morning glorys invading my raspberries! (growing, leaves, plants, fruit)

[lgllyblonde2]

I have a nice mature row of raspberries that every year produce enough fruit to keep us in jam and fresh deserts. I love them. Starting last year, my neighbor's morning glory problem moved in. They are thick through the roots of my berries. They climb up the stalks of the berries and literally strangle them! I've tried pulling them up, not letting them bloom, but to no avail. I am considering taking cuttings of the raspberries and then pulling the existing plants up. Of course that means several years before the new plants mature and I get a nice crop again. If I use round up, it will kill the raspberries too, won't it? Does anyone have any suggestions?

[luv4horses]

You can treat the morning glories specifically without letting the spray touch any part of the raspberries. You can 'paint' roundup liquid on the morning glory leaves, or you can take the tip of the morning glory, put something like a sheet of plastic behind it, and spray directly onto the MG leaves/shoot. Just be sure not to spray the raspberry plants and you should be fine.

If you accidentally spray a couple of raspberry leaves then immediately remove them from the plant, but better yet don't do it. Just remember, the herbicide will move toward the growing points of the plants that are touched by the herbicide, including the shoot tips and the root tips. To kill off the morning glory requires time for the herbicide to move biologically into the root, so do not cut back the morning glory for at least a week after treating the MG leaves.

Do not get rid of your raspberries, because as you say, starting over represents a great loss of time. If more morning glory shoots appear, just do this again. Eventually the MG will be starved out!

[aquietpath]

No way would I spray roundup anywhere near edible fruit. Research on Roundup shows it not to be as benign as Monsanto would have us believe.

Roundup: The “Nontoxic” Chemical that May Be Destroying our Health Dirt Doctor Howard Garrett Organic Gardening, Home, Health, Pet Care, Pest Control, Compost, Nutrition, Environment