Blackberry Removal

[Robert_Actual]

For those of you who have been to, or live in Western Washington you will know what I'm talking about. Blackberries are the state weed...


My wife and I purchased 5.6 acres and have about 2 acres that was cleared several years before we purchased it and the regrowth was 8' deep of blackberries when we purchased the land. They had grown over the top of limbs from logging, 2 old cars that had been dumped in the field, up the sides of Doug Fir trees, and right over the top of Scotch Broom (Washington State's runner up for a State weed). I need advice on how to get rid of these damn things - over the past 3 years of owning the land I have;

• Year 1: I have mowed & mulched the berries twice but this has done little more than slow them down as they can grow 8-10' a season. Once we get into the growing season and left unchecked, they will be knee deep by June, mid chest deep by July and will have huge 10' runners going skyward by late summer.
• Year 2 Spring: I hired goats which (due to the proximity to the stream and pond) seemed like a good idea. But like the mower they didn't get much of the roots and they actually cost quite a bit.
• Year 2 Early Fall: I had the area professionally brush raked. I hauled off over 50,000 lbs to the recycle center of blackberry bushes and root balls. I then sprayed remaining plants with CrossBow, let the area sit for a month and then had it hydroseeded with a meadow mix. Blackberries are back - not quite as bad but they're back just the same.
• Year 3: I hired a brush mowing company to mow monthly. This basically resulted in the berries sending out runners down in the grass that went back into the ground and created new root starts.
• Year 3.5: This winter I hired some day laborers to individually hack out all remaining blackberries and spray the area with crossbow. I will hydro seed again around the first of April when the risk of frost is gone.

Is there anything I'm missing? Our future home (currently under construction) will look out onto a large pond and meadow and I just want to see tall grass that is full of deer and a pond full of ducks - but after 3.5 years of screwing with it I've maybe only reduced the berries by 60-70%. Does anyone have a better way of dealing with these things?


In the next several weeks I will be taking delivery of a new tractor with multiple attachments. My hope is to stay on top of the berry growth more, but due to the soft ground in the area this will be difficult until mid summer.


Thanks in advance.

 

[Dougeye]

Glyphosate. And persistence. The smallest piece of live blackberry root is all it takes, so mechanical removal as best as possible and minimal spraying of what's left over and what pokes up next. It took us several years to eradicate the stuff from our property, and we are vigilant about any intrusions from the neighbours' sides of the fences. You can never be complacent.

Do you have English Ivy as well? That's the third one in our part of the world...

 

[Creamer]

Consistent mowing over a few years will take them out as they run out of root stores to keep growing. The problem is when you get to the edges as it is hard to consistently mow around edges especially if there are trees.

Full sun is the other thing - they are not a fan of full sun and the roots needs to be shaded - but once again are the edges where there are usually trees.

 

[Wagtail]

Blackberry is a 'weed' here in Tasmania and is recommended to be eliminated...

And yet Blackberry Jam is so yummy! So many folks pulled over on the side of a road picking berries.

 

[Frankenkubota]

Same in oregon. I did about 1 acre by hand. Really on hands and knees. Used a hand held pruner. They grow in either groups of 3 or 5 branches. Then crossbow. Then cut cut cut with the mower, it worked.

The only reason I comment is, on the morning walks there were tons of blackberries but as time went on the good ones were soon way out of reach.

Once in a while the elk would come by and they were not too worried about prickers! They would bull doze a channel into the blackberries which opened up all kinds of new berries.

Lots of purple spots on the car etc that time of Year!

 

[cqaigy2]

I just cut out the ones i don't want to grow in the areas i don't want them. Mow and or hand cut. They give up after while of that kind of treatment. Then the birds are pretty helpful with replanting.

 

[greenerdreams]

i had about an acre of blackberries that were maybe 10' tall. i mowed them with a hydraulic skidsteer brush mower then mowed weekly with a zero turn finish mower. never had to spray or do anything else, area looks like a normal lawn. mowing monthly is not often enough. crossbow is good but you need a sticker to make it work better if you want to go that route, i have used small amounts of diesel mixed in and it works well..

 

[cqaigy2]

I just mow the ones i don't want. Birds are going to replant for you so you don't have to worry about getting rid of them completely. Besides, if you cut them just right, you can't easily pick the berries when they get ripe. One of the yummiest of weeds.

 

[Cougsfan]

I grew up in Grays Harbor County Washington. Blackberries were everywhere. Both Himalayan and Evergreen varieties. Every August my siblings and I would have to pick blackberries all month long to earn enough money to buy our school clothes. After a while between between the scratches from the briars and the blackberry juice our hands would be tattooed a purple-ish blue for days. Our blue lips would tell our parents if we had been eating the profits.

I personally would prefer to never see another blackberry bush. Repeated mowing is probably the most effective removal method.

 

[Midniteoyl]

Yep. Mow, mow, and mow again.. I cant let more than 2 weeks go w/o mowing/hogging or all sorts of crap pops up.