Fir trees smothered by briars

newdawn47 · Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2011 7:56 pm Post subject: Fir trees smothered by briars

Hello,
We have a line of fir trees, they are at least 24yrs planted. They are planted near a ditch and are totally covered in briar's. At the moment we are cleaning away all the briar's. My query is what can we do every other year to control the briar's, can we maybe spray them with something.

Also the green is just on the top of the trees, can we do something to encourage new growth further down to help them fill out. Question

Protein · Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2011 9:26 pm Post subject:

you can lay down old carpet tiles around base of the fir trees to keep weed growth around the base free... I am afraid you'll have to will have keep on top of the uncovered areas, but this can be done easily by strimming...

tippben · Posted: Fri Mar 11, 2011 3:52 pm Post subject:

The briars could be dealt with by light exclusion, but be careful to let the root system breathe; use a permeable membrane, like Mypex or Terratex. The briars could still push through this though, in which case, plan B!

Ammonium sulphamate will kill the briars, but only put a small amount on the stump the briar is sprouting from, as it could certainly harm the trees. A safer option would be to use glyphosate (Roundup/Gallup), as this is only taken in by the leaves. Cut them down completely, and use this repeatedly on the new growth.

Unfortunately, coniferous trees will not resprout from lower down,only from the tips of the foliage. The foliage you have is as good as it is going to get. If cover lower down is important, maybe reconsider- control the briars, and make lots of blackberry pies, wine and ice cream!