Clearing Black Berry Vines

[bigballer]

i've heard the goats love to eat BB (and pretty much anything else) and the pasture is fenced but 2 sides of it are 4 strands of barbed wire, which is why I have left the BB there so far. Most of the old split-rail posts are rotted off and it needs to be replaced or seriously repaired. From what I have heard about goats and fences, they will find the weakest part of it and get through it. Pretty sure I would need some barrier fencing vs the barbed wire to keep them in and safe. Speaking of keeping them safe, are coyotes known to bother with goats or do they keep their distance?

cheers,
bigballer

 

[jeepinator]

What is a surficant, how does it work, and why don't the manufacturers put it in there to begin with?
Oh, and what is a good brand?

 

[AchingBack]

What is a surficant, how does it work, and why don't the manufacturers put it in there to begin with?
Oh, and what is a good brand?

Surfactant is a wetting agent, (makes water wetter), that does so by releasing the surface tension of leaves . I recently ran out of the commercially made stuff, and decided to try liquid dish detergent in its place. It only took about one teaspoon per gallon, and worked great. It is much less expensive too!

Back in the 60's I was an Amway distributor. I sold a product called L.O.C., Liquid Organic Cleaner. I believe it was coconut based. If it is still available, that would work very well too. To demonstrate, I would put about a tablespoon of water on a piece of cardboard, and watch it sit there for over a minute. Then, I took a straight pin and dipped the tip into the L.O.C. Immediately the water began soaking into the cardboard! The surface tension had been released.

Aching Back

















Bob

 

[jeepinator]

Thanks for the info.
With all the dust I am making around here, it's no wonder my spraying has been working so slowly lately. It's probably beading up and rolling off and not getting abosorbed. Dish soap it is

 

[midlf]

Many herbicides have a surfactant in them. Read the label booklet, it will tell you if it has a surfactant. If in doubt, add some.

 

[Robbie Hegwood]

One last thing to try. It seems you get them cut back pretty good, I did some work for a customer with weeds and misc growth that he wanted removed to make an island. I took my harley rake and made several passes to remove all the growth, roots and all. Always pushing the same direction. When I was finished I used my bucket to run along the piles and dumped them elsewhere. You could even maybe let the rain wash all the dirt off the remains and then burn. Good luck RH

 

[Westonium]

The organic method: 5# dry citric acid mixed with as much store bought vinegar as your backpack sprayer will handle. Very acidic - don't breath it and don't let it sit on your skin. I carry a bottle of windex with ammonia in it on the nearby tractor when I do this in case I start to get a chem burn. The base ammonia neutralizes the acid on the quickly.

Spray when it is dry.

Brushog/chop/clear the canes (they burn like crazy when it is dry. If you live where it can get TOO dry, be sure and get rid of them before the next fire danger season)

Spray again when it is dry and the things are trying to grow again or let sheep in and they'll denude it and eventually kill the canes. Sheep and goats love the leaves and tender shoots - just not the canes.

OR

Plow and disc or till. You'll still probably get some more coming up but there should be a lot less and they should not be as vigorous.

EDIT:
Bigballer: Coyotes will mess with them if they are hungry enough and attacking in groups. Sure sign of desperate coyotes or coyotes running with coydogs or wild dogs. I don't actively hunt the coyotes around here because they are scared, hunting alone, and generally unseen. The day I see a brave/desperate coyote around here is the day I hunt them. If your coyotes are like mine, they aren't very big (compared to the ones I dealt with in Southern California) and aren't so hungry as to mess with anything that might fight back. Get a couple of Great Pyrenees and you'll probably never see a coyote cross your property again.

 

[Mith]

Dont waste your money on chemicals.

You said you want a pasture, just mow it to the ground and throw grass seed on top. Keep mowing it and eventually the vines will die out in a year or so.

The trick I have found is to drive your tractor over them to squash them to the ground, then you can mow them with a bush hog or something. I can get about 1/4 acre in an hour to 2 hours or so if nothing goes wrong.

 

[gemini5362]

In dealing with Blackberrys the one thing I have to say is Thank You to my wife who insisted that if I was going to get a new tractor I get one with a cab.

 

[Cottonhawk]

".....I've got about 1/4 acre to clear that is filled with black berry vines. .......I want to pull the roots out in prep for pasture lawn grass.........."
I have just finished clearing an area over two acres of giant blackberries, old growth brushes, nasty huge weeds..... and tuned it into a meadow. The project was a hand full and took over one year. It went through several stages I'll show the start and the finished product. The first photo is the giant blackberries and brushes and the second photo shows the cleared area and the new grass started to grow. The real growth, mowing, weeding, and grooming will start next Spring.