Brambles: How to get rid of them. Updated!

I received a really intelligent question recently, from a reader  (*waves to Fiona*)  who read my various posts on the subject, going right back to the original How To Get Rid of Brambles post, back in 2012, and was unable to add her question, as apparently that article is not accepting any more comments on it: there are well over 100 comments, so maybe there's a limit? . 

So Fiona contacted me direct, to ask the following: "I’m wondering if anything in your advice has changed recently given all the adverse publicity about glyphosate. I’m quite worried by all these Roundup legal claims and the health implications."

This is an excellent question, because things change over time: we learn more, more research is published,  we alter our views: so it's good that readers are not automatically assuming that something they read on the internet from a decade ago, is still valid.

In this case, the answer is "yes, I stand by every word of every bramble article I have ever written" (if you want to know more about the subject of killing brambles, just type "brambles" into the Search box, top left of the screen... ) which can be summed up as:

1) Dig them out if you possibly can: but you don't have to dig out yards of roots, just ensure you get the "crown" or growing point, which is usually in inch or so below the surface of the soil.

2) If you have a lot of them, chop down the top growth first, as they make an impenetrable thicket of spiteful stems, which will rip through the stoutest gloves, and most trousers. So hack them down manually with whatever you have - a brushcutter, a heavy-duty strimmer, loppers, even just a pair of secateurs if you have to: snip your way in, reducing the mad tangle to short lengths. Rake away that lot, and then you are able to dig out the roots.

3) Don't use a rotavator, or any digging machinery - it will just chop the roots (and crowns)  into small lengths, which will simply re-sprout and things will be worse than before. 

4) If you really, really can't get at the roots to dig them out - and this includes under decks, down the side of sheds, between patio slabs,  over next door's fence etc - then the only recourse is weedkiller. Don't look at me like that, this is the real world, and although I generally try to be as "organic" as possible, there are times and situations where we just have to turn to chemicals: and brambles out of reach, is one of them.

I suppose I should also insert 4b) at this point: in my opinion, no, there is no organic alternative. Salt kills everything, and poisons the soil for year afterwards: vinegar ditto, and I have yet to find one of those "miracle home remedies" which actually works. So it will have to be proper commercial weedkiller, which has been through rigorous testing to give us a product which is simple and safe to use, as long as we follow the instructions on the pack, and use our common sense.

However, there are provisos to using weedkiller:

A) For preference, I will always use a product containing just Glyphosate. Because Glyphosate, of all the weedkillers, is inactivated on contact with the soil, so it doesn't "poison" the soil. It doesn't hang around for years, it doesn't get washed into water courses. I always suggest not using combined weedkillers, the ones which claim to kill in 24 hours: just use Glyphosate and be prepared to wait a fortnight or so, for the effects to become visible. 

B) Always use the absolute minimum of the product: don't splash it around all over the place:  put it in a small, hand-held squirty bottle and adjust the spray so that it is narrow - then just spritz the newly sprouting leaves. Don't spray until everything in sight is dripping: just enough that the top surface is shiny wet, that's enough. If you have other plants nearby, you can add something like wallpaper paste to the diluted mixture then paint it on with a small paintbrush

C) Don't spray on windy days!  Wait until it's calm, otherwise the almost invisible spray can "drift" across to other plants. Which would be bad.

D) Don't have the spray too fine: you don't want a mist, which can drift away, you want a fairly "wet" spray, which will fall exactly where you direct it. This also massively reduces the chances of you breathing it in. Which leads to:-

E) Wear suitable protective equipment: always wear gloves, and wash your hands after using any chemical, garden or otherwise. If you have concerns about breathing it in, wear a mask: goodness knows that we all all have enough masks lying around the house these days! If you don't have any masks, tie a large hanky over your lower face. Remember - if you can smell it or taste it, you are breathing it in, which means that it's too fine a spray, and/or it's too windy a day.

Do I have concerns about the safety of using Glyphosate, for us humans? No - as long as we READ THE INSTRUCTIONS and follow them. Dilute as per instructions: don't attempt to make an extra strong mix "because it will work better".  Pay attention to the size of your spray - keep it as small as possible - and to the misty-ness of the spray: keep it quite wet, don't use a very fine spray. The nozzles of spray bottles are adjustable, so fill them with plain water first, twist the nozzle to adjust the wetness of the spray and the size of the spray, and practice using it, before you put the weedkiller in the bottle.

 I read the original report on the outcry against the use of Glyphosate (I can't find it now, but it's there on the internet somewhere) and there were some interesting facts, including:

- the workers concerned were spraying for up to 10-12 hours a day.

- they were not wearing PPE at all

- the product had not been diluted correctly 

- it was a hot country, so they were mostly bare armed, and bare legged. And in many cases, barefoot, which gives you a clue about what sort of country we are talking about.

- they had no hand washing facilities, not information about keeping the product off their skin, and not ingesting it. 

This is almost a direct repetition of the famous "plasticiser in cling film" controversy, from back in the 80s: mice were fed huge doses of the plasticiser, and many of them died.  Hardly surprising, but the report was leaked, quoted out of context, and the next thing you know there was a huge outcry and all the plastics manufacturers had to find another way to make cling film clingy, even though it was perfectly safe for us to use it as it was. Heyho.

So as far as Glyphosate is concerned, I am not concerned: I only ever use it as a last resort, I use the minimum amount, carefully applied, taking precautions to protect myself before and during application, and washing my hands afterwards.

 You can make up your own minds: but please, do some research, don't just read the internet equivalent of tabloid headlines, ie most of the internet. Find some research papers, find some scientific studies, read some journals. And then make up your own minds. 

Fiona also had a question about the actual application: she asks " would it work to cut and remove all the top growth, leaving short stalks, then treat each stalk by cutting it down almost to the ground and immediately painting the cut end with glyphosate?"

I am not sure, is the answer to that one: logically, yes: however, a lot of trees, and many plants, react to a wound of this sort by either pouring out sap, much the same way that we bleed when we cut ourselves: or they immediately seal over the wound, rather like us forming a scab. So the product would not be "sucked in" to the cut stem. The point of applying it to the leaves is that leaves are designed to transport nutrients and water: they have internal transport systems, and that's what we take advantage of, when we apply weedkiller to their surfaces.  I am reminded at this point of the Japanese Knotweed problem: one of the partially-effective methods of killing that one is to cut the stems down, then inject them with glyphosate: but you will notice that the product is injected, below the cut. This would suggest that painting the cut surfaces has proved to be ineffective, and it may well be the same with brambles - I don't know. 

An obvious suggestion is to treat one side of the patio in this way, and treat the other side with the usual "spritz the new leaves", and compare them. Take photos! Let me know! *laughs*

 A further question was "If in some places I can spritz what you call the ’tiny new regrowth’, how small can this regrowth be to take in enough glyphosate to be effective?"

I have never actually measured the minimum regrowth required - I find that they are bare stems one day, and have three leaves the next day, so my description of  ‘a couple of tender young leaves’ really means just to catch them as soon as you can. This is for two reasons: firstly, those tender young leaves will be most susceptible to absorbing the product: as leaves mature, they get tougher, and they transport nutrients etc less efficiently, so it makes sense to use the youngest leaves. And secondly, if you let them grow a gigantic tuft of foliage, well, they will then have a bunch of foliage which is photosynthesising, and building up their nutrient reserves again. We want to force them to deplete those stores (ie to produce new leaves) and then kill them before they have a chance to re-stock.

Well, there you have it: an updated Bramble Destruction article, and I hope that it answers all of Fiona's questions - if you have any additional questions, do please feel free to ask!

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