So, today I was corresponding with one of the people I bought seeds from this year and who offers a weed killer recipe you can make yourself, that is non-toxic to people and animals, but that kills weeds when you spray it directly on the weed. We wanted to know if it would kill blackberries before we shelled out the money for the recipe, so I sent him an email. He replied that he couldn't imagine wanting to kill blackberries, because he loves them, and actually wants to increase his blackberry patch. Obviously this guy does not live in the Pacific Northwest. Even non-gardeners here are well aware of how this plant spreads and takes over everything. Come August and September we're likely to see lots of people picking buckets of blackberries along trails and roads, in ditches or in empty fields. I don't think any of them wish they had those blackberries in their own yard!
But it did get me thinking, which got me Googling.
An innocent looking Himalayan Blackberry just blooming...Himalayan Blackberries will produce a 15 foot square impenetrable mass of canes 10-15 feet high in a couple of years. They need water in their growing season, which is spring and early summer, and we have plenty of rain then! The first year canes don't produce berries, just lots of growth. The second year canes produce berries, and then die, leaving behind a mass of hard, brittle canes. In addition to propagating by seed - which itself is incredibly long-lived and viable even a couple years after falling - they produce new canes from the roots AND by "daughter plants." The long, long canes (20 to 40 feet) fall in a long arc as they grow. When the end reaches the ground, it takes root and starts growing another cane straight up. Some of them grow up and land back in the briar patch they started in, which causes the impenetrable nature of the patch. Second year plants grow laterally as well as vertically, and each of those long laterals can also produce daughter plants. The old roots can form root balls a foot or two in diameter.
If you'd like to see this life cycle up close, just come over to our place and we'll let you pull some up and chop them to pieces. It is remarkable how just one plant can spread so far. Remarkable and scary, when you consider the hundreds of plants there are in our yard.
On the other hand, blackberries are delicious! They could add a lot of pounds to our food production goal. But they would take over the entire yard, and I want to have some lettuce, peas, carrots, beets, pumpkins, etc., etc. I gather in other places there are other kinds of blackberries, which perhaps behave like civilized raspberries, and which you would want to increase in your yard. That's not the kind we have.
The lesson for me? Don't assume everyone has the same experience I do! I know I can learn things from this guy, who has great patience and determination in saving heirloom seeds, and then generously sells them for a good price. And he can learn things from me as well. Keep on listening and learning! Just be sure to credit your own experience first and foremost.
Here are some links to blackberry information. Lots of stuff I didn't know before - but all showing even more reason to want to kill all the blackberries in our yard!
http://alienspecies.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/eng/species/himalayan-blackberry
http://www.kingcounty.gov/environment/animalsAndPlants/noxious-weeds/weed-identification/blackberry.aspx
http://lakewhatcom.wsu.edu/gardenkit/unwantedpests/Blackberry.htm
A stem tip growing roots. Looks like an alien, right?http://www.nwcb.wa.gov/detail.asp?weed=111
Many more interesting sites, just a Google search away.
Keep on growing!
Great info! Thanks for sharing
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