The True Story of Kudzu, the Vine That Never Truly Ate the South

Smithsonian ^ | September 2015 | Bill Finch

[Chode]

if you can fine it's heart, hell yeah!!!

[Chode]

100%!!!

[FreedomPoster]

There were still goats at Sugar’s Ribs the last time I was there. Not sure what they were keeping the hillside clear of, but kudzu seems not-unlikely.

[arthurus]

Abandoned houses disappeared under that stuff just up the road from here. A nearby swamp of a couple of square miles was completely covered over and I had been told it doesn't grow on water. In the old days when your junker wasn't worth fixing any more you just pulled into a kudzu field and parked it. It would be a green lump in two days and wouldn't suggest to someone not aware of what it was that it was a car. People understood what you meant when you said it was time to park the old car.

Hereabouts it was called the vine that ate Georgia. There were only patches, very extensive patches, but still just patches of it here in Florida but I rode past miles and miles of it in Georgia and Alabama. The woods beside the roads were truly eerie at night in the moonlight. I remember staring at a shoot trying to see if I could see it grow. I couldn't but if I stuck a stick in the ground at a sprout end and came back an hour later the sprig would be a couple or three inches past the stick.

[arthurus]

Some folks did/do eat the stuff. There are serious recipes that you can probably find on line. I never got a hankering for it.

[arthurus]

Somebody did that to me in Boy Scouts with poison ivy but I am simply not sensitive to any of the “poison” plants. Nettles do a job on me, though.

[arthurus]

Bamboo presents another set of problems.

[arthurus]

I had heard that but never gave it a try. I probably should have. That was long ago and the need is long since passed.

[minnesota_bound]

#5 doesn’t look like a problem to me.
BTW where are the trees? : )

[cva66snipe]

That’s what I wonder. Here near Knoxville it’s everywhere

Yeah it sure is and I know of no one that is happy about it either. The roadsides on Clinton Hiway past Claxton going toward Clinton is covered in it. It can make someones property look like The Addams Family lives there real quick once it starts. It's just like other novelty Imports we didn't need like Carp and the most destructive of them all The Chinese Chestnuts that carried a blight which wiped out an entire species of eastern chestnut trees similar in size to the Redwoods out west. Oh and they don't taste anywhere near as good as the American Chestnuts did.

[MagnoliaB]

Alton Brown talked about it on one of his shows one time. Said it tasted like spinach. I love spinach and have been meaning to try it.

[Mrs. Don-o]

Thanks. I’ll ask around.

[visualops]

oh yes. There are many varieties and they grow differently, some much more invasive than others. If you don’t know you can create a nightmare. Back in SC the folks down the street put some at the edge of their back yard, likely for a privacy screen/barrier. I’m sure they didn’t think that within a year or two it would be popping up everywhere.

[DeoVindiceSicSemperTyrannis]

I've heard that it can grow about a foot a day.... :-(

[Farmer Dean]

Morning Glory will also be controlled/killed by Crossbow.Roundup will also work but will kill the grass near the weed.(If there’s grass near.)
2-4D will also work and won’t hurt grass if applied at the recommended rate.

[arthurus]

And it is growing in many directions at the same time. Don’t go to sleep in a bed of Kudzu.

[Farmer Dean]

Crossbowis a systemic poison so it should wipe out the whole plant.

[Chode]

then again, you could KILL IT WITH FIRE!!!

[Farmer Dean]

I want one like the ones the Marines used on Iwo Jima.

[Chode]

prolly have to got a Texas surplus store for that... 8^)