Best way to kill raspberries. Overwatering or dehydration?

Joined
Apr 29, 2016
Messages
2
Reaction score
0
Country
United States
Hi, hoping someone can help. Three years ago my husband planted raspberries in a 30ft patch with miracle-gro and no barrier despite being warned to do so by his father who gave him the raspberries. I kept warning my husband to put a barrier down but he said it wasn't necessary. I warned him the raspberries would spread up the rockery into the neighbour's lot, across our lawn, into the rose patch and would be out of control growing through the entire half acre garden in time. I said if we didn't deal with it now the roots would entwine with the roots of bushes and we'd have to dig everything up to get rid of the infestation of raspberries. He ignored me. As this spring approached I dug up the entire 30ft raspberry patch when my husband was out of town because by now the patch was too dense and it was too difficult to dig a trench and put a barrier down. He was very unhappy when he returned and saw the raspberries gone. I was hoping that would be the end of the matter, but to my dismay everything I warned would happen has come to pass. Spring arrived and now we have about 100 shoots in 100ft of lawn. They are scrambling in the rockery. They have appeared in next door's lot. They have made their way towards our front garden embedding in the rose hedge. They are poking up through the yew hedge. They have travelled about 150ft up my herb garden and I keep warning my husband if we don't act now they will take over the entire garden, make their way into the other neighbor, make their way onto the community lawn at the front and there will be an infestation everywhere that's out of control for everyone. He scoffed at me and said there's no problem and he's not taking any preventative action.

At this point it is highly impractical to dig up the lawn and the rest of the affected garden to hope to scrape away any trace of raspberry root. I suspect many roots have made their way under various concrete areas in the garden that we can't get to so even if we remove all other roots there will be this constant source of re-infestation. Efforts with roundup have failed as it only deals with the raspberry shoot poisoned and it doesn't deal with the massive network of roots under the lawn & etc that is constantly sending up new shoots. I fear if we don't take action this year to get rid of the entire problem then next year will be 10 times worse, as this year is 10 times worse than last year. I see from my research that raspberries don't like to be underwatered or overwatered. If I flood the affected area for say a month, I am hoping to cause a bunch of root rot to them all and deal with it that way, and if that doesn't work, since we live in Utah which is very arid, I intend to deprive that patch of garden water all summer. Will it work?? Will dehydration cause the roots to die? Will deliberate induction of root rot work? Or shall I sprinkle everywhere with some P.H altering matter that raspberries can't stand?? Will that kill the roots? It's very important that we tackle this immediately because we have to sell our house this year and move to the other side of the USA and I think it is so unfair for the new owner to inherit this problem. I need whatever solution will kill all the roots. Thanks.
 
Joined
Feb 2, 2014
Messages
11,586
Reaction score
5,667
Location
La Porte Texas
Hardiness Zone
8b
Country
United States
Wow! That sounds even worse than bamboo taking over. There are chemicals that will rid you of it but it will stay in the soil for quite awhile and kill everything. The only other way I know of is a LOT of work and time but if you start out in a small area, preferably where the main older shoots or canes begin you can do it. What you do is cut the plants as close to the ground as you can with a mower, a weed eater, lopper, shears or what ever works best. Rake up and destroy ALL of the debris. After this is done you will be able see where the shoots are spreading from. Where ever one comes cut it again so as to have a fresh cut. Apply a drop or two of a product called GreenLight Cut Vine and Stump Remover to the fresh cut. This stuff is a systemic and will be sucked into the roots and into the entire system killing it. You will have to keep a close watch for more shoots to sprout and when they do just cut the shoot down and add another drop or two to the cut. Pretty soon you will have killed the entire underground root system, which is sort of sad because I dearly love raspberry jam.
 

Ask a Question

Want to reply to this thread or ask your own question?

You'll need to choose a username for the site, which only take a couple of moments. After that, you can post your question and our members will help you out.

Ask a Question

Members online

No members online now.

Forum statistics

Threads
27,879
Messages
264,701
Members
14,616
Latest member
femipro

Latest Threads

Top