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clearing blackberries | (Read 301 times) |
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rachael hamblin
Posts: 129
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April 30, 2008, 11:24:11 PM |
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We have a whole strip of yard that is completely inaccessible/unusable due to being choked with blackberries. I'd like to get it cleared out but don't feel like taking a week chopping at them, which I can imagine would ultimately be pretty futile anyway....I'm tempted to try to burn them out but I can see several problems with this. Are there other strategies for removing large patches of invasive blackberry?
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paul wheaton
Administrator
Posts: 1471
western WA
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May 01, 2008, 09:33:47 AM |
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Far more entertaining to use a machete!
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permaculture.dave
Posts: 133
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May 01, 2008, 05:08:56 PM |
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A crew of our interns just cleared a strip of blackberries to make room for pear trees. They got in there and whacked away with brush hooks and machetes until the canes were gone. Then they went through with picks and pulled up all the crowns. I think this is the only way I know of to really get the job done. I suppose you could sheet mulch instead of digging crowns, but you'd still need to do the mechanical clearing.
Oh! You could rent a bobcat for an hour and remove them that way too. Plus it trumps Paul's idea of entertaining!
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rachael hamblin
Posts: 129
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May 01, 2008, 11:41:43 PM |
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Ah, that idea about the picks helps a lot. Does that pretty much take care of things or do they still keep coming up for a while?
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paul wheaton
Administrator
Posts: 1471
western WA
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May 02, 2008, 09:16:28 AM |
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While I usually favor sheet mulching over digging, I think blackberries could push past almost any sheet mulch.
I've heard of a lot of people having success by chopping it all down and then putting goats in the area. Every time a blackberry sprout comes up, the goats gobble it up!
Dave, if you're gonna bring in the machinery, howzabout a bush-hog?
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Susan Monroe
Posts: 521
Western WA
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October 15, 2008, 05:06:26 PM |
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Goats and donkeys love blackberry vines, and you don't have to chop them down first.
The trouble is going to be keeping them down. I think it was in one of Bill Mollison's books where he reported that a farmer had a gully full of wild blackberry plants that he wanted cleaned out. He threw bales of hay into the gully and gave his cattle access. They chewed down and trampled the vines while going after the hay. As soon as he saw the vines coming up again, he threw more hay down there. After 30 years, he admitted that the blackberries were winning.
Sue
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