Help! How to clear a black berry thicket covered in thorny vines?

[Dingeryote]

I have one of those Sthil three pronged brush knives. It does a nice job, but not like that video. Unless I have just not gone wild enough with it.

Tom, if you're in Kalamazoo, Landers hardware in Bangor, has a few of the Oregon shredder blades left in stock.
Not sure if they are the std. or heavy jobs though, which doesn't matter as long as you're running a decent brush cutter.
A FS-130 will run the lighter ones just fine, and a FS-250 has no issues with the heavy duty job.

 

[TomSeller]

Sounds like mandatory safety gear time.

 

[Dingeryote]

Nah!!

Just the usual Jeans and good eyepro needed, but a forestry helmet with mesh visor and chainsaw chaps really helps with wading around in the brambles and greenbrier.

The bits of blackberry cane flying out, mostly go to the right front and back into the clump that is getting chopped up.
It's the regular issue of the stupid canes clawing at ya and whipping around, that present the hazard.

 

[TomSeller]

I can't find it now, but there was a post on TBN a while back where a member mounted a push lawnmower on a pipe off to the side of his loader bucket.. That could work for those on a budget.

 

[woodlandfarms]

If it is one thing I have studied in detail it is friggin blackberries... We have 40 acres of berries gone wild (well, the previous owner never bothered to kill them and let them take over, common in the PNW). This is what I have gleened..

The only way to eradicate it is with herbicide. My preference is for Crossbow. For the best results, spray only when they are just shooting up, or after they have berried. The reason is when they are shooting up in the spring, they are vulnerable as lots of juices are going from the root system to the plant, and after they have berried in the fall, the roots are pulling the sugars back to the roots. Spraying any other time will kill the stalk, but not the root.

If you spray immediatly after mowing (like when you are mowing, or within 5 minutes) you can get good results

DO NOT PLOW, or rototill. Blackberry roots are rhyzomes and cutting them up gets you nothing but more blackberries

DO NOT PULL UP. Again, it is nearly impossible to get the whole root up.

If you contact a STIHL dealer in the PNW (west coast side) they carry custom blades for weed wackers the loggers use. They are like 1/4" thick circular saw blades. do not buy the stock stihl 3 point blade, worthless.

For me, I raise my mower up, back in and lower it down. Nice and slow as there are usually surprises in large blackberry patches.

Hope this helps

 

[TomSeller]

DO NOT PLOW, or rototill. Blackberry roots are rhyzomes and cutting them up gets you nothing but more blackberries
DO NOT PULL UP. Again, it is nearly impossible to get the whole root up.

I have had better luck if I get the root crown out. I have grubbed out root crowns the size of a loaf of bread before. It seems that I can't get enough herbicide transported to the root by spraying a few shoots to kill such a large crown. If the plants come up from root fragments (if), they have wimpier roots and can't take the herbicide. So I get easier kill. I think. Not much difference on the regrow shoot quantity as far as I can tell. At least that is my $0.02.

 

[Egbert]

Woodland, thanks for your post. I've read some pretty dubious advice in this thread. Having dealt with some serious blackberry issues, I can attest that you are exactly correct. Use herbicide. The best time to spray is after the berries mature.

My only difference is, I use Remedy Ultra. Remedy Ultra contains four times as much triclopyr as Crossbow.

Prepare to spend 3 years - or more ....

 

[oosik]

Wow!! I'm glad there is no thorny stuff around here. I think maybe its too dry in the summer and too cold in the winter. I'm wondering - with all this grinding, mowing, chomping and crushing how do your tractor tires fare?? I've seen wild black berries and the thorns are something that will generates nightmares. Driving into a thicket of this stuff would certainly give me reason to pause and my tires are 8 ply.

 

[longrangelarry]

Eat the berries first! What is wrong with you people?

I agree. Bush hog, allow recovery, spray. Might take 2 years. Or more. Something I wondered about but have never tried because I don't like herbicides either but... Roundup is not pre-emergent so it "doesn't matter" but it still persists in the soil for years. I wonder... if the ground was later burned as you would to prepare a plant bed, would it denature the chemical? If you happen not to be a chemist, "denature" means destroy the chemical structure to the point it is not functional. Never heard of this being done. Maybe the fire would not be hot enough? Hazmat incinerators run at something like 1400 degrees. Or maybe it's not safe. Just wondering...

 

[woodlandfarms]

so I will give Remedy Ultra a try. I get my crossbow in 5 gallon increments.

This fall I have been in LA so I have missed my spraying window. Bummer. Something very wonderful about being Chemical Ali for a few days.

I wanted to add a few notes in addition to my diatribe.

If you see a big pile of blackberries, 90% chance there is something in there, hopefully a downed tree, if you are unlucky like my a 50 gallon drum or a pile of metal fenceposts or just a big roll of sheep fence (that took me nearly a day and a half to extract my tractor and get it out of the mower). Proceed with caution when cutting down blackberry piles.

My mower is attached at the front. So I lift my mower up, and set it down, working my way into piles. If you back into piles with a conventional system, consider lifting a bit.

If you are totally green, and don't like the thoughts of chemicals, I have pretty good luck with just mowing a lot. then putting down grass seed. Eventually the berries get choked out.

The reality of berry control is once you have them, you will always. Berries love poop, and once they get injested by your local critters they get spread quickly. Even if you kill them all off, they will come back.

I strongly suggest eye protection any time you go on attack on the berries, wether it is just a eye glasses or better yet, the full face mesh chainsaw helmets (as suggested earlier). Inside all berry patches are old dead canes that seemed to have hardened in their decay. A whack with one of those will keep you in tears for hours.

You will get hit, whacked, poked by berries. They seem to almost be alive in their defense. They will do eveything to pay you back for killing them. You will be picking berry thorns out of your body for months to come. You get poked, and the tips break off deep, then fester a bit and, well, anyway.