How to Kill Blackberries With No Pesticide
Many gardeners choose to exterminate their blackberry plants due to limited options for using and storing blackberries. Blackberry plants are also natural attractants for birds and a variety of other insects that host on the blackberries. This leads to decaying, rotting, fermented fruit. Extermination of blackberry plants without the use of pesticide is accomplished by pruning and physical removal. Blackberry plant extermination is a simple process that does not require any specialized gardening skills. Does this Spark an idea?
Things You'll Need
- Spray bottle
- Bonide Orchard Spray (found in home and garden centers and home improvement stores)
- Pruning shears
- Trash bags
- Spade or shovel
- Gardening gloves
Instructions
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1
Pour 8 oz. of Bonide into a clean, empty bottle with sprayer attachment.
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2
Thoroughly saturate your blackberry plant with the Bonide solution.
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3
Leave to dry for 20 minutes. Let the solution successfully exterminate the insects found in your blackberries.
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4
Put on your gardening gloves and begin to prune the blackberry bush with your pruning shears. Work your way from the outside of the bush to the inner core.
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5
Prune the blackberry bush to the ground level, leaving approximately 1 inch of blackberry plant protruding from the ground. Set the blackberry leaves and stems in one pile to the side. This will make it easier for cleanup and removal when you have completed your task.
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6
Prune until you have reached 1 inch above ground level and all of the blackberries have been removed and placed into one large pile.
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7
Using a spade or shovel, dig up and locate the roots that are connected to the 1 inch of elderberry plant stems. Remove as many of the roots as you are able to locate.
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8
Replace the topsoil and place the blackberry roots in the pile containing your blackberry plant.
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9
Place all of the blackberry plant remains into your trash bags for proper disposal.
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10
Continue to inspect the former location of your blackberry plant on a weekly basis to kill any missed roots from budding.
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Tips & Warnings
Bonide is a non-pesticide solution that will kill any bugs found on your blackberry plants. Exterminate the bugs before you kill the blackberry plant, because those bugs will attach themselves to other plants if they are not exterminated before you remove the blackberries.
Blackberries grow rapidly in the spring, so be sure to inspect your garden closely then to kill any blackberries that are creeping into your garden again.
