"culprit" wrote in message ...
"Janice" wrote in message
...

You cannot kill the non-native blackberries in the "native growth"
area? Is the "native growth" area yours or a community "park"

correct. the problem is that along with the invasive blackberries, there
are native "cascade" blackberries, salmon berries, and t(h)imble berries,
all of which *are* native. and you can't kill one without the other,
because they grow completely intertwined with eachother. the area is not a
park, it's a "protected wetland" because when the homes were built in my
area, this area was where all the rain water was directed to. with the
boggy conditions came some cool native wetland flora, birds, and other
animals, so it's now "protected". it's really a mess.


If you can tell the foliage of one species versus the other (and I
really would not know the difference between himalaya and cascade, but
I do think you should be able to tell the thimbleberries at least), an
efficient method to kill only the canes you don't want is to go around
with a small paint brush and a bottle of roundup. Touching one or two
leaves with the paintbrush, dipped in straight roundup, is usually
enough to kill the cane. I do this mostly with poison ivy,
and after several years my 4 oz bottle of Roundup is still more than
half full.

This said, be careful what you wish for. If the blackberries give
plenty of quality berries for four to six weeks, I would be very
motivated to tolerate and even develop them (like, make paths in there
that could allow you to harvest more). After all you are planting
fruit trees, right? And those could go wrong for any reason.