Welding Tips and Tricks

Well, for several years wild blackberries have been encroaching on the shop. They are a waist high crop of prickly, very prickly somewhat vine like growth that gets I believe blackberries. It's a couple acres worth of growth now. They expanded exponentially the last two seasons. I may be exaggerating a bit, let's call it a good solid acre. 120'x60' on main body with another Leg of the ell being 180'x30'. I dont know if that's an acre, but if you try to walk through it you're a bloody mess.

They HAVE to go. How do I do it? I don't care if what ever field grass is there gets dead in the process.

I have been considering rock salt. It's a hundred yards from the well. I dont really want to use round up.

I suppose I could get my buddies ancient 310 crawler loader and just dig the area up but that's a ton of work and very destructive. It also grows right up to the building, that may be an issue with the mechanical method.

Mowing s not work. A drag behind mower on the Kubota doesn't do it. The John deer mow rider thing is scared, just stalls. The weed Wacker with a blade cuts it but does not solve the problem and the sharp little leftovers still render area Un useable.

Any other suggestions? A lot of folks say rock salt is bad but I dont understand why. It's gotta be better than round up? It's not some cancer chemical except probably in California.

I'm not a tree hugger although I pretty much believe in letting nature be nature. Until it's under foot.

I am out in the country. No neighbors to worry about, you can see them but there a long way away. Folks mind there own business out here anyways.

Shaft drive weed whacker with a 7-1/2” circular saw blade on it. The real problem is the roots. Cover it with black plastic after for a year or two.

Poland308 wrote:Shaft drive weed whacker with a 7-1/2” circular saw blade on it. The real problem is the roots. Cover it with black plastic after for a year or two.

Yes, I have done the weed Wacker. The issue is all the sharp pointy left that just regrow by the end of summer. This stuff pokes holes in tires of some stuff, like the John deer rider. Goal is to kill it while it's big enough to see so I can then figure a way to rip it out and not have it regrow.

I am leaning towards a dozer. Thats just so much work and time. And I am not good with the crawler loader dozer thing I have available. The stuff takes real skill to leave a nice area behind.

Maybe a controlled burn. Used often when needing to control invasive species without destroying the soil. Call a pro to handle it.

Jakedaawg wrote:Well, for several years wild blackberries have been encroaching on the shop. They are a waist high crop of prickly, very prickly somewhat vine like growth that gets I believe blackberries. It's a couple acres worth of growth now. They expanded exponentially the last two seasons. I may be exaggerating a bit, let's call it a good solid acre. 120'x60' on main body with another Leg of the ell being 180'x30'. I dont know if that's an acre, but if you try to walk through it you're a bloody mess.

They HAVE to go. How do I do it? I don't care if what ever field grass is there gets dead in the process.

with blackberry most mechanical methods don't work well.
best thing is to spray with TRICLOPYR and PICLORAM. any spray with triclopyr in is worth looking at.
if its a solid acre then helicopter is the quickest. otherwise a high powered spray gun may have the reach or cut a track in (and deal with the regrowth from the track later).

that spray is grass friendly. most importantly it gets down into the roots.
roundup is poor at blackberry anyway. kills the top well but regrows later from the roots. same goes for burning, digging etc. leave roots behind and your going to be back doing it again.

the other one that might work ok is METSULFURON-METHYL. not my first choice but its cheap.

How about goats? They will eat about ANYTHING - including fences so run some electric fence wire around the area and send in the goats.

Ken

Blackberry's are a challenge. I've tried many different solutions, and only one worked every time, and this is the perfect time to get rid of the vines forever.

Save up empty plastic water bottles, I like the 16 oz Coke bottles. Mix up one third round up concentrate and two thirds water and fill each bottle about two thirds full.

Cut the growing end off of the main vines, the most active vines, and then push the end of the vine down into the solution in the plastic bottle. Duct tape the vine to the top of the bottle so that the end of the vine will be submerged.

Lower the vine to the ground and prop the bottle so that it stays upright. The vine will suck the solution out of the bottle and transport it back to the roots.

It will take a week or two before you will see any results, but it will kill the black berries with out spraying herbicide all over.

Watch the bottles and refill as necessary. This method only works when the vines are actively growing.

When done, gather up the bottles and dispose. Remove the dead vines.

There you have it.....

Thanks for the suggestions

Getting rid of blackberries, red or black raspberries and any other brambles can be tough. Brush hogging them repeatedly can help as they tend to propagate when the tip of an active cane curls back to the ground and starts a new plant. And I suspect that in your case birds and maybe other critters are spreading the seeds in their feces so one goal will be to get rid of them before they fruit. And if you use brush killer you'd want that to be either before or after they flower so you kill as few pollinators are possible.

We had a big patch of mixed blackberries, black raspberries and a few red raspberries that would expand in a few weeks to a month in the growing season if I didn't mow right up to and even a bit into the patch every few weeks. You might also want to call your local extension agent and, if you have one, your soil and water conservation district for advice. And maybe your highway department will have some ideas as the often deal with encroaching growth on rights of way.

Best regards,


Lance

Have you got a pine tree or a tree that sheds a lot of wood growth nearby? Those things love soil that has a lot of sawdust or ground up wood or bark or any of that stuff, pine needles and pine cones are wonderful for growing blackberries. If so, you want to keep that stuff cleaned up. They also like mulch believe it or not. If they can actually grow up through it they go like gangbusters.

As for getting rid of them, Weedone Woody plant killer is the stuff you're looking for. You could mix it with 2 4 D if you can find a place to get the real stuff. That combo'll kill anything on the planet.

Whatever you do, don't take the waste from your chipper shredder and throw that around unless you really like thistles and Briars. Now of course if you've been trying for years to grow raspberries and not having much luck, cover them up with sawdust and ground up bark and wood and then rototill them under. Next year you'll be overrun with raspberries.

Use goats.

Every thing suggested takes years. Lol it’s just a matter of years.

Goats will take a month or less.

spray will take a few weeks.

goats are a right pain. i suspect many of you guys have never dealt with goats before.
they only eat the likes of blackberry when forced to. if there is yummy stuff over the fence they will find a way to get to it.
of course there is the problem of finding some one with goats you can borrow and all the fencing, and the rounding up the escapees. the transporting etc.
then you have to deal with the regrowth. if you munch, or kill off, the top it simply regrows from the roots.