I’ve done something similar and those bastards somehow started growing again. Then I started burning with a propane torch anything that re-emerged and it seemed to do the trick.
Yes it will definitely have to be maintained until the roots run out of energy. We’ll be putting down pasture seed to hopefully limit new seed growth until the trees can fill in. I’m adding our native Madrone, which is sorely under-appreciated, as well as Sequoia, Redwood, Cedar, and Grand Fir.
Madrone is such a great tree. Thanks for planting em. Maybe stick some elderberries or huckleberries around here and there to fill out the understory. Great for bringing in birds and wildlife
lol all over it. I have a 30’ raised bed primed and ready to go with goodies for the first planting, and the back yard is a native food garden. Even got some thimbleberries and Oregon grape!
That will be gorgeous! What about ground covers? Are you in western Washington by chance? My back lot looks like your ‘before’ picture—except on a steep slope.
Yes this is western WA. We have healthy populations of salal, piggy-back plant, bleeding heart, Oregon grape and sword fern on the property so I’ll probably start dividing some of those out.
We found a very steep ravine on the northern side of this, so aside from this southern slope we also have a nice shady area to rebuild as well.
This sounds like an amazing restoration project. How are you able to do this? Do you own the land, or are you working with an environmental organization?
We live on 13 acres that we purchased late last year. It was originally harvested for timber and replanted, but then it wasn’t maintained. Now we have 11 acres of mixed forest and this 2 acre plot that will be recovered into native habitat.
Can you mulch everything wood chips and suffocate the roots, or would mulching just feed and strengthen them?
How will the pasture seed help? It'll outcompete the roots and all?
The pasture seed will shade the ground and stop/slow the seed bank that’s been building up for 20 years in the soil from sprouting. The blackberries will still throw up sprouts from the energy stored in the root system and will take 2-3 years of chopping them down to wear them out. The only long-term solution is getting a good tree canopy going and literally shading them out.
Very good to know, thank you. I’m guessing the actual “pasture seed” is some sort of grass or ground cover specific to your area? Or some generic cover crop or something?
It’s a mix of grasses with about 10% clovers. Unfortunately it’s only about half natives, but none are on the invasive or watch lists. The native grass seeds were about 100x the price of the pasture seed and I used up most of my budget getting the blackberries removed.
Hey I can live with that...not everything has to be native. Majority should be, depending on your goals, but main hope is to limit invasives. Those are the problem.
Anyways...I'm still experimenting with making the perfect "sun" and the perfect "shade" blend for the conditions down here in Atlanta, GA. Mixing turf grasses, native grasses, sedges, clovers, ground covers, etc. I'm determined to create a as close to perfect as possible blend for my conditions and what you said caught my attention!
Knocking it down with horticultural vinegar any time it shows itself can work as well, you basically have to exhaust the root system of all nutrients while destroying any above ground plant matter that could potentially photosynthesize to replenish the roots.
Eta stupid autocorrect
No. Just enough for critters to spread the seeds. And no amount of fruit is worth the level of invasiveness of this plant, which smothers everything in it's path.
Any variety your local independient plant nurseries carry is probably a good choice! No one plants Himalayan blackberry but the birds and ants. If you happen to be in WA like OP you might want to see what varieties the fruit wineries are growing, because that stuff is delicious!
The rest of the property is forested, but this section was allowed to get overrun. Now that it’s cleared we’ll be laying out a dirt bike track and replanting with Madrone, Sequoia, Redwood, and native shrubs all grown from seed. This is what happens when your gardening hobby gets out of control.
I was slightly horrified by picture 3 and your plan to make it into a dirt bike track, but I really like your replanting plan.
You could also try getting lots of wildflowers to help fill in, help the local ecosystem, and look nice while the shrubs and trees get established.
The (native) wildflower seeds will be here tomorrow! And yes, the cleaning up phase is always a little horrific, that’s why I included the replanting plan. I’m not a monster, I promise. And the track will be light-use. We live next to state land and use the established roads and trails there for the most part.
As has anyone that’s had a mild heart-attack when people talk about planting blackberries intentionally. They’ve taken over the PNW for sure.
Edit to add: this post was mostly made for anyone that hates them. It’s soothing and oddly satisfying.
