Does anyone have experience or knowledge on traditional burning to increase berry or root production? I live in an area where it used to be practised heavily and am interested in tryin it out.
Particularly for Northern rice root. Its an amazing wild food. and my area is covered in it.
I have done burning of bramble patches as slash and burn, which is maybe a little bit different. I used a machete to cut away the brambles, and piled them up. After letting them dry out in the sun for a few days (fingers crossed no rain), the piles were burned, which they did readily, and I was able to rake the still smoldering piles out across the ground, spreading the embers and ash around in a layer to simulate a more “complete” burn. Lots of new black-cap raspberry shoots emerged out of the ground over the following weeks (as well as lots of Phytolacca americana – roots?), but I was actually going for the creation of a meadow so I cut them down again later. Nonetheless this could be a practical way to get the effects you want.
I’ve also done some burning of grasslands but for that I would suggest having several people around to help out because things can get out of hand REALLY FAST.