Digging up bramble roots

[GinAndOnIt]

Is this really, totally necessary? Like, to dig up all the roots? Because.... it seems impossible!

I have a bed with three or four brambles, with mainly just the roots left now and the odd thorny arm that will not be pulled out no matter how hard I try. They have obviously been there a loooooong time, and the roots just go on forever!

If I cut as much as I can away, it will just keep coming back, won't it?

I have the same problem with some tough roots, I'm just going to cut out the shoots as they appear. Life's too short!

I think I have eradicated the from a border they were infesting, but it took a fucking load of digging.

God, it's so boring. You think you've got it all, ready to pull out (like the picture) - but no, there are still a million other roots clinging on for dear life further below the surface!

Have you tried cutting it back to a couple of pairs of leaves and applying stump and bramble killer? (To the cut part and the leaves)

I'm trying this approach repeatedly

Apparently you only need to remove the sections with new buds appearing in. Handy at this time of the year as the buds really are appearing now. So you could try to remove all the roots but you could just remove the bit with buds, which makes life a little easier.

I've just removed dozens of brambles from a 9m by 6m patch so I have a lot of experience

Oh! That's quite handy info good - there are lots of tiny pink buds appearing. I had a hack away at a load of the roots yesterday in desperation, but some are just too big/solid to cut. Bloody things.

ooh good news indeed

but...can it be true ?

Well if what goodenough means is that you only need to remove living plants and not dead ones, yes it's true.

However you will need to remove ALL of the living plants, including roots, if you don't want them to come back.