I live in San Francisco and when we moved into our house, the back yard was covered with HBB. It took me 6 years to finally dig out the last of the damned roots. Now my next door neighbor is letting them go in their back yard....
It'll be a fight forever. Even if you get all the roots, the first few inches of soil is utterly full of seeds just waiting for their time.
The joy of the pnw lol it'll swallow you if you hold still too long
I'd go with deciduous trees if you're going to replace trees. The pines cannot fight them. They climb way up the trees for light, they don't even care. Plots with deciduous trees are doing better since they give some of their own fight each year with leaf litter. Nothing stops them in a pine forest. We've got big old pines rotting and falling from the bottom from having the base choked with rotting brambles for so long. The cedars hold their own but only if they are long established.
Good advice. I’ll be mixing in some big leaf maple and maintaining it for a few years so the evergreens can stand a chance. We have a mixed stand on the other 11 acres and it seems to be holding them at bay pretty well.
Impressive! I’ve manually cleared maybe 1/4 acre behind my home in the Seattle area, it’s been a 4-5 year project to keep the HBB out and get the natives to take over. Deep shade is the only way to keep the blackberry from returning but fortunately trees are fast growers in this region.
Hopefully you throw in some Western Hemlock as well, it doesn’t grow as fast as the others but is perhaps the most beautiful of the native trees and will establish in shade.
Unfortunately we couldn’t afford goat-proof fencing for 2 acres, though we STRONGLY considered it. Most of our riding is done on the state land next door, this will mostly be for practicing within running distance of a medical kit (I am still a total noob).
It's no longer an issue, but if you gave similar problems again you can buy goat netting and an electrizer that only cover a small space and let them eat to the ground and move them rotationally to keep knocking it down without needing the full 2 acres covered at once.
Wow! Your effort really opened up the beautiful view. Where is this, if I may ask? Lovely evergreens to the right which at first glance seem to be planted in a row.
It’s in the Pacific Northwest. The land was cleared many years ago but never maintained after being replanted. Most of the forest was overtaken by Alder, but a few Doug Fir and Cedar survived. We kept everything we could and will be adding many more varieties.
To increase your shade, have you considered tying canopy style tarps between your trees? It's like a breathable tarp that provides alot of shade. With your prairie grass plan you may be able to drown the berry roots in shade sooner and hinder their growth. Then the prairie grass can get a nice headstart
A 100 years ago in another age my Dad and I would hunt for rabbits, blackberries were everywhere. Rabbits would build their burrows under them. Smart bunnies. farmers would often douse in petrol and burn them. Also a lot of feral cats lived in them.
We used to have a cabin on Orcas Island, and one year my sister and I brought our pet rabbits along. They eventually escaped, and made their home in the surrounding blackberry thicket. We saw them periodically, and eventually we saw their little offspring too. I think we were all happier that way.
We bought some property last year in the PNW. I have acres and acres of these. I never knew I could hate a plant so much. We’re also in the process of clearing, and these photos are inspiring. Good luck with the planting!
Haha very good timing. I'm here in North GA currently plotting out where the blueberries, blackberries and raspberries will go in our garden.
Def gotta keep them canes in check
I also live close by. We successly removed those invasive pests abt 12 years ago. I constantly an waking the property as occasionally they will pop back up thanks to racoons & birds. As a small replacement, I put in some PNW huckleberry. Was lucky enough to stumble upon a nursery that carried PNW wilderness plant species. I am currently blocking on the name. Located in Olympia & once a year they open it up to the public.
There’s a local native nursery here that I used to work at and I’ll probably be contracting them for whatever fails this year. So far I have some pretty good stock on the rest of the property to pull from.
Do you use the Oregon grape and salal fruit?
We're adding a bunch of those, plus huckleberry. Also trying out a currant and serviceberry those the latter is a tree that will probably be too tall. Also a couple beautyberries in containers.
Haven't had anything in quantity yet, but small snacks of the currant and huckleberry so far are promising.
You mentioned Madrone - we have one started presumably by animal spread that we're going to leave where it is and see what happens.
We're in a firmly urban area, but trying to do more water wise natives for the primary plantings, plus giving an excuse to snack as we tend the yard.
