We are using a flail mower this year to munch the blackberry clippings rather than push and burn.
Estimate we added at least a ton of organic matter but we don’t yet know if we will get any insect or disease carry over.
If I had more energy, I would rake the leaves and clippings from beneath the plants to the drive rows and flail again.
Hope the urea sprayed beneath the plants will accelerate plant matter decomposition and limit disease problems.
maybe you could mulch over the cut canes with arborist chips to bury any disease or pest in them. most arborist will happily dump you a huge amount of chipped material . also keeps out weeds. you do have a lot of rows to cover tho. maybe one of those tow behind propane burners like they use on blueberry barrens here in maine, would be good to sterilize the cuttings?
UPDATE:
Flailing the prunings worked fine last year. We did not have any additional disease problems so we are doing it again this year on Blackberries, Blueberries, Apples and Peaches. Some of the prunings from the peaches are too large to flail so we had to push and burn them but we flailed the rest. Also, we were careful to remove all of the FB infected apple trees and prunings and burn them rather than flail them.
Prune and flail is normal for big growers but its harder to do with a smaller tractor like mine. It saves a lot of hard physical work and makes it possible for me to continue a few more years.
Is it to much work to shove it all in a chipper and then mulch with it?
@MockY Yep, that would be too much work but it would allow me to place the mulch exactly where I want it. Most of the mulch stays in the row middles now but by the end of the season its completely decomposed.
I’m focused on faster methods that also reduce the amount of physical labor required. Good farm help is impossible to find so I’m trying to replace labor with machinery where possible. The flail mower and the battery powered pruner both help reduce labor.
It takes about 60 man hours to properly prune and flail an acre of thornless blackberries. Navaho requires the most time since its the most vigorous plant. Natchez is the least vigorous and requires the least time.
