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Yes, I would like to keep a patch of these weeds in my yard for free berries every year. My goal is to try to contain to one area and diligently kill any that grows outside of the area.

Do you have any general advice as to how to manage and contain the plant to one area? Could gardening fabric outside of the area help prevent it from spreading?

aaardvark wrote: ↑

Sun May 24, 2020 12:46 pm

Yes, I would like to keep a patch of these weeds in my yard for free berries every year. My goal is to try to contain to one area and diligently kill any that grows outside of the area.

Do you have any general advice as to how to manage and contain the plant to one area? Could gardening fabric outside of the area help prevent it from spreading?

When we lived at the other house in town I contained my 6 ft x 25 ft blackberry patch very easy with the lawn mower. Rhizome roots came up ever year in a 3 ft circle of the blackberry patch. The blackberry patch was constantly trying to spread it was no problem to mow new canes down they are soft as grass.

First year canes grow no berries, second year canes grow berries, third year canes die. 3 years of dead canes became a problem so I let the patch migrate to the north to create a new second blackberry patch 6 ft from the original blackberry patch. After the second blackberry patch produced its first crop of blackberries I burned the first blackberry patch. I sprayed water on the second patch while the first patch burned up.

With 3 years of dead canes in the first blackberry patch it produced a very large amazing fire with flames 60 ft high but it only burned about 2 minutes and it was gone. The first blackberry patch was totally gone in 2 minutes. No damage to the second blackberry patch. I called city fire department and got a free burn permit to burn dead blackberry canes.

I learned to let my blackberry patch migrate, north, south, north, south every 5 yrs and burned up the old patch full of 3 years of dead canes. I never let the patch get wider than 6 ft because I could only reach 3 ft from each side to pick berries. Blackberry patch was almost no work at all. I picked 6 gallons of berries every year.

That's great information about the life cycle of the plant. I'll plan on letting it move directions every few years.

when I tried to transplant wild blackberries one year, I left aound 3-4 foot of cane attached to the root. about 1 of 50 plants survived. I think you have to cut the canes completley off and only plant the roots. this way the plant can focus on putting its energy into new growth and not the old growth.

mixednuts wrote: ↑

Sat Aug 12, 2023 4:19 am

when I tried to transplant wild blackberries one year, I left aound 3-4 foot of cane attached to the root. about 1 of 50 plants survived. I think you have to cut the canes completley off and only plant the roots. this way the plant can focus on putting its energy into new growth and not the old growth.

Every spring Rhizome roots produce a lot of small plants that come up in my yard. I look every day for new plants the best size to dig up. New plants 2" to 6" tall are best. Dig up a shovel size root ball to move to a new location. If the shovel of soil falls apart the plants often do not live. Blackberry plants are extremely hardy except for transplants. Transplants need to be 3 ft apart in rows 25 ft long to get a quick blackberry patch. It takes 3 years to have a good patch of berries. Some people say, 3 years is too long to wait. If you don't plant it you won't have it. When we lived at the other house I let runners create a new 25 ft long berry patch every 5 years then I burned the old patch.