What's this stuff and how do you get rid of it?

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Bought a 3-acre homestead a couple years ago wth a half-acre woodlot on it.

The woodlot is filled with thise sticker brambles of some kind. They look a bit like raspberry canes, but only have thorns. They get quite long and hang in a curve like a fishing pole. They are pointed in all directions and do they ever grab you and puncture you full of holes.

My brother-in-law says they come back if you mow them or cut them down and you can't get rid of them.

There mst be a way. Who knows it?

Help! Help!

-- Robert Addison (FarmerbobMO@netscape.net), July 31, 2000

Answers

If it is what I'm thinking of, locally they are called "The Devel's Cane." If you can get them either mowed or cut down, fencing the area off with electric fencing and putting in goats may help by their eating any regrowth.

-- Ken S. (scharabo@aol.com), July 31, 2000.

does it ever get a white flower? it might be granda flora rose a real pain in the... we use goats to get it undercontrol they love it. if no goats you can try to mow it then put a stump killer on it that sometimes works.

-- renee oneill (oneillsr@home.com), July 31, 2000.

If you don't have goats try a pig. they will eat it roots and all. after that you'll have plenty of bacon. : )

-- Amber (ambrosia75_@hotmail.com), July 31, 2000.

Sounds like multiflora rose. The only way to kill it is to extract the tap root. If you use a wire line [steel cable] and make a loop over the dude by the ground and pull it with a tractor--you MIGHT get the tap root. Be careful when pulling with a tractor--don't jerk it but rather use a slow steady pull. No danger of tipovers or broken cable hitting you in the head. If it's too large to pull out you can keep cuttin it down and soaking with kerosent/diesel fuel and try burning. I have one on my farm in a waterway that's about 30 feet across. I keep fighting it but I think it'll win unless I get a catapillar in here. Good luck. Matt. 24:44

-- hoot (hoot@pcinetwork.com), August 01, 2000.

The best way is to use 'CROSS-BOW" it is a serious herbicide but it will eventually take it out, Muliflora rose is probably what it is.

-- oldblackjoe (darkley@lucy.com), August 01, 2000.


Im not terribly familiar with MO so take this for whatever its worth. We do have a wild rose around here but the bushes dont usually get higher than 3 feet or so and are covered in tiny white hairlike thorns. Those will develope red hips in the fall. I cant say for sure that Ive seen what you are referring to. Your description sounds more like the wild blackberry "problem" that we have here. The old canes can reach 7-8" and they bow like an old bamboo fishing pole. The thickets are so dense and hideously thorny that clumps will form undisturbed in cow pastures. In these old stands the berrys "dont grow". For the most part the wood is too old to develop much in the way of buds and you have to search long and hard for one. The few buds that do form are usually wiped out by disease. The few berries that make it past that are eaten by some little critter around here and you never do get one even if you were lucky enough to have known where a few were. Mowing, plowing, tilling, only helps them spread. Cutting just sets them back briefly. If they are old worn out blackberrys then the answer is the same as what the others said, goats, pigs, crossbow.

-- William in WI (thetoebes@webtv.net), August 01, 2000.

OOPS! thats 7-8 feet not inches

-- William in WI (thetoebes@webtv.net), August 01, 2000.

We had something like that in Arkansas, maybe it's the samwe thing. It never made any flowers though, just lots of nasty, vicious thorns. The goats didn't seem to mind the thorns, and ate them right up.

-- Rebekah (daniel1@transport.com), August 01, 2000.

Be especially careful with Crossbow. It's the stuff that was illegally sprayed on another farm we owned and lived on just over 10 years ago. It wasn't cleared for use on pastures or hay fields as you shouldn't use the land for either purpose for one full year after application. Nuff said? Get goats! They will eat the top growth down to nubbins then continue to eat the new sprouts until the root reserves are depleted and the plant dies. In the meantime, the goats are fertilizing as they go.

-- marilyn (rainbow@ktis.net), August 01, 2000.

We have these plants an my wife calls them antique roses--is this what some folks above called multicolored rose ? They do bloom in the spring with a small rose like petal and in various colors. They are a constant source of flat tires on my lawn tractor.

-- Joel Rosen (Joel681@webtv.net), August 01, 2000.


We've got something around here that sounds kind of like that - Pop and the others call it cat-briar. It has about a million-billion cactus type thorns (spines?) all along it except on the most tender new growth. Those things can go right through a leather glove like it was nothing. I use a big pair of channel locks to hold it, while pop cuts it off near ground level with the tree loppers. We then round-up or rock salt the chunk that's left - we leave some leaves on it if we use round-up. Then we drag the briars to the burn pile and add some dry stuff and burn them. One of them caught on something one time; when I tugged on it, it came loose and whipped around and caught me across the cheek (Thank goodness for glasses!). Hurt like the dickens and left an abrasion that looked about like when a kids knee meets a sidewalk - raw!! Took a good two weeks to heal up. So if that's what you've got - be careful!! If it's just (JUST?!?) multiflora rose, I second the goats or sheep. Sheep won't eat it, but they'll eat everything around it to where you can get in and cut it down to where you can grub it out by the roots. Burn what you cut off - don't leave it lying - I've had multiflora rose root in a flower vase before when my daughter and her dad brought me in a bouquet.

-- Polly (tigger@moultrie.com), August 01, 2000.

THANKS EVERYBODY!

Your posts were automatically sent to my e-mail and I responded by e-mail to most of them.

As my son would say, this Countryside bboard is waaaay cool!

-- Robert Addison (FarmerbobMO@netscape.net), August 01, 2000.


FOR THOSE WHO DIDN'T RECEIVE MY REPLY,

All your posts were automatically sent to my email, and I responded to each one by email reply instead of posting here.

Several came back undeliverable, so if you didn't hear from me, then my email server wasn't compatible with yours. I did try to answer everyone.

-- Robert Addison (FarmerbobMO@netscape.net), August 03, 2000.


Sorry to be so late in answering, but from your description, I think Hoot may be right. Multiflora rose was introduced as an erosion control, and like most government backed ideas, was a disaster. But if you've got it you have several options. Enjoy the pink flowers and be happy that your erosion is controlled. Use an herbicide, which I abhor, but have used in extreme situations. Try goats. Try pigs - they WILL get the roots. Last 2 options are edible. GL!

-- Brad (Homefixer@SacoRiver.net), August 04, 2000.

Thanks Brad, I decided to post an answer to you as 1 out of 5 of my email answers to posts were being returned undeliverable.

Once I get a job and moved out there full-time, I will definitely try the goat and/or hog solution.

-- Farmer Bob (FarmerbobMo@netscape.net), August 04, 2000.



We had something like that around here when I was a kid. Tougher to get rid of than kudzu,but after getting to tap roots and a lot of chopping and burning we got it under control. Also we found it made execelent confinment fencing (better than barbwire), you just had to keep it chopped back or it would cover the pen.

-- Jay Blair (jayblair678@yahoo.com), August 06, 2000.

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