Remove blackberries & Destroy: Our tips

Blackberries are delicious, but they can quickly take over and become a nuisance in the garden. Here's everything you need to know about removing blackberries.

The prickly blackberry (Rubus fruticosus) is an eye-catcher and provides delicious fruit supplies every year. Despite the good sides, the blackberry often shows its annoying facade if its lush growth is not steered in the right direction. Since some blackberry varieties also spread via underground runners, controlling growth is sometimes not that easy. We'll tell you how you can effectively combat rampant blackberries and question whether pesticides really help.

Remove blackberries effectively and combat them permanently

Everyone has probably experienced it before: the summer is not quite as sunny as one would like and the motivation for gardening is at the bottom. The half-hearted approach to garden maintenance takes revenge the next year because many construction sites have been left undone. The bramble immediately punishes its gardener if he has not taken proper care of it. The otherwise so friendly berry grows rampantly beyond its bed, spreads through underground runners and gradually robs your other plants of light and space.

The first measure is often a rigorous pruning of the prickly blackberry shoots. This can be done by hand with rose or hedge trimmers or with a motorized brush cutter. The brush cutter should be equipped with a special hedge knife, as the woody blackberry shoots are too strong to be cut with the conventional plastic cord.

Tip: Don't be too squeamish when separating the shoots. The blackberry recovers quickly and can compensate well for a generous pruning.

Important: Be sure to wear appropriate protective clothing. Thick gloves are recommended anyway to counteract the prickly shoots. If you are working with a brush cutter,Safety goggles, hearing protection, long trousers and steel toe shoes mandatory.

You can find detailed instructions on how to cut blackberries in this article.

Remove Blackberry: Dig Up Foothills

To reap long-term rewards for your efforts, especially when dealing with creeping blackberry overgrowths, you should also remove most of the underground runners. You can sometimes pull these out of the ground together with the above-ground shoots. If the shoots tear or residues remain, it is advisable to dig them up. This is the best way to prevent blackberry regrowth. To keep invasive blackberry runners from your neighbor or wild blackberries out of your garden, consider installing a root barrier along your fence.

Warning: Do not throw the dug up blackberry runners on the compost. There, under certain circumstances, they could sprout again and the blackberry plague starts all over again.

Our tip: Dispose of the runners in the compost bin, put them through the garden shredder or burn them if it is permitted in your municipality some days of the year.

Fighting blackberries with vinegar?

Vinegar is a tried and tested home remedy for weed control. Everyone has it at home and it's ready to use in no time. However, the use of vinegar is questionable if it is used improperly or too frequently.

Its acidic properties make vinegar a weed killer. Applied to the superficial green of the unwanted plants in sunny weather, the natural home remedy ensures that the leaves and shoots wither. This works particularly well with fleshy, unwoody parts of the plant. This is also the reason why fighting blackberry with vinegar is less recommended. The acid, which causes the unwanted plants to be burned, also has an impact on the surrounding garden plants and soil life. Since relatively high dosages of vinegar have to be chosen for the blackberry in order to achieve recognizable effects, it is inevitable that a large part will seep into the soil and acidify it. Regular liming can counteract soil acidification, but this is not a permanent solution either.

Our tip: Limit the use of vinegar in the garden to a minimum to protect soil life and your pets. Especially with blackberries, spraying or dousing with vinegar is crowned with little success. Never use the acidic essence on sealed surfaces. The vinegar is classified as a natural herbicide, which is why application to sealed surfaces is strictly prohibited.

Fighting blackberries with pesticides?

Fighting blackberries with pesticides is a widely used method, but it is questionable and sometimes not very effective. Pesticides with the active ingredient “glyphosate” are mostly used. These preparations are systemic, non-selective herbicides, i.e. plant protection products that are absorbed via the photosynthetic organs of the plant (leaves, sometimes also stems) and then kill the entire plant.

Since the blackberry has mostly woody shoots and only a few green parts of the plant along their prickly tendrils, the use of glyphosate is not very effective. The green parts of the plant are the only target for the active substance. It would therefore usually be necessary to use higher doses of the plant protection product than are permitted in order to obtain an acceptable result. This is of course forbidden by law.

Our tip: Although it is more difficult to remove the tendrils and their subterranean branches by hand, it is better to rely on mechanical control. The results last longer and are definitely more ecologically sustainable.

These products are ideal for trimming your shrubs, hedges and trees:

• Felco Secateurs: Top-of-the-line manual pruning shears, pruning shears, recommended for all types of pruning. In addition to plastic-coated handles, it has a precision adjustment system for the blade and anvil.
• Felco Fruit Tree and Pruning Shears: Heavy duty fruit tree and pruning shears with wire cutter, sap groove and micrometer adjustment.
• Gardena telescopic arm scissors: Practical secateurs for effortlessly cutting tall trees and dense bushes from the ground.

Felco Orchard And Secateurs No 6€31.99Details →March is the harbinger of spring! Here show