Blackberry bush - brushwood killer.

shashaela

Looking for advice from any gardeners on board!
The House at the back of us has a large long garden with an overgrown blackberry bush, which has taken over our wall and dropped right over.
We cut it back last year and it took a lot of blood sweat and tears doing it. I don't fancy having to do it again this year. Question is, if i spray something like Vitex SBK brushwood killer on the branches on my side, will it just kill of those branches or the entire plant ? Obviously I don't want to kill their plant, just looking for an easier way of getting rid of the monstrosity on my side of the wall!

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

All brushwood killers work by working from the leaves down to the roots. Spraying the leaves kills the entire plant.

Harry Palmr

Are you getting any free blackberries off this plant/s?

shashaela

Thanks for that Srameen, I'll steer clear from it so, haven't a clue about any of this kind of stuff, but I knew someone here would. Looks like I'll have to attack it with my shears and Loppers again so!!

Harry Palmer the only thing I'm getting of this bush is scratches from the thorns and the odd headache!! :-)

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

shashaela wrote: »

Thanks for that Srameen, I'll steer clear from it so, haven't a clue about any of this kind of stuff, but I knew someone here would. Looks like I'll have to attack it with my shears and Loppers again so!!

Harry Palmer the only thing I'm getting of this bush is scratches from the thorns and the odd headache!! :-)

Is it a cultivated blackberry or just a wild brier?

shashaela

I don't think its wild.

recedite

shashaela wrote: »

I don't think its wild.

It probably is wild. The usual cultivated one is thornless (Himalayan).
Have you discussed it with the neighbour? They may not have noticed its existence, or care what happens to it.

recedite

Roundup. Kill it. Roundup...
Go on, you know you want to.

peasant

+



in winter time to hack it all off

new green shoots can then easily be cut back with secateurs in passing whenever they show up

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

peasant wrote: »

+



in winter time to hack it all off

new green shoots can then easily be cut back with secateurs in passing whenever they show up

Really no use if the base is in the neighbour's



Sounds like a wild brier to me. Talk to the neighbour.

shashaela

The house is at the back of me. We are not part of the same estate, so the row of houses where I am don't exactly run back to back with the houses behind us, even though we are parallel to one another, so it will be hard to pin point which house it is.
Many of those houses at the back have trees , bushes etc at the perimeter wall as a precautionary as their houses were built long before our row of houses, so at the back of them would've been an open field at the side of a busy main road and street.
Im guessing the bush on their side is deep , so maybe theyve maintained as much as they could access on their side , but we won't know or see it until we cut our side.

Hocus Focus

shashaela wrote: »

The house is at the back of me. We are not part of the same estate, so the row of houses where I am don't exactly run back to back with the houses behind us, even though we are parallel to one another, so it will be hard to pin point which house it is.
Many of those houses at the back have trees , bushes etc at the perimeter wall as a precautionary as their houses were built long before our row of houses, so at the back of them would've been an open field at the side of a busy main road and street.
Im guessing the bush on their side is deep , so maybe theyve maintained as much as they could access on their side , but we won't know or see it until we cut our side.

You can work out which house it is by using Google Maps. Put in your own address and you will see your house and the house behind. If you think you have it right, go around to their front gate and put in your address again and the blue disc will show your location.

phormium

Has it got thorns? If it has then it's highly unlikely anyone planted it and it's just growing wildly along the hedges and trees at the back. You don't plant a blackberry bush the same way you plant a blackcurrant bush for example. Cultivated blackberries usually don't have thorns, that's the advantage of them!

Blackberries don't grow into bushes that you keep in a neat shape, they grow big long stems and they go everywhere, if you had a cultivated one (I have two in the garden) then you could prune each year to keep in control but wild ones do what they like! I have some coming through a 10 ft high hedge of trees from next door, they arch over that hedge height and hang down into my side, my neighbour didn't plant those and probably has as much a problem with them as I have, they are probably coming into his from elsewhere too.

Graces7

phormium wrote: »

Has it got thorns? If it has then it's highly unlikely anyone planted it and it's just growing wildly along the hedges and trees at the back. You don't plant a blackberry bush the same way you plant a blackcurrant bush for example. Cultivated blackberries usually don't have thorns, that's the advantage of them!

Blackberries don't grow into bushes that you keep in a neat shape, they grow big long stems and they go everywhere, if you had a cultivated one (I have two in the garden) then you could prune each year to keep in control but wild ones do what they like! I have some coming through a 10 ft high hedge of trees from next door, they arch over that hedge height and hang down into my side, my neighbour didn't plant those and probably has as much a problem with them as I have, they are probably coming into his from elsewhere too.

The erstwhile garden area and field here, long neglected, were overrun with tangles of brambles. I cut them down to ground level, or just under the soil, and grew around them and t my surprise there has been almost no growback 18 months later. Maybe I cut deep enough to inhibit regrowth? Those in the old field are rampant and I am still eating blackberry jam from last year.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

For certain if it is thorny then it's a wild bramble and I'd have no compunction about applying brushwood killer to it. Nobody's cherishing it for a autumn crop of blackberries, they run rampant and the ditches are full of them. It'll take over and grow through everything. Treat it with the brushwood killer; the neighbours either won't even notice, be glad it's gone, or be clueless as to what happened to it.

shashaela

Thank you all for the advice. Its certainly food for thought. I'm glad I asked it here.