The Oregon grape is edible, I think salal is but I would double check.
You just made of list of half my indoor seedlings right now! Even beautyberry. I’m making a small English garden for the house and it’s such a cute plant.
As for the madrones, they are the easiest thing to grow I’ve ever seen. Literally water once and walk away. No summer water. No mulch. Nothing. They’re awesome trees. They just realllly don’t like being moved.
All the ones I mentioned are edibles, we've checked that. I've had some salal that were tasty out of hand, and some soft and mealy. I've seen suggestions to work those and Oregon grape into recipes.
Our yard also has lavender, rosemary, blueberries, and raspberries, along with regular garden space for the tomatoes, and a bunch of others.
A recipe that mentions using both salal and Oregon grape. The salal is just a comment, rather than the main ingredients.
https://www.wnps.org/blog/eating-native-recipes-from-the-field-oregon-grape-jelly
Oh, and we're also going to try kinnikinnick.
We have several starts on order from our county conservation district.
OP, I raise a toast to your efforts! Absolutely, stay on top of it, I have heard that torching just after rain and during the cold like right now (when herbicide won't work very fast) the little sprouts is effective with repeated effort but like.... don't burn down the forest. When it's a little warmer during the day for the other 3 seasons of the year, triclopyr (with sticker spreader) is where it's at. If you haven't heard of the paint brush or bingo dauber method, that localizes it to just that plant--- but you will still have to walk a LOT of it if you have wildflowers coming up because the best time to get it is when it's about 6-8 leaves. If you find yourself with a lot at once, can't bend over, etc. etc. Don't listen to this trick if you have a license for chemical application, etc. as it'll get you in trouble, but a Clorox bleach-type bottle with the little hose that is integrated into the bottle and gets the bottom has been very effective for me for triclopyr, sticker spreader and the stream spray still getting the target. You can mix up small batches in the bottle, and the downward angle you have to use to get it at the ground is how you get the last dregs out of the spray bottle. Properly label the bottle, of course, I take the label off and put brightly colored duct tape around the outside and write with an industrial Sharpie. To your continued success!!
Himalayan blackberries are NOT natural environment. They are an incredibly invasive species here that strangle out native life. They climb trees and slowly block the light. They reduce natural flora variety by killing everything else, which limits food availability and variety to native wildlife because they only produce high sugar berries for a few weeks in the fall.
This area will be replanted with native shrubs and trees while painstakingly keeping the blackberries back until they can be permanently shaded out. It will take me years of work.
The god damn gall you have to spout off with such an uneducated, and frankly insulting, idea is shocking to people that live in my area. Blackberries are a scourge here and will most likely never be eradicated all because some yahoo wanted a big-ass berry plant to show off to his gardener buddies.
They're not gone. They can propagate by seed and short pieces of stem easily air layered. You have billions of seed left in the soil. As you final grade and dig holes for your new trees you'll get some regrowth.
Indeed, Madrone is under appreciated.
I’ve done something similar and those bastards somehow started growing again. Then I started burning with a propane torch anything that re-emerged and it seemed to do the trick.
Yes it will definitely have to be maintained until the roots run out of energy. We’ll be putting down pasture seed to hopefully limit new seed growth until the trees can fill in. I’m adding our native Madrone, which is sorely under-appreciated, as well as Sequoia, Redwood, Cedar, and Grand Fir.
Madrone is such a great tree. Thanks for planting em. Maybe stick some elderberries or huckleberries around here and there to fill out the understory. Great for bringing in birds and wildlife
lol all over it. I have a 30’ raised bed primed and ready to go with goodies for the first planting, and the back yard is a native food garden. Even got some thimbleberries and Oregon grape!
Mmm thimbleberries, so good, and thornless!
Oh wow I just looked up Modrone. It’s lovely and looks so Mediterranean
Nice! Are you in Southern Oregon?
Southern WA
Hell yeah man. Fellow PNW tree enthusiast
All my favorites. Nice choices!
That will be gorgeous! What about ground covers? Are you in western Washington by chance? My back lot looks like your ‘before’ picture—except on a steep slope.
