Kudzu

~ By Kythera Ann ~

I learned about Kudzu almost immediately when I moved here. It is a VERY fast growing vine from Japan that takes over everything including large trees such as huge Hemlocks and even houses. Nothing natural here stops its growth. There are even some great local stories by Sharon McCrumb (great reads!) that have people killing someone and then letting the Kudzu grow over them so they are never found. That really isn't such a far fetched proposition because they can easily grow sixty feet a season in this area.

Kudzu was brought to this country in the 1800's and touted by the government as a great soil erosion remedy. Then during the depression the Civilian Corp of Engineers planted thousands of acres of it for farmers because livestock can use it as feed. It is actually a member of the pea family.

Unfortunately, the South Eastern part of the United States has absolutely perfect conditions for the vine to grow. The weather is hot and humid with lots of rain and no indigenous insects or animals to curb it growing and so it has grown out of control. Another reason it has spread so rapidly is that it propagates in numerous ways. It has runners, and they send down new tap roots. Also Kudzu propagates by rhizomes (like Hostas), and it has seeds (in a kind of pea shaped pod that's furry).

Here, because of all of the above, it is choking out local vegetation habitats rapidly. In doing so it also eliminates much insect and wildlife habitat. I really think the state should give home owners a tax incentive for removing it, because it is such a HUGE problem and very difficult to remove.

Before I get into the removal part of this, I'd like to note that in Japan and where it does not take over the landscape, the vine has a lot of good things about it. You can make great jelly from the flowers (which are a pretty yellow here), the tuber can be cooked like a turnip and has lots of nutrition as a starch and in fact EVERY part of the plant is edible! It has lots of medicinal properties, such as: anti leukemia; anti inflammatory; cancer treatments, relieving migraines and a host of others. I was reading about a month ago, regarding research they are doing here that also indicates it has some property that curbs the cravings of alcoholics! So in its natural habitat it is a pretty cool plant it’s just that here, it is destructive to the max.

Lets move on now to the removal. The longer the Kudzu has been in place, the harder it is to remove. All the trailers, or vines have to be removed and the entire crown of the plant, which is underground and above the tap root. The crown in a small, young Kudzu might be the size of an apple, but within five years it is the size of a basketball and about a foot deep, add more years and it gets bigger yet! Recently, while we were getting some out in a local area of our river (I'm part of a group that volunteers their time to get rid of this stuff) we had to get a tractor because the crown was over six feet in diameter! Not nice stuff.

I like to remove it in the winter when all the leaves have died out because it is easier to see everything then and of course it is colder too. This year it has been so cold we (the group of us) haven't done as much as in other winters. But that is okay because it has been so cold, below freezing; it is killing the crowns for us! It so happens that Kudzu crowns can't take long periods of below freezing weather. Isn't that nice? So this spring, when the weather is better, and we are doing our thing again, the small Kudzu plants will probably be dead and we will just be dealing with older ones whose crown is deeper.

Since livestock love Kudzu, an enterprising gal here has twelve goats that she will take to your property (for a fee of course). They can clear about 1000 square feet of Kudzu a day. If you have the goats back about 5 times, they will have eaten down to the crown and effectively killed small and medium Kudzu on your property. People have parties here when the goats come and it is pretty funny to watch!

Once the Kudzu is removed, the group I work with replants the area with indigenous species. I am enclosing a picture (above) of Kudzu I took and one (below) of my girl friend with vines she is happy she pulled, LOL!

         

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