BLACKBERRY growth has exploded on the back of summer rain, writes KIM WOODS
A new template for blackberry management is available for Victorian landholders.
The start-up kit, launched by the Victorian Blackberry Taskforce, comes at a time of exploding blackberry growth on the back of summer rain.
Taskforce chairwoman Lyn Coulston said the kit was produced in response to requests for information on community-led partnership programs to control the weed.
The kit is a step-by-step guide to establishing community blackberry action groups.
Lyn said once local needs and priorities were identified, the group developed a management strategy aided by the taskforce.
It includes a set of tools and processes successfully used by action groups across Victoria.
Lyn said steps included employing a project officer, mapping infestations, offering incentives and negotiating three-year blackberry management agreements with landholders.
She said the taskforce would help groups overcome challenges and keep the momentum going.
The kit includes templates for interviewing and selecting a project officer, a community letter, assistance forms, work plans and reports.
Lyn said above-average spring and summer rain had resulted in a profusion of blackberry across the state.
"Anyone driving in the Upper Murray recently can't help but be astounded by the the infestations covering formerly productive land," Lyn said. "To drive up the Murray Valley Highway makes your hair stand on end."
Lyn said on-farm blackberry control in high-rainfall areas was like "painting the Sydney Harbour bridge".
"People never really get rid of it - control is a very complex issue," she said. "Our role is to encourage communities to support landholders wanting to get on top of the problem.
"Knowing what chemical to use and how to use it is not always the issue."
The taskforce has available the Blackberry Control Manual, which outlines management and control options for landholders.
"Now is the time to spray - we have had rain and there will be more, it's warm and everything is growing like steam," Lyn said.
"Ninety-nine per cent of the blackberry plants will be killed by the herbicides available but if a landholder is not getting a good kill, it could be incorrect application techniques or water quality."
Lyn said blackberry bushes need to be treated three-dimensionally with the interior sprayed as well as the canopy.
"Landholders need to wet all the foliage and spray right into the stem," she said.
Eight strains of leaf rust have been released across Victoria as a means of biological control.
Research is also under way on purple blotch disease, which attacks the plant's stem.
"Biological agents are not the whole solution to blackberry control," Lyn said. "They are a slow means of affecting the plant's growth.
"Purple blotch disease appears to work on the blackberry canopy under trees and in shaded areas."
Three-year management agreements between the North East Blackberry Action Group and Upper Murray landholders have worked well.
Lyn said the agreements gave landholders achievable goals rather than facing an insurmountable challenge.
"Landholders decide what areas they can control in the first year, while the second year is follow-up control," she said.
"Some, with big infestations, are into their second three-year management agreement."
The North East group has provided funding to access tracks into infestations and incentives to protect remnant vegetation.
In other regions, the taskforce is facilitating a community-led approach to blackberry control in Victoria's fire affected areas of central Gippsland and Mudgegonga.
Public and private land managers have formed partnerships to employ project officers to spearhead the works.
- A Free hard-copy version plus the Blackberry Control Manual is available by phoning (02) 6043 7900.
- The Community Blackberry Action Group start-up kit is available at www.vicblackberrytaskforce.com.au
