Blackberry species

[BenA]

I have a good bit of blackberry coming up in my old field areas. Not too much right now, but I can see that I will have to spray some of it next year. The deer seem to like bedding up against it. I was surprised to see very little browse pressure. It also looks different than the blackberry or dewberry I am used to in Louisiana. It turns out, this is Allegheny blackberry, and seems to be the most common blackberry species in a lot of areas. I wonder if any of you see this species isn't as preferred by deer as well? The species I'm used to are sawtooth blackberry and southern dewberry. Those seem to be preferred more.

 

[fishin coyote]

Ben, here in my part of the world they don’t seem to browse the local blackberries until late spring/summer when they are fully leafed out and growing new growth. Even then they just seem to take a few bites and move on to something else. As far as varieties I couldn’t guess they’re just blackberries to me, now my raspberries on the other hand need to be fenced if I want anything to grow.

 

[b116757]

I get common blackberry growing in my pastures and spray it in spring usually with
2-4D during bloom to kill it. Around here I don’t think the deer use it much I do think in the thickets of it I get the quail utilize it as heavy protective cover but when it’s spread out here and there in a pasture it’s really just I nuisance plant to me.

 

[Teeder]

Deer seem to prefer it here. A couple of years ago I was sitting in my stand watching a clover plot. I had a doe walking around, ignoring the clover and finding the few blackberry stalks and snipping them off.

 

[Native Hunter]

Ben, In most fields around here it will just keep getting worse. A few years ago I hired a guy with a spray truck and we did my entire prairie with Remedy Ultra (as recommended by our friend Chris). For two years it worked, but gradually they started coming back, and I’m sure from the old roots rather than seed. Now, I’m right back where I started - only thicker and worse.

For years I tried spot spraying in a pickup truck. That worked for a lot of weeds, but after a year or two the blackberries were right back again.

Mowing once a year does nothing to discourage them. Mowing twice a year spaced out will help some but not to a great extent. My CREP has now expired but I’m keeping the prairie - at least for a few years. However, I have given up on blackberries unless someone can give me a miracle cure.

PS - no, I don’t see them browsed, but if 100 deer were eating them, it would be hard for me to see.

 

[gunfun13]

I wasn't aware there was different subspecies of wild blackberry. The blackberrys's I have here in Southern Michigan will hold green leaves well into December and are a deer magnet. I've many times watched deer walk through a food plot without taking a bite to feed on the blackberry's along the opposite edge.

 

[jsasker007]

I wasn't aware there was different subspecies of wild blackberry. The blackberrys's I have here in Southern Michigan will hold green leaves well into December and are a deer magnet. I've many times watched deer walk through a food plot without taking a bite to feed on the blackberry's along the opposite edge.

Are you sure it isn't Buckthorn?

 

[gunfun13]

Are you sure it isn't Buckthorn?

1000%. I eat the berries, they're canes not trees/shrubs, and never seen a deer eat buckthorn.

These pics are December 31, 2023...within an 8ish year old switch planting.