[mushroom]

hi folks,

On my newly-acquired overgrown plot, I have found a few raspberry plants and a large redcurrant plant, both in fruit. But they are being strangled by couch grass and friends! I'd like to get rid of the grass, so am looking for something that will kill the roots as well but without disturbing the roots of raspberry or redcurrant. This is why I have to go via the weedkiller route rather than ripping em out. Is there a weedkiller that *only affects grass*?

[WG.]

I don't believe so.

Why not lay down a mulching layer?  This will also feed your fruit bushes.

[mushroom]

Won't it also feed the couch grass?

The problem is, the bush is being choked from below as well as above. I'm not bothered about weeds looking unsightly on top; I'm worried about what is happening underneath.

I can appreciate mulching works for most weeds, but, observing my plot, it doesn't appear to work for very heavy infestations of couch grass. The area of infestation was mulched with heavy plastic sheeting in a wooden frame, and left in place for what appears to be 7 years. Under the mulch, it was still shot through with couch grass roots. Hence the weedkiller route.

If there is no selective weedkiller for this problem, then I guess the other approach is to shield the bush and daub what couch grass I can with a glyphosate applicator.

[wellingtons]

... well my raspberry bushes were.

I did it by hand. Wasn't too bad took me a couple of goes, but it really did give me a great start.  Now I mulch with bark chippings, and just pull up the odd one or two weeds by hand.

[WG.]

Under the mulch, it was still shot through with couch grass roots

These roots would have belonged to couch which was growing away from the mulch.

Choose your mulch - paper, cardboard, polythene, terex.  My favourite is 3 layers of corrugated cardboard held in place with manure and/or grass cuttings / lime - add to it annually if needed.   Couch coming up outside the mulch can be sprayed (on a calm day please).  Couch coming through the mulch is very easy to pull out.

It simply cannot survive without light.

[richyrich7]

Well you used to be able to get a selective weed killer for grass I think it was called "couch out" or something like that, I don't think it is available any longer under the new stricter guide lines, probably wasn't profitable enough to be retested under all the new guide lines that came in a few years back, Shame really as you can still get a broad leafed weed killer for lawns, if the raspberries where dormant or just about in bud then I would of wrapped em in plastic and sprayed with round up and left the plastic on for a day or two, cheap cling film would do nicely.

As Whiskey says you could put large thick cardboard collars around them that would help, water well underneath first and weigh down with bricks or stones.

[mushroom]

thanks everyone for your help. I am going to protect the bushes with tightly wrapped plastic pop bottles, then carefully spray, then pull out the rest.

[spinny]

Use an old paint brush to apply the weedkiller (use a glyphosate based one such as 'Roundup') just to the leaves of the weeds, you don't have to worry about 'wrapping up' your bushes then.

spinny