Wild Blackberry Vines

17 years ago

I love blackberries, but these are on the edge of the woods and right where I put my flower bed, not many berries, but lots of vines. I didn't know about lasagna gardening or putting cardboard or paper down. We pulled and pulled and this is the 3rd year. I am still pulling.....is there anything that would help? I am staying organic and have made about 3 lasagna beds since then. I have never put chemicals on this bed so even tho it may not be rich soil it has no poisons. My compost will be usable by the end of the summer and I am wondering how much will that encourage the blackberries? Have what I think are voles in that patch and why don't they eat blackberry vines instead of flowers, lol? I have used worm castings,wood mulch, flower tone and such there, but this will be the first time I have put compost down. I have decided that if the compost doesn't do some noticable good then next spring I will do the soil tests with the extension office. Not going to do it this spring as it is so late already.

Thanks Y'all,

Kiki

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Comments (7)

marymd7
17 years ago
I'm still not entirely sure what your question is, but I BELIEVE you're asking what you might be able to do to keep the wild blackberry brambles from invading your new flower beds?

If that, in fact, is the question, the answer is to keep pulling -- and consider a root barrier at the back of the garden if it appears that is how the vines are invading the bed. The compost is completely irrelevant to this question.
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seamommy
17 years ago
Compost is going to make your blackberry vines more vigorous than ever. In the fall, I'd take out the plantings from the bed, and dig down as deep as I could and try to get all the blackberry roots out. That's the only way I can think of to get rid of them. If you have them in nearby areas though, they are likely to grow back into your bed eventually. Cheryl
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I have been wondering about wild blackberries for several months now. This past summer I had an opportunity to harvest/transplant some wild blackberry vines from a Pine Barrens near me into 10 gallon containers. A new strip mall was being erected near a LoweÂs that I frequent. They were bulldozing a 10 acre section of Pine Barrens. In NJ, wild blueberries grow everywhere throughout these Pine Barrens. They love the acid-sandy soil. I just could not stand by and let them all go to waste as I knew that they would all get bulldozed underground. "Some" of the blueberry bushes survived the transplanting and I am eagerly awaiting the spring to see if they will offer any berries. Wild blueberries are substantially smaller than store bought blueberries, but they are much sweeter and tastier. I had even better success transplanting several blackberry vines. What confused me about the blackberries is that I found 2 distinct types. One was a "cane" type vine and the other is a "ground creeping vine". At first I thought that the "cane" type was a wild raspberry but the vines did have fruit on them and they are both definitely blackberries. The "cane" type had stalks/canes that were as thick as your finger and were attempting to grow vertically but arced toward the ground. The "vine" types were more like fishing line or shoelaces growing only horizontally along the ground. They too are in 10 gallon buckets adjacent to a trellis that I have erected for them. I cannot wait until spring and see how they will do. I did some research and know that wild berry strains such as these can introduce disease and/or fungus to domesticated berry varieties. I fortunately had no other fruits other than strawberries (on the other side of my property) and 2 dwarf Macintosh apple trees, also not nearby. I guess my question is; can I tell if I have 2 different varieties (or gender) vines? I realize that because they are wild, it might be hard to tell. Is it typical to find both "cane" & "vine" types of certain blackberry types?...or wild blackberries? Any help or info is appreciated - Grateful
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We have so much poison ivy here that preschoolers can accurately identify it! Great idea, though! And I think my yard is a favored pass - through bcs for some bizarre horticultural reason, my wild area is poison ivy-free and blackberry free! I tried encouraging the holly back there to into the "bald" spits, but it just won't. Holly has a mind of its own, preferring to grow up under my screened porch and garage wall ; ) The wild blackberries refuse to be managed, too. Have tried to get them to grow up the paths, but to no avail. And they are fierce! I usually look like I have been in a multi cat fight after tangling with those thorny beasts. Am hoping to get a former Youth Group kid to dig up a bit on the hill before he leaves for college, and then supplement with Christopher's wheelbarrow recipe and get a couple of Darlow's Enigma in before a couple of weeks are out. I am hoping that will at least give me an idea if this will work. I'm planning on putting tomato cages over the young plants to prevent trampling. Have an email into Long Ago to see if she has any DE. It's a 4hr drive, but might be better than stressing a plant by shipping it in August heat.
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steve2416
17 years ago
If you are brave enough, use a chainsaw to cut off everything above ground that displeases you.
Then, use a rear tine tiller at a shallow setting to cut the small stems and bounce the heavy stems to where you can deal with them. The tiller is many hoe strikes.
Wrap roots with rope or chain depending on the need and pull them out with a truck in mass.
Plant a cover crop like Buckwheat and repeat growing it and follow with Winter cover crops. Till each one under when it is prime. By next Spring that ground is yours and anything that comes up is puny and easily pulled.
That is how I created my 1/4 acre veggie garden from fallen trees, kudzu, wisteria, and honeysuckle. It took me 3 years before I knew I had won the war.
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gw:organic-kiki
17 years ago
Sorry, Marymd if I get too chatty, can you tell that I have no 'real life' organic gardening/compost buddies? What do you mean by a root barrier? That sounds interesting to me.

Cheryl, we had already dug and pulled and burned in spring of '04....don't know if I could stand to dig everything up and start over as we have built an arbor, planted roses and many things,have a rail fence and rock wall.....maybe I can layer paper between the biggest plants and compost and mulch over that and just keep pulling the vines as they come thru as I am doing now and if that doesn't help in another year or two I may be convinced to start over.

Steve, if my husband was more involved in this he would probably be going your route, but I don't feel up to it. If you are in the northern part of NC it wouldn't take you too long to get to central VA and help with this project, whacha think? I have a couple of grandsons who could pitch in.
Thanks y'all for your suggestions,
Kiki
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pablo_nh
17 years ago
Blackberries grow on second year wood. Cut canes back that flower this year, and rotate- you will encourage fruiting.

Well, that doesn't rid you of them, but makes them productive at least. My wild ones have gone from being an eyesore to being part of my semi-permaculture plan in one year.
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swineinsanity
17 years ago
We put some liner over ours that were not producing fruit after we cut them to the ground and then put lava rock over it to smother it. I would have kept them but since they were in shade they would not fruit.
I have more blackberries but I am going to leave the ones that will produce fruit. You could trellis it to make it grow up and make it an added interest to if you want. Make some jelly or wine. ;)
Cheryl
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rosebush
17 years ago
Hi all,
I've been pulling and now trasplanting the wild blackberries that come up to create a critter-barrier, of sorts, near the edge of a large garden. I enjoy making wild blackberry jam or cobbler, and figure the hedge of thorns will deter a few critters at least. Rosemary
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Wild Blackberry Vines

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marymd7

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