I'm clearing out some property for sale and too much time spent on night shift means I'm very far behind in yard work. Primarily I was talked into letting a few blackberry bushes stay and now they are terribly overgrown. chopping them back just leaves more. Does anyone have a good way to get rid of them that wont leave me destitute? It just needs to look good enough for sale. I'm fine with reseeding grass or whatever once its all out. Pretend I know exactly nothing about gardening.

I believe Roundup has a product specifically for vegetation like this I think it has a red cap but don't recall the exact name.

I take it, "cobbler" is not the answer you are looking for...

quote:

Anyone have a good way to kill blackberries?

Usually with whip cream. I can kill/knock out a whole pint in one sitting!

You'll need a more than just a week killer, something like a brush killer. I used it on some ground cover I had and it worked ok but you end up really killing the soil.

quote:

Originally posted by Aglifter:
I take it, "cobbler" is not the answer you are looking for...

That's what I was thinking, eat them.

I don't have firsthand experience with this, but found it while looking up Ortho Brush-B-Gon.

https://www.ortho.com/en-us/pr...h-killer-concentrate

A good brush-hogging and then Roundup the stems and shoots.

But, I very much prefer to lightly crush them and dump them over good vanilla ice cream and drizzle on some chocolate fudge.

Flamethrower?

More seriously, but still probably not what you want, goats. Given enough time, goats are extremely rough on berry vines.

Can you get an excavator or a dozer into where they are? Sometimes brute force works well, especially for a short term cleanup.

The brush killer may kill the plants, but the woody bits and roots will remain. It's going to take the rototiller from hell to till all that up so it can be removed, then prepared for seeding.

Of a lot of back-breaking manual labour.

Yeah the pie is how all this nonsense started. Believe you me, I'll be buying from the store quite happily from now on.

A neighbor has a small farm and a bunch of equipment so I may look into seeing if I can hire him to come over and rip the absolute crap out of it and then follow with the chemicals. I have less than a month to get it fixed up so I'll likely have to skip on the goats I imagine.

Cut it back with a brushhog, down to the ground, cover with dirt, sod, plants can't grow without sunlight, some will pop through, mow over them, eventually the plants will die off.

Killed a whole line of palmetto plants with that method over 20 years ago, had a few pop their heads out at first, now, nothing...

quote:

Originally posted by holdem:

quote:

Originally posted by Aglifter:
I take it, "cobbler" is not the answer you are looking for...

That's what I was thinking, eat them.

My first thought, too.

flashguy

They are like blueberries or raspberries. 70% of the plant is underground and will continue spreading. I have blueberries up at the lake place. I mow half the patch every year and the other half the following year. Keeps nice big wild blueberries coming every year.

Pretty hard to kill them off I think. I'd use a nice blackberry patch as a selling point.

quote:

Originally posted by flashguy:

quote:

Originally posted by holdem:

quote:

Originally posted by Aglifter:
I take it, "cobbler" is not the answer you are looking for...

That's what I was thinking, eat them.

My first thought, too.

flashguy

Or whipped cream

Goats

Goats or if you go the chemical route Crossbow (herbicide) mixed with diesel.

I tried planting blackberries and couldn't get them to grow...go figure. The area where I planted them is prone to occasional flooding, so wet ground may have been the problem, so you could try drowning them.

Second Crossbow
Hit them with it and wait 3-5 days.
Smash down the dead vines and you'll have to dig out the root balls.
They will try to come back for several weeks so you'll want to stay on top of any new chutes popping up.
They grow faster than anything here.
Nuke em all.

Cheers~

Goats will take care of them, stalks and all.

quote:

Originally posted by lizardman_u:
Goats or if you go the chemical route Crossbow (herbicide) mixed with diesel.

^^^^^
This is the answer you’re looking for, specifically the ingredient Triclopyr. Crossbow is a mixed product with some 2,4-D thrown in for good measure. Get it from any Ag store or order it online from Amazon. Triclopyr will kill it all, including the root system. It is persistent, so it will damage waterways and fish, so be careful that you following the instructions. It is only partially water soluble, so you need an oil as a carrier. People will often use Diesel, or even better, Kerosene, in the solution to emulsify the brush killer. With kerosene, it will work even after it rains.

Crossbow also makes an excellent basal bark or cut stump treatment to kill trees. It will not harm most grasses if applied according to instructions.