Blackberries, raspberries, etc

ksgobbler

5 year old buck +
I would like to plant some fruit for the family. I was thinking blackberries or raspberries. I am kinda worried about the blackberries taking off into my NWSG. Anybody have any insight? Any tips? I have the Gurney’s catalog open looking at them as we speak.
 
The only blackberries I would plant is an infertile hybrid. No way I would want to risk them getting started in my pasture!

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Easy to control in grasses with a broadleaf specific herbicide, like 2-4D. You could always site them where you can mow on either side of a row of them. I have both in my garden, and they do try to spread by rhizomes, but since I mow around them every week or so in the summer, they haven gotten away from me in ten years. I do sometimes dig up spring sprouts to establish new plants, and I’ve had good luck lengthening by blackberry bed by layering the canes.



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I'm just saying be careful when selecting the variety. There are pastures near me that are checker-boarded with blackberry thickets that have been spread by seed. Very invasive and detrimental to pasture. I really don't want them to get started on my place for two reasons; I don't want to afford aerial spraying to rid them, and I don't want to rid my pasture of beneficial broad-leafs in a quest to fight yet another invasive. A quick variety search could prevent this...
 
The wild blackberry here is incredibly aggressive. They rip through NWSGs like a knife through butter. 24D by itself won’t kill to the roots. Last year I sprayed my 58 acres of NWSGs with something stronger and so far looking like a decent kill but time will tell. They have come back before.
 
Native, care to name the chemical and timing of your spray? My switch gets noxious weeds that need addressing. Looking at my options.
 
Native, care to name the chemical and timing of your spray? My switch gets noxious weeds that need addressing. Looking at my options.

I believe it was Remedy Ultra. Will try to remember and check when I get home. Timing was mid spring last year. Very slow death but appeared to eventually kill to roots.
 
I like Remedy Ultra for locust, but sure isn't cheap!

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I was thinking of putting them on the north side of my garden.
 
Good point about birds, etc spreading by seed. I’m almost to the northern part of the blackberry range, so maybe spreading isn’t as much of an issue for us.


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I just looked at my notes and it was Remedy Ultra. I've also had decent luck spot spraying before with Crossbow.

Wild blackberry is in a class by itself. Once the root system gets established, it is very difficult to eliminate. Plus, you have the berries being eaten and scatted around by so many different wild creatures. I love them when they are growing where I want them to grow but hate dealing with them where I don't want them.

When a patch forms, it can only be taken over by succession coming from the "outside in" rather than the "inside out." New tree saplings can't push through the thick briers and they become tangled and die. Given enough time, trees from the outside can eventually start shading the edges enough that succession can continue and a forest can form.

Mowing once a year seems to have no affect at all, except that you can stop the fruiting if you mow just before fruit set. Two mowings strategically spaced out will have an impact on them over time - but who wants to do that..... You are also destroying your other cover.
 
Where I have blackberries they cant really spread to anywhere else, the wild raspberries kind of show up are really strong for a few years then thin out. We really like picking them and I love eating them!
 
I did an every third row thinning in my 70 acres of plantation style 30 year old red pine trees. Both outside rows on each drive and fire land were taken out. This allowed sunlight to get to the under story, especially on East to West lanes and drives. The wild black raspberry have just come in super thick in all these spots. I am fine with them being there. One place I do not want them is on my 12 acre restored prairie. I have them on my Western edge only I cut them by hand and treat the stump with Tordon. I sure don't want to cut and spread them into the prairie. My helper and his family came out a few times and picked black raspberries until they had enough. The berries were the size of your thumb last season and just delicious. Bears really enjoy eating them during their short season.
 
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