[Judd]

I had my allotment ploughed,cultivated and rotavated a couple of weeks ago.
Today I decided to hoe the weeds that have started to grow back.
How deep do I have to hoe,is it just the top layer or do I have to go down 5 or 6 inches?

I was looking at some St/St hoes yesterday and they were quite expensive so I made one this afternoon and tried it out.
It works well

[Yorkie]

Looks good 

You should aim to hoe just on / underneath the surface of the soil.  Best to do it on a dry day, when the weeds are severed and left to dry out, rather than being pulled up by the roots and left to re-root when you back is turned   

[DD.]

A hoe is designed to just skim the surface, not dig down 5 or 6 inches.

It sounds to me as though you've manged to chop up the perennial weed roots and re plant them, possibly many times over.

If they are perennial roots, you have two options - either fork them out by hand or resort to glyphosate.

[Judd]

So the idea is to sever the weeds not get them up by the roots?

Oh dear DD it looks like thats what I've done.
That's probably why it took me about 3 hrs to cover approx 8 sq yds!

[DD.]

I'm sorry to say that all that ploughing and rotavating has possibly caused you extra work at the end of the day.  

[Judd]

Ah well I can't turn back time so I'll just have to persevere.

The way to hoe then,is to just cut off the new growth just under the surface and leave it on the top of the soil or do I pick it up?

[DD.]

To be on the safe side, rake it up.

You can leave it on top, but you'll find that some shallow rooted weeds will come up complete with roots and these can re-root, especially in damp weather.

[Judd]

Ok I'll do that,thanks.

[chili]

i done the same when i got my plot rotovated it and made millions of weeds, 2 yrs later i have them all under control i used a fork, i still get the odd ones but now its just a 5 minute job

[MyAchingBack]

Keep the face of the hoe sharp at all times.

[JayG]

If using a dutch hoe seems like hard work you're not doing it right.......... 
..........and if you find you are dragging the weeds out rather than slicing through them the hoe isn't sharp enough. 

[Judd]

I had a look ay Monty Dons vid on the Gardeners world website....I was definitely doing it totally wrong

I sharpened the hoe when I made it  JayG and it was sharp enough to cut you very easily,I even stoned the edge to make sure

[DD.]

I had a look ay Monty Dons vid on the Gardeners world website....

You went to another site, when there's this here? 

http://www.allotment-garden.org/allotment-tips/how-to-hoe.php

[Judd]

  I didn't know there were vids on this site.

[DD.]

Click on "Growing Help" at the top of the page and a whole new world will be there before you!