Salmonberry - pruning?

[Claire Petersky]

I have some salmonberry bushes. It started with a single volunteer, and now I have several. They're in a good spot, really, right at the edge of the garden, where there's a drop-off. I have read that salmonberry is useful for stablizing slopes, and it is a slope that needs stablizing. So, as a native plant, I've let them be.

Since they've spread without too much difficulty, I have some concern about them being invasive. A few clumps growing along the fence and under the vine maple and fir is fine, but I'm afraid I let them go entirely, they'd turn into a thicket.

Salmonberries are a member of the rubus family. Since this is the time of year I'd be prunining roses, I figured it was a good time to prune the salmonberries too. I hacked them down to about a meter in height. Do you think this would be effective in keeping them in check? Or is it just going to encourage them to grow more?

[Lynn Coffelt]

This is probably not much help, but here are some things I learned about salmonberries in the Pacific Northwest. We had them lining both sides of the narrow dirt road to a cabin on Orcas Island. They did indeed form a formidable thicket that arched over the road, and had to be trimmed out each spring just to drive down the road without scratching up the vehicle. The berries themselves attracted all manner of wildlife, but were often too high to harvest or pick for our own personal enjoyment. (birds thought it was a perfect solution) Finally, in desperation, we started hacking them off, right at ground level with a long-handled bypass pruner. New growth was immediate, and the much shorter canes got sunlight and did not arch over the road. Berries were more productive, accessible, and now the deer had a chance to get at them. Short story is that I don't know how good they are at stabilizing ground, but I do know that left unattended, they will (in this climate) take over any open area you permit, seeking sunlight in a thicket (the deer like)

15 to 20 feet high. Never tried to kill or eliminate them, but I suspect it's possible. They did not grow well in the dirt road, filled with well rotted shale rock, and driven over 8 or 10 times a year. Old Chief Lynn Salmonberries Forever

[Timothy]

I manage a large patch of salmonberry on a client's property on Lummi Island, Wa. Salmonberry will bind the soil rather well, but I would suggest salal (Gaultheria Shallon) if your looking for the best bank holder.

We tend to treat salmonberry in one of two ways. You can hack them down to the ground every year or can treat them more like a raspberry and thin out the older canes every year or so. I like the thinning route myself, but with a large patch it can be a bit time consuming. You will need to watch for stem borers and rust as these two issues are what I see the most. Other wise they should produce well for you and give you little trouble.

They will, over time, try to take over any sunny area that you may have. They can send out very long shoots, looking for virgin ground to populate. You can dig a ditch near the patch that is a foot deep and a foot wide and this should slow if not stop the re-population.