4d ago

Escape! Any suggestions?

Raspberries are escaping their raised bed after two years :( I really don't want them to spread beyond it. what to do? Bury a tarp under the mulch? Dig a trench around the bed? Roundup?

19 comments

Just grab them as low to the ground as you can and pull them out, taking as much root with it as you can. The plant will focus its nutrients and efforts on the sections not being torn out. Any time you see another escapee, grab it and pull. They will become less frequent as the main body fleshes out and grows.
Nature doesn't like bare empty spaces so consider filling in that large empty barked area with some more crops and raspberry escapees will have some competition and become less likely as well.
- I hadn't considered spot weeding. I guess I don't have a lot to lose and will give it a shot before trying something more drastic.
  
  Our raspberry bushes only send up runners early in the season. It is pretty easy to just pull those who escape.

Roundup is a systemic herbicide. You have a chance of killing the parent plant since they share roots. It probably won't, but it seems pretty drastic when you could just pull any shoots. You can even pot them up and give them to friends.
- I didn't mean to single out roundup, but I was trying to say that I'm not against going the chemical route if it's more effective. It seems like it won't be, so I'll try shoot management this season.
  You can even pot them up and give them to friends.
  That's what I'm planning on doing, but based on some of the responses here perhaps I won't limit myself to only friends if you catch my drift ;)

As a llama, brambles are a natural part of your diet, so maybe graze on them?

Either pull them as you find them or just give up on the raspberries entirely, because that's just how they grow!
- I have 4 foot wide mulch paths between my raised beds. If I were to rake the mulch over and put a tarp down under it, would that stop them? I know some plants effectively give up after they go a certain distance.
  
  No. They go a looooong way underground. I don't know if it was the same plant, but I've seen new patches pop up a couple dozen feet away from known patches.

Dude they're raspberries, just pull/cut don't use herbicides. They won't grow wild.
- I will be, this season at least. If I can't easily keep them in the bed I'll probably dig them out.
  From what I've read, raspberries can be pretty invasive and hard to get rid of. I'm a little wary of them getting out of control, but will keep a tight eye on them. Thankfully there's a pretty wide mulch boarder around the bed so it will be easy to see them trying to escape.

We had blackberries and had the same problem, in our case though we had critters getting berries and either dropping or crapping out the seeds all over our yard, which sprouted for more than a year after we pulled up the main plant.
It looks like you've got a good set up but it might be good to try some kind of netting or screens to keep out animals so they don't spread seeds.
- We're fairly critter free with the deer/rabbit fence, but birds were stealing some berries last year. I hadn't considered them dropping seeds, but that's obviously going to happen. Bird netting around this one bed will be somewhat annoying to set up, but might be worthwhile.

@IMALlama No alt text.
https://www.craigabbott.co.uk/blog/how-to-write-good-alt-text-for-screen-readers/
- Unironic thanks. I saw the field pop up in Jerboa, but didn't put two and two together. Is this a new add by Lemmy? I don't recall seeing it before.
  
  @IMALlama No. It's a contribution to my nick "Nervensäge".

19 comments