As kudzu takes invades the South, one town makes peace with it

Chicago Tribune ^ | Nov. 19, 2002 | DAHLEEN GLANTON

[stainlessbanner]

[AnAmericanMother]

Goats are the easy answer to this problem.

I have personally battled the stuff for years. The City of Atlanta had an old right of way behind our former house that was loaded with kudzu. It kept creeping across onto my land, and the City couldn't be bothered to clean up their mess. So I borrowed my neighbor's goat "Leona" and set up a dog line along the right of way. Leona happily chomped the kudzu and KEPT it chomped, we cleared 20 feet of the City's ROW and that was good enough for me. As long as you keep the leaves off it the roots will die.

None near our new house, thank goodness. Our neighbors have a Japanese wisteria that has escaped into the trees, but it's relatively harmless.

[F-117A]

In the 1930s, the federal government promoted kudzu in the South as a means of controlling soil erosion.

Another great Federal program!

[Oberon]

Leona happily chomped the kudzu and KEPT it chomped, we cleared 20 feet of the City's ROW and that was good enough for me.

Not only is heavy grazing a good deal for the landowner, it's a good deal for the goat (or whatever ruminant you assign the task). Kudzu is a legume, like alfalfa, and is consequently high in protein. It makes very good fodder. By the time the kudzu's gone, you'll have a fat happy critter.

[dljordan]

So the evil Kudzu monster is finally invading the North! Divine retribution! You can hear it growing at night. I swear! I always imagined a kind of 'Day of the Triffids' scenario where it finally just got up and started walking. Copperheads LOVE it! Kind of a Copperhead condo thing.

[ClearCase_guy]

Seems like a good approach. I'm wondering, if kudzu comes from Asia, has it taken over that continent? Disrupted their farming? I would imagine that they have a way to deal with it or live with it. I mean Asia has a lot of people to feed, so I think their farmland must not be too devastated by this pernicious weed. Anybody know?

[PAR35]

Kudzu is a wonder plant. I have a book around here somewhere full of recipes for the stuff. The roots (which can grow to several hundred pounds) are a great source of starch. The leaves can be eaten as a salad (small tender ones, at least) and can be cooked like other greens. The vines can be woven into baskets. Every part of the plant can be used, and it is in Asia.

[weegee]

Between it being introduced in Philly and promoted by the gub'ment, have to wonder if it was eco-terrorism waged on the South.

[Cicero]

Another great idea from FDR.

[archy]

So the evil Kudzu monster is finally invading the North! Divine Retribution! You can hear it growing at night. I swear!

Naw, 'twern't *Divine* retribution, but cuttings of kudzu vines picked up on axles and railcar fittings on overgrown railroad trackage in the South, then transported on northbound trains to Chicago's railyards. They had Sherman's March to the Sea, we had the Illinois Central and CSX freight drags taking our little *goodwill offering* presents to them....

And once kudzu gets a good start in the well-fertilized and cultivated downstate Illinois prarie cornfields and beanfields....

It's the *gift that keeps on giving....*

-archy-/-

[AnAmericanMother]

Apparently we can blame Florida, specifically the Washington area:

[aSkeptic]

chop it down with a laser, bulldose it into piles, let the piles dry, load it into trucks, burn it at a power station, make money. Hows $900 per acre? Too low to be worth it?

[ArrogantBustard]

Kudzu delenda est.

The good news is that goats and llamas just love that stuff.

[archy]

chop it down with a laser,

And if it rains during the operation, the cuttings will begin to put down roots. I've seen it happen overnight.

Bulldoze it into piles,

Leaving the roots in the ground, or attatched parasitically to other host plants, from which it will sprout anew, and the piles of cuttings will also root out, per comment above.

let the piles dry,

Whereupon leafs and flowers will blow on the wind, ready to propagate further if the sun is up and/or it's damp where any cuttings land.

Load it into trucks,

Which will scatter new starts of kudzu all along the paths those trucks travel, particularly in roadside drainage ditches and on guywires for utility poles.

burn it at a power station

I don't think the smoke from kudzu would sprout where it falls to earth, but I wouldn't bet on it. I do know that when burned outdoors, bits carried on the heated wind often take root around the scorched spots where it's been burned, leaving a green kudzu *doughnut* around the burn site.

make money.

Less, of course considerable labour, heavy equipment charges, fuel for the big trucks and 'dozer, and other incidental expenses.

But if you want to give it a go, I'd be glad to send you a quantity for testing. BTW, grown indoors where light and water sources can be controlled, it does make a pretty hanging plant. Very suitable as a present for an ex-wife or girlfriend, expecially one with cats....

[archy]

the good news is that goats and llamas just love the stuff.

Likewise pigs and cattle. Only problem is, the kudzu will spread beyond their pens or pastures. Pigs keep it pretty well-cropped [to bare ground!] but pretty well spoil the ground for any other use.

[ArrogantBustard]

I wasn't thinking of planting new kudzu in pastures (Heaven forbid!!). More like turning our four-footed friends loose on existing kudzu infestations. Fort Polk (La.) has a resident herd of wild (or at least feral) horses. I assume they're descendants of cavalry horses turned loose when horse cavalry was phased out. Maybe the Pentagon should turn loose a herd of goats, cattle, llamas or some such (not pigs) on one of the infested Army installations and see if it does any good.

BTW, that second pic would be funny if it weren't tragic.

[Katya]

"One problem, they said, is that the thick cover provides a cool shelter for poisonous copperhead snakes."We've got the stuff all over the DC area as well as the copperheads. It's creating new forestscapes and green roadside silhouettes so dense they look rigid. In Japanese cooking kudzu is a starch that renders to many thin sauces a creamy richness.
I do wonder, how they deal with this plant species in the orient?

[aSkeptic]

thanks for the reply!

HowAboutThis!

Since Kudzu is a vine, tie it to rollers which roll very very slow. At the end of the year, harvest the rolls. You could place the rolls up high to make a nice canopy :)

As for the seeds.. hope you like kudzu buahahaHA

[archy]

Since Kudzu is a vine, tie it to rollers which roll very slow.At the end of the year, harvest the rolls. You could place the rolls up high to make a nice canopy:)

Until it rained.

For a while, folks were using the vines for weaving, much like cane or wicker is sometimes used. Only problem is that you need to keep it away from the kitchen or bathroom. Yep.

The woven baskets would start sprouting, then growing as much as a foot of offshoots a day, worse if there was sunlight around. Hardy stuff.

-archy-/-