Blackberry Removal

[goeduck]

Just mow a couple years in a row and grass takes over.

While you can achieve reduction by mowing open areas, the real problem with Himalayan berries is when they grow where you cannot mow. Under fences, between trees, around out buildings etc. If a bramble has been in place for some time, the seed bank and root fragments in the soil will keep them coming back for years after clearing.

 

[JasperFrank]

Amazing that this plant was introduced only 100 years ago. I have to laugh when ever I see blackberry starts for sale.

The Strange, Twisted Story Behind Seattle's Blackberries

Those tangled brambles are everywhere in the city, the legacy of an eccentric named Luther Burbank whose breeding experiments with crops can still be found on many American dinner plates.

www.npr.org

 

[mapper]

Small closed containers of Glsophosphate with a small slit in the lid. Put a growing tip of BlackBerry vine in through the slit. It will absorb the stuff and the entire plant dies roots and all. Mix the glysophosphate at the same dilution you would use for spraying, too much and it just burns the tip and doesn't kill the plant.
Much easier than clearing and grubbing.
Native blackberries and marion berries are far more flavorful than Himalayan and evergreen varieties.
Spent to much of my youth attached to a machete cutting blackberries and salmon berries on my folks property to have any tolerance for them on mine!

 

[Big Barn]

Small closed containers of Glsophosphate with a small slit in the lid. Put a growing tip of BlackBerry vine in through the slit. It will absorb the stuff and the entire plant dies roots and all. Mix the glysophosphate at the same dilution you would use for spraying, too much and it just burns the tip and doesn't kill the plant.
!

i use a toilet bowl cleaner container for applying glysophate to invasive bamboo plants. chop the stalk off at ground level and put a few drops on the fresh cut

for blackberries i just use a normal sprayer for application with a little extra surfactant to minimize runoff.

fall is the "best" time for application when the plant is in root "storage" mode

 

[California]

Amazing that this plant was introduced only 100 years ago. I have to laugh when ever I see blackberry starts for sale.

The Strange, Twisted Story Behind Seattle's Blackberries

Those tangled brambles are everywhere in the city, the legacy of an eccentric named Luther Burbank whose breeding experiments with crops can still be found on many American dinner plates.

www.npr.org

I'm near where Luther Burbank started out. No wonder any uncultivated ground here is choked with blackberries.

His thornless cactuses are around here too, planted in yards and road frontages as decoration but not naturally proliferating all over the place like the blackberries.

After a few years Burbank gave up fighting the overwhelming gophers here and moved a few miles to Santa Rosa. And donated that parcel with too many gophers to ...




... the adjacent cemetery.

 

[cqaigy2]

While you can achieve reduction by mowing open areas, the real problem with Himalayan berries is when they grow where you cannot mow. Under fences, between trees, around out buildings etc. If a bramble has been in place for some time, the seed bank and root fragments in the soil will keep them coming back for years after clearing.

True, i can't mow under the fences, but also don't care if there's some blackberries there, and those are easier to pick the ripe berries from anyway.


Even if i kept all my acreage completely clear of blackberries, there's still a seedbank available to reseed from.

 

[Rebeldad1]

I am in SW Washington. had 2 areas to clear. First one brush hogged and some tractor work to level. Added a bunch of mulch and have had no trouble. Second area brush hogged and leveled with the tractor. added about 3" crushed rock. done.

Cut them and dont let them grow. they will stop growing.

 

[Creamer]

Thanks! It definitely looks like what I have are the Himalayan by the pictures. They are aggressive.

 

[goeduck]

Small closed containers of Glsophosphate with a small slit in the lid. Put a growing tip of BlackBerry vine in through the slit. It will absorb the stuff and the entire plant dies roots and all. Mix the glysophosphate at the same dilution you would use for spraying, too much and it just burns the tip and doesn't kill the plant.
Much easier than clearing and grubbing.
Native blackberries and marion berries are far more flavorful than Himalayan and evergreen varieties.
Spent to much of my youth attached to a machete cutting blackberries and salmon berries on my folks property to have any tolerance for them on mine!

Interesting concept. Do you do this in the fall? Do you select larger or smaller canes? Shorter (closer to the root system) canes? You do not cut off the tip, you keep it intact?

I wonder if this would work on our big leaf maples, almost impossible to kill.

 

[hslogger]

If you wanna kill big leaf maples cut them off. Bore the stump with the nose of your chainsaw or use a big drill bit.Pouring straight glyosphate might do the trick but something like Garlon Tordon, etc nasty stuff will kill it. Gotta do it when the stump is fresh.