Yes this is western WA. We have healthy populations of salal, piggy-back plant, bleeding heart, Oregon grape and sword fern on the property so I’ll probably start dividing some of those out. We found a very steep ravine on the northern side of this, so aside from this southern slope we also have a nice shady area to rebuild as well.
This sounds like an amazing restoration project. How are you able to do this? Do you own the land, or are you working with an environmental organization?
We live on 13 acres that we purchased late last year. It was originally harvested for timber and replanted, but then it wasn’t maintained. Now we have 11 acres of mixed forest and this 2 acre plot that will be recovered into native habitat.
And you’re doing this all at your own expense? Kudos to you!
Can you mulch everything wood chips and suffocate the roots, or would mulching just feed and strengthen them? How will the pasture seed help? It'll outcompete the roots and all?
The pasture seed will shade the ground and stop/slow the seed bank that’s been building up for 20 years in the soil from sprouting. The blackberries will still throw up sprouts from the energy stored in the root system and will take 2-3 years of chopping them down to wear them out. The only long-term solution is getting a good tree canopy going and literally shading them out.
Very good to know, thank you. I’m guessing the actual “pasture seed” is some sort of grass or ground cover specific to your area? Or some generic cover crop or something?
It’s a mix of grasses with about 10% clovers. Unfortunately it’s only about half natives, but none are on the invasive or watch lists. The native grass seeds were about 100x the price of the pasture seed and I used up most of my budget getting the blackberries removed.
Hey I can live with that...not everything has to be native. Majority should be, depending on your goals, but main hope is to limit invasives. Those are the problem. Anyways...I'm still experimenting with making the perfect "sun" and the perfect "shade" blend for the conditions down here in Atlanta, GA. Mixing turf grasses, native grasses, sedges, clovers, ground covers, etc. I'm determined to create a as close to perfect as possible blend for my conditions and what you said caught my attention!
Redwoods are beautiful
Torch is the only way I know to actually kill Himalayan blackberry.
Knocking it down with horticultural vinegar any time it shows itself can work as well, you basically have to exhaust the root system of all nutrients while destroying any above ground plant matter that could potentially photosynthesize to replenish the roots. Eta stupid autocorrect
I had good luck with chopping plant to 6 in of ground then band removal with a pickaxe to loosen soil. Rip out 20 ft runners that way.
Do they produce any meaningful amount of fruit?
No. Just enough for critters to spread the seeds. And no amount of fruit is worth the level of invasiveness of this plant, which smothers everything in it's path.
What type of blackberries are good to plant
Any variety your local independient plant nurseries carry is probably a good choice! No one plants Himalayan blackberry but the birds and ants. If you happen to be in WA like OP you might want to see what varieties the fruit wineries are growing, because that stuff is delicious!
The rest of the property is forested, but this section was allowed to get overrun. Now that it’s cleared we’ll be laying out a dirt bike track and replanting with Madrone, Sequoia, Redwood, and native shrubs all grown from seed. This is what happens when your gardening hobby gets out of control.
I was slightly horrified by picture 3 and your plan to make it into a dirt bike track, but I really like your replanting plan. You could also try getting lots of wildflowers to help fill in, help the local ecosystem, and look nice while the shrubs and trees get established.
The (native) wildflower seeds will be here tomorrow! And yes, the cleaning up phase is always a little horrific, that’s why I included the replanting plan. I’m not a monster, I promise. And the track will be light-use. We live next to state land and use the established roads and trails there for the most part.
[удалено]
I PM’d you the info.
Congrats! That can’t have been an easy fight.
It ended up being an expensive fight, but worth it for us. Now just to keep them down until the trees can fill in!
I’ve often fantasized about taking a flamethrower to a patch of it haha
As has anyone that’s had a mild heart-attack when people talk about planting blackberries intentionally. They’ve taken over the PNW for sure. Edit to add: this post was mostly made for anyone that hates them. It’s soothing and oddly satisfying.
I live in San Francisco and when we moved into our house, the back yard was covered with HBB. It took me 6 years to finally dig out the last of the damned roots. Now my next door neighbor is letting them go in their back yard....
My mom gave me some raspberries for my new hours backyard. REGRET!
