Blackberries, before and after

LBrown59 · Sep 28, 2005

Oh all of those delicious blackberry pies that will never be.
I can't stand the horror of it all.

LarryD · Sep 28, 2005

Just remember, don't eat the berries that grow below the waist... /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

8NTX · Sep 28, 2005

( re permanent blackbery eradication -

I was told by a Master Gardener that a flamethrower was more effective than Roundup because it kills the roots better.

Has anyone waited until the dead of winter then hit them with a flamethrower? Did did it accomplish anything?

)

Yep, I've done it. Instead of coming back the next year, it wiped them out for about 3 years. But they came back.

With a vengence.

Steve

Farwell · Sep 28, 2005

Sounds like its time to drag out the old flame thrower and get back to work. Maybe this time those nasty old black berries will learn their lesson. I would leave mine alone if they produced a good berry but the berries are tiny, deformed and just barely edible
Farwell

ShiningSky · Sep 29, 2005

Roundup is almost useless to control blackberries in the NW. It will burn off the leaves but the root ball need to be killed to has success. You need to use Crossbow to kill them. Crossbow is 2-4-D which others have stated is a broadleaf killer only. To get complete kill the berries need to be sprayed now after the berries are gone and the plant is starting to go dormant. With the plant drawing everything into the rootball during its going dormant cycle the root ball with be killed and no more berries. But to totally eliminate berries here in the NW west you also need to elminate all the raccoons, bird and deer which are the greatest most efficient reseeders know to man.

Cheers

David

PBinWA · Sep 29, 2005

( Roundup is almost useless to control blackberries in the NW. It will burn off the leaves but the root ball need to be killed to has success. You need to use Crossbow to kill them. Crossbow is 2-4-D which others have stated is a broadleaf killer only. To get complete kill the berries need to be sprayed now after the berries are gone and the plant is starting to go dormant. With the plant drawing everything into the rootball during its going dormant cycle the root ball with be killed and no more berries. But to totally eliminate berries here in the NW west you also need to elminate all the raccoons, bird and deer which are the greatest most efficient reseeders know to man.
)

I'll second this. The 2-4-D stuff seems to work best on blackberries. I usually mix both 2-4-d and Round-up together and hit the blackberries with it at full strength.

Last year I tried to eradicate the blackberries from a little strip of hillside. I Round-uped everything(twice), then I tilled everything up and torched it with a propane torch (twice). the blackberries came back as if nothing had been done to them.

I seeded the hillside with wild flowers so that wasn't dense enough to keep out the seeds and stuff. Next year I'm tilling it all up and planting grass. I'm going to control the blackberries with 2-4-D as needed.

have_blue · Sep 29, 2005

If you mow close and often, no chemicals are needed. I have no problem whatsoever with blackberries.

fastpat · Sep 29, 2005

( Sounds like its time to drag out the old flame thrower and get back to work. Maybe this time those nasty old black berries will learn their lesson. I would leave mine alone if they produced a good berry but the berries are tiny, deformed and just barely edible
Farwell )

Replace the wild berries with thornless plants from Stark Brothers or other berry plant growers. Berries as big as your thumb, and they'll out compete the wild ones.

Berries like cool roots and warm tops, so full sun is best with mulch 4-8 inches thick on the roots. Berries like at least one annual cultivation effort, but are otherwise low maintenance.

I'd never use chemical control agents where you might plant a food crop in the future. Chemicals are for drainage ditches and so forth.

Pat

Farwell · Sep 29, 2005

Pat,
Thanks for the link, I added it to my favorites. In the next couple of years I plan on planting about 1/2 acre into fruit bearing plants and am in the process of educating myself as to the best methods to get healthy great tasting fruit.
The berries that I now have are wild and pretty much garbage plants mixed in with poison ivy and bramble bushes. They are also growing in an area that at some point in the future will be a pond so they will have to go. The area where they are growing is pretty much unaccessible to my tractor due to the grade and wet ground. I have already sprayed them with Round-up and it does not seem to have touched them other than turning the leaves brown. Another poster mentioned Crossbow and I am going to try that next. If I was going to plant in the berry area I would not use the chemicals.
Thanks.
Farwell

fastpat · Sep 29, 2005

Yes, brambles are among the hardest plants to eliminate because they can root propagate. The root blade mentioned is a useful tool, but it you can't get a tractor or other machine in to dig, they really are the devil to remove.

I wouldn't say impossible, but close to it. A weed burner, also mentioned, is a good idea but becareful with it, you can start a mean brush fire with one.