Destroying viscoius black berries!!!!

[silkiechicken]

So since goats are out of the question because fencing the place isn't going to be feasible, what is everybody's best and most destructive way of decimating terrible black berry bushes? These bushes seriously will grow a foot overnight and just take everything over. A weed whacker every few weeks can't keep them down. Some areas are now about 10 feet high too. The most effective thing I saw was when some people came and cut down some trees and took their backhoe or what ever it was, and dragged it across the ground. Doing that is also not feasible though. What's terrible is that every year, a new plant will establish its self everywhere. There are young plants popping out of the rocks in the driveway and turnaround. The most permanent way is to uproot them, but that would be a full time job as they are constantly reestablishing themselves. Any ideas?

 

[Arklady]

Get some pigs my dad said pigs eat everything when it comes to berries and I know a guy had his fenced in with electric wire. Just thought I would throw this out.

Arklady

 

[CoyoteMagic]

cut the back, rake them out, then when the new shoots start to grow. Spray them with Round-up. Not the pre-mixed stuff. The stuff you mix yourself and do it double concentrated. It will wipe out blackberries, summac, and poison ivy. You may have to spot treat every year of so but I haven't had problems in 4 years

 

[girlsnboys]

silkiechicken, we cleared a section of blackberries that was about 20'x80' and 6-8' tall. We did it by hand, cutting back the vines and tossing them in piles to burn. We went back in and cut the main pieces back to the ground and as one of us cut them the other painted on undiluted Roundup with a paintbrush. This took about 10 days total but grass started growing in and we started mowing and have been able to "cut and paint" the occasional one that starts to grow. We have a lot of blackberries all around us and have managed to keep our place clear for 3 years now. Good luck. Only problem is that I have to ask neighbors if I can come over to pick blackberries every summer now. I absolutely love eating them

 

[SpottedCrow]

I LOVE my wild blackberries!!! I even brought some berries in for Sir Nicholas the Yellow footed Tortoise. They make a great hedge too.

 

[ann]

I love blackberries,hate the thorns.I have no idea how to control them.

 

[silkiechicken]

Quote:
What kind of black berries do you have! A hedge! I would think theft deterent barbed fence! The black berries I am dealing with are those invasive Himalayan black berries. Give them one season and you'll have individual vines trailing about 30 feet a piece! I was reading some literature about them and I guess they are the worst on the west coast from British Columbia, though WA, OR and northern Cali. Apparently the envornment plus all the moisture = ideal conditions. They have taken over a few native salmon berry thickets too!


Thanks for all the ideas everyone. I guess I'll have to get some of that concentrated round up and hope the chickens don't get to it. I was trying to avoid using poisons. It's just that cutting them down to the ground has been rather unsatisfactory so far. As for grazing animals like pigs, I still couldn't fence them in properly so that wouldn't be an option. Another problem on where these are growing, is that one part of the ground is the old foundation to a barn. That is a problem that prevents grass from growing on it!

 

[SpottedCrow]

I went a googlin' and I have Himalayans too...

goes with the gout weed and the multiflora roses...grrr...

 

[ozark hen]

I don't know what kind we have here but we brush hog a few times each year for a couple years and then they are gone. I keep sections so I will have a place to pick berries each year. It seems that the wild grapes are the invasive ones around here.

 

[Barb Schuetz]

Quote:
Vinegar is a natural herbacide if you choose to go this route and don't want to use round up.
Otherwise, I'd just make a whole buttload of jam, pie, turnovers, muffins etc. Great xmas basket stuffers. Amd you can make most of these ahead of time and can/freeze until the holidays. Not to mention, just good eatin'!