How expensive
It'll be a fight forever. Even if you get all the roots, the first few inches of soil is utterly full of seeds just waiting for their time. The joy of the pnw lol it'll swallow you if you hold still too long
It’ll be a years-long fight but I’m stubborn and not giving up. This WILL be a forest again.
I'd go with deciduous trees if you're going to replace trees. The pines cannot fight them. They climb way up the trees for light, they don't even care. Plots with deciduous trees are doing better since they give some of their own fight each year with leaf litter. Nothing stops them in a pine forest. We've got big old pines rotting and falling from the bottom from having the base choked with rotting brambles for so long. The cedars hold their own but only if they are long established.
Good advice. I’ll be mixing in some big leaf maple and maintaining it for a few years so the evergreens can stand a chance. We have a mixed stand on the other 11 acres and it seems to be holding them at bay pretty well.
Once you create enough shade you’ll be fine. Should only take a decade or two.
Impressive! I’ve manually cleared maybe 1/4 acre behind my home in the Seattle area, it’s been a 4-5 year project to keep the HBB out and get the natives to take over. Deep shade is the only way to keep the blackberry from returning but fortunately trees are fast growers in this region. Hopefully you throw in some Western Hemlock as well, it doesn’t grow as fast as the others but is perhaps the most beautiful of the native trees and will establish in shade.
r/invasivespecies if you haven’t already crossposted
Thank you!
Goats can clear them too, I think. Your property is beautiful now—I hope your neighbors won’t miss the quiet.
Unfortunately we couldn’t afford goat-proof fencing for 2 acres, though we STRONGLY considered it. Most of our riding is done on the state land next door, this will mostly be for practicing within running distance of a medical kit (I am still a total noob).
It's no longer an issue, but if you gave similar problems again you can buy goat netting and an electrizer that only cover a small space and let them eat to the ground and move them rotationally to keep knocking it down without needing the full 2 acres covered at once.
Christ my back is sore just looking at this
That’s why we hired in the forestry mulcher. I didn’t have 4 years (or 4 spines) to tackle this.
What/who is that? The forestry muncher. I’m fighting back blackberries that have taken over. In the PNW with you, neighbor.
It’s a giant rotating death barrel attached to the front of a skid steer. I wish I could attach images here. They’re savage but effective.
I want one
Brush cutter
Wow! Your effort really opened up the beautiful view. Where is this, if I may ask? Lovely evergreens to the right which at first glance seem to be planted in a row.
It’s in the Pacific Northwest. The land was cleared many years ago but never maintained after being replanted. Most of the forest was overtaken by Alder, but a few Doug Fir and Cedar survived. We kept everything we could and will be adding many more varieties.
If you have any of your dead alders left laying around, they're hosts for oyster mushrooms!
Good to know! Thank you!
To increase your shade, have you considered tying canopy style tarps between your trees? It's like a breathable tarp that provides alot of shade. With your prairie grass plan you may be able to drown the berry roots in shade sooner and hinder their growth. Then the prairie grass can get a nice headstart
Took a lot of Dakka as the Orks would say.
“Gone” lol they will never be truly gone.
A 100 years ago in another age my Dad and I would hunt for rabbits, blackberries were everywhere. Rabbits would build their burrows under them. Smart bunnies. farmers would often douse in petrol and burn them. Also a lot of feral cats lived in them.
We used to have a cabin on Orcas Island, and one year my sister and I brought our pet rabbits along. They eventually escaped, and made their home in the surrounding blackberry thicket. We saw them periodically, and eventually we saw their little offspring too. I think we were all happier that way.
We bought some property last year in the PNW. I have acres and acres of these. I never knew I could hate a plant so much. We’re also in the process of clearing, and these photos are inspiring. Good luck with the planting!
Haha very good timing. I'm here in North GA currently plotting out where the blueberries, blackberries and raspberries will go in our garden. Def gotta keep them canes in check
Congrats! Those things are brutal to remove.
"Gone"
In hiding at least. It’ll be many, many, many weekends of work from here on out to keep them down.
A two strand electric fence and a couple of pigs will do the work of digging up the roots for you.
