot smaller than a normal fork but with wide tangs very hard at the time to obtain

Nearly all farms would have had one of these fork years ago and they were used for moving Beet, or potatoes and i never saw one being used for digging root vegetables. They were ideal with the ends of their tines being rounded, as they didn't tend to spear the veg when loading them off a dirt, or brick floor....

oldherbaceous wrote:Nearly all farms would have had one of these fork years ago and they were used for moving Beet, or potatoes and i never saw one being used for digging root vegetables. They were ideal with the ends of their tines being rounded, as they didn't tend to spear the veg when loading them off a dirt, or brick floor....

Aha, so OH what you are enlightening me with here is that I've had completely the wrong concept of how to use a potato fork

Or put another way

A bad workman (me) always blames his tool


(It's still 'B' heavy though.)

Actually people, I do have two of the flat tined potato forks and they are indeed good for digging although I still spear the potatoes with them..... Sadly neither is in use as they are both without handles at present. I have quite a silty soil on my plot and they do make digging a lot easier if the ground is wetter than I would really like to be working on it.
There is a flat bladed fork for sale on E bay at present and the bidding is just under £20 at the moment. I typed in the words "used garden fork" and it was the top-most one. Further down there are others.
Regards Sally.