Herbicide for brambles.?

[Caroline]

We have cleared an area of bramble with the brush cutters ,only to find they are shooting back as fast as we clear. The bramble was about five foot or so ,up tree trunks and branches,so the roots must be very deep.

We want to plant wild flowers around the base of the trees.

Could we use a herbicide? if so which one?

How would this affect the plants and bulbs we wish to plant? ie:bluebell ,primroses etc.

[Exeldama]

Correct me if im wrong but wont the bramble always come back whilst there are suitable conditions>? Was wondering what trees they are and if the leaf cover is enough to supress substantial new growth.

Just a thought but is there a more shaded area that the bluebells and primroses can get an early year start in.

[Binz]

Dont know about herbicides. But for getting the roots out you could try a 'lazy dog' http://www.lazydogtoolco.co.uk/

I've used them for bramble and birch saplings (invading heathland) and they do save your back a lot of ache as you lever the root out instead of pulling it up. If you do get one then note that the bolt holding the 'nose' can come loose so keep the hex key with you.

Anyone else used them?

[jillybean]

My Brambles are surprisingly easy to pull up considering they look like triffids. the leaf litter is 10 inches deep on average,and they dont bother diving down to the clay. and I cut them off, leaving a foot or so to grab hold of. once the rhizome is up, the roots often travel horizontally to the next cluster. I do a small bit nealy every day. I have managed to clear a path over 100 meters long in this way. levering with a fork at right angles to the handle (whats it called?) also does it for me. My mate cleared his land this way years ago, and they havent come back. But i have 10 years clearing ahead of me at this rate, so i wont live long enough to see if it works! Apparently Roundup only kills the plant it is sprayed on, but i havent gone down that road. Yet. Dont forget to burn the roots in case they crawl away and re- plant themselves overnight.

[Caroline]

Thank you... We have nearly seven acres and cannot explore the wood until pathways a cleared!

As I am trying to create a glade for wild flowers I hope I can clear a part so that the plants /bulbs will not be strangled!.

The brambles are about six foot high at the moment.

I had no idea you had to burn the roots, so "Thank you."

[docsquid]

We have had a similar problem with our 11 acre wood - it took the best part of 2 years to get to all parts of the wood! We have in the end invested in a tractor and a Bomford rotary slasher - a sort of industrial strength Flymo for the back of the tractor. We were cutting paths by hand and they were growing almost as fast as we cut them. This way we can clear areas, and by cutting regularly the brambles do finally get the message and get crowded out with wildflowers and grass. It takes time though.

In terms of wildflowers, we have used glyphosphate on the advice of both the Warwickshire Wildife Trust (we are a LWS/SINC) and also the Forestry Commission to kill back grass and other weeds. We scarified the area as advised...and grew a wonderful crop of dock! Now we are killing it off again, scarifying again, and will continue the cycle until the dock gets the message and we can grow wildflowers instead. We were advised that the alternative is ploughing but we don't want to do that because it will damage the tree roots and topsoil. We didn't want to use weedkiller of any kind, but that was the advice we had.

We don't know how effective it is on brambles as we used it in a clearing area not affected by bramble.

[tracy]

We found in our newly coppiced area that not much grew the first year, then in the second year loads grew - and most grew in the areas where the tractor had been and churned up some soil. I guess it was ploughed!

I am delighted to have some grass and we seem to have plenty of wild flowers in the middle of it. Brambles are beginning to come up a lot more - but I guess as we are there first we are hoping to keep them in control.

[Dexter's Shed]

our wood has bramble everywhere, and although we aim to leave areas for it to take over, pathways are still needed, we have cleared an area for camping,woodworking, and as above, this needs regular attention with the strimmer/brush cutters, but even in the short space of time (7 months) we do have grasses and bluebells making an appearance, where once it was just brambles

[Treeation]

Maybe pigs?? Will do a great job of clearing up unwanted vegetation as well scarifying soil enabling wild flower seed easier to take and grow. Sounds like fun to me and you don't have use chemicals or break your back pulling out brambles!!

Patrick

Treeation Tree Surgery & Woodland Management
www.treeation.co.uk

[Rankinswood]

I note that the Oxfordshire Woodland Group are currently monitoring bramble growth in a control plot that can be seen on their web forum at :-

Bramble Control Plot

In my opinion there is no doubt that bramble growth is affected by a combination of light hitting the affected area and also the browsing pressure being applied to same by deer. Its worth keeping in mind that bramble retains its leaves in winter and so provides some food for deer. If this is not available to them then they are bound to turn their attention elsewhere.

Rankinswood