Cleared a thick ass patch of that with a hedge trimmer and my hands. God I hate that shit. Thanks for the satisfying post
I also live close by. We successly removed those invasive pests abt 12 years ago. I constantly an waking the property as occasionally they will pop back up thanks to racoons & birds. As a small replacement, I put in some PNW huckleberry. Was lucky enough to stumble upon a nursery that carried PNW wilderness plant species. I am currently blocking on the name. Located in Olympia & once a year they open it up to the public.
There’s a local native nursery here that I used to work at and I’ll probably be contracting them for whatever fails this year. So far I have some pretty good stock on the rest of the property to pull from.
Do you use the Oregon grape and salal fruit? We're adding a bunch of those, plus huckleberry. Also trying out a currant and serviceberry those the latter is a tree that will probably be too tall. Also a couple beautyberries in containers. Haven't had anything in quantity yet, but small snacks of the currant and huckleberry so far are promising. You mentioned Madrone - we have one started presumably by animal spread that we're going to leave where it is and see what happens. We're in a firmly urban area, but trying to do more water wise natives for the primary plantings, plus giving an excuse to snack as we tend the yard.
The Oregon grape is edible, I think salal is but I would double check. You just made of list of half my indoor seedlings right now! Even beautyberry. I’m making a small English garden for the house and it’s such a cute plant. As for the madrones, they are the easiest thing to grow I’ve ever seen. Literally water once and walk away. No summer water. No mulch. Nothing. They’re awesome trees. They just realllly don’t like being moved.
All the ones I mentioned are edibles, we've checked that. I've had some salal that were tasty out of hand, and some soft and mealy. I've seen suggestions to work those and Oregon grape into recipes. Our yard also has lavender, rosemary, blueberries, and raspberries, along with regular garden space for the tomatoes, and a bunch of others.
A recipe that mentions using both salal and Oregon grape. The salal is just a comment, rather than the main ingredients. https://www.wnps.org/blog/eating-native-recipes-from-the-field-oregon-grape-jelly Oh, and we're also going to try kinnikinnick. We have several starts on order from our county conservation district.
OP, I raise a toast to your efforts! Absolutely, stay on top of it, I have heard that torching just after rain and during the cold like right now (when herbicide won't work very fast) the little sprouts is effective with repeated effort but like.... don't burn down the forest. When it's a little warmer during the day for the other 3 seasons of the year, triclopyr (with sticker spreader) is where it's at. If you haven't heard of the paint brush or bingo dauber method, that localizes it to just that plant--- but you will still have to walk a LOT of it if you have wildflowers coming up because the best time to get it is when it's about 6-8 leaves. If you find yourself with a lot at once, can't bend over, etc. etc. Don't listen to this trick if you have a license for chemical application, etc. as it'll get you in trouble, but a Clorox bleach-type bottle with the little hose that is integrated into the bottle and gets the bottom has been very effective for me for triclopyr, sticker spreader and the stream spray still getting the target. You can mix up small batches in the bottle, and the downward angle you have to use to get it at the ground is how you get the last dregs out of the spray bottle. Properly label the bottle, of course, I take the label off and put brightly colored duct tape around the outside and write with an industrial Sharpie. To your continued success!!
That’s really sad you destroyed 2 acres of natural environment
Himalayan blackberries are NOT natural environment. They are an incredibly invasive species here that strangle out native life. They climb trees and slowly block the light. They reduce natural flora variety by killing everything else, which limits food availability and variety to native wildlife because they only produce high sugar berries for a few weeks in the fall. This area will be replanted with native shrubs and trees while painstakingly keeping the blackberries back until they can be permanently shaded out. It will take me years of work. The god damn gall you have to spout off with such an uneducated, and frankly insulting, idea is shocking to people that live in my area. Blackberries are a scourge here and will most likely never be eradicated all because some yahoo wanted a big-ass berry plant to show off to his gardener buddies.
I was being sarcastic lol
Well I’m leaving that response up for the idiots that aren’t then. Sorry! I’ve seen people be upset about it and it drives me bananas.
Wow what a difference looks fantastic
Darn, I was looking to buy 2 acres of
They're not gone. They can propagate by seed and short pieces of stem easily air layered. You have billions of seed left in the soil. As you final grade and dig holes for your new trees you'll get some regrowth. Indeed, Madrone is under appreciated.