Rototilling? I learned it's essential to mow first.

[California]

I have a tight spot between fence and lane that's a row of apple trees choked by Himalayan blackberry jungle. Every year I mow there, to make access to the trees for pruning then again for harvest. I mostly have to back in around each tree, there's no room to maneuver.

This year I had the rototiller attached so I thought I could use it to rip out blackberry jungle.

Big mistake! The blackberry canes didn't slice, they wrapped around the tiller's shaft intact, roots and all. They are tough like rope. I pretty much had to cut and tug on each cane individually. Two hours to clear the snarl.

Tools: I carry that linoleum knife jammed into conduit for cutting out grass stems, that works well. But not this time.

The pliers were to grasp each cane and avoid the many thorns. I soon got out the reciprocating saw to try to break up each cane. But they were wrapped so tight that even after cut, each segment was near impossible to pull right out. And not all were cut, many had just jumped around when moved by the saw.

I'll bet the Indians used to make good ropes out of this stuff. After shaving off the thorns. It's tough material.

Don't Do This!!!

Comment on that tiller - yeah I was better looking 45 years ago, too.

 

[bmaverick]

When I have to begin a NEW garden plot, never disc'ed nor tilled before, I brush mow, and then brush mow scalping.

 

[5030]

I start out with Roundup Ultra Max and wait a week and then till the aftermath.

 

[CalG]

A Burnz-o-matic hand tourch is a great aid to clearing stuff tangled in tines.

You don't really need to "get to it", just get close!

 

[California]

I start out with Roundup Ultra Max and wait a week and then till the aftermath.

Roundup isn't going to make a Blackberry jungle like this, ready to rototill after a week!

Here are a couple of old photos. First, guests picking berries along a different fence line. The apple trees I'm clearing for access, are buried in a mess like this.

The Blackberry vines are well rooted. If mowed flat, they come right back next year.

Himalayan Blackberries taste great but they are an unwelcome invasive species on the west coast. They can fill up any vacant land.

 

[California]

One year (photo 2009) I tried the backhoe for ripping out blackberry jungle that had overwhelmed a row of trees many years ago down in back where it's hard to disc. Note the grotesque limb shapes struggling to get out of the mess into sunlight. My effort was wasted, the following year the mess grew right back.

 

[rontaki]

I have a tight spot between fence and lane that's a row of apple trees choked by Himalayan blackberry jungle. Every year I mow there, to make access to the trees for pruning then again for harvest. I mostly have to back in around each tree, there's no room to maneuver.

This year I had the rototiller attached so I thought I could use it to rip out blackberry jungle.

Big mistake! The blackberry canes didn't slice, they wrapped around the tiller's shaft intact, roots and all. They are tough like rope. I pretty much had to cut and tug on each cane individually. Two hours to clear the snarl.

Tools: I carry that linoleum knife jammed into conduit for cutting out grass stems, that works well. But not this time.

The pliers were to grasp each cane and avoid the many thorns. I soon got out the reciprocating saw to try to break up each cane. But they were wrapped so tight that even after cut, each segment was near impossible to pull right out. And not all were cut, many had just jumped around when moved by the saw.

I'll bet the Indians used to make good ropes out of this stuff. After shaving off the thorns. It's tough material.

Don't Do This!!!

View attachment 3539715


Comment on that tiller - yeah I was better looking 45 years ago, too.

And probably just as thorny?

 

[CalG]

Would a flail mower be an option?

Perhaps you could rent one to try.

 

[California]

And probably just as thorny?

D**** thorny!

Nasty plentiful thorns with something that festers painfully if you snag on it and imbed the extreme microscopic tip in your fingertip. Right at the spot you need for grasping anything.

My guests pick daintily and fearfully. I've found the secret - a welding glove on my left hand/arm, reaching in and pulling out a productive cane so I can harvest it without my picking hand getting trapped by thorns inside the thorny bush. Then dropping the berries into a small bucket hitched to my belt. I'm productive maybe 4x what the others are doing.
I can several dozen jars of Wild Blackberry Jam every year.

 

[California]

Would a flail mower be an option?

Perhaps you could rent one to try.

My rotary mower does a sufficient job of mowing it flat. One year I re-opened an abandoned terrace way down in the back of the orchard, by flattening jungle with the front loader then mowing. That created access so several guests had plenty of berries to pick. It grew back in a year.

I went ahead with the rototiller this one time yesterday just to try it, thinking tilling below the surface would halt regrowth. Big mistake. It uprooted lots of material but didn't slice or bury any of it.