Attack of the Kudzu!!!

If you live south of the Ohio River, you know what Kudzu is, it's hell!

It is very hard to get rid of, extremely invasive, if you have it on your property you will spend hours and hours of you time fighting it. It is extremely difficult to kill, once you think you got it, you don’t and it comes back with a vengeance. This stuff will literally grow across a road!Wikipedia has this for the definition:

Kudzu (/ˈkʊdzuː/, also called Japanese arrowroot[1][2]) is a group of plants in the genus Pueraria, in the pea family Fabaceae, subfamily Faboideae. They are climbing, coiling, and trailing perennial vines native to much of eastern Asia, Southeast Asia, and some Pacific islands.[2] The name is derived from the Japanese name for the plants, kuzu (クズ or 葛), which was written "kudzu" in historical romanizations. Where these plants are naturalized, they can be invasive and are considered noxious weeds. The plant climbs over trees or shrubs and grows so rapidly that it kills them by heavy shading.[3] The plant is edible, but often sprayed with herbicides.[3]

So, if the plant is not from here why would we plant such a destructive species in the US? I know your not going to believe this, but the intentions we good according to Derdrui Merriner

Derdriu Marriner

I am an arborist. Graduate study, travel, work made me an expert in benthics, European languages, wildlife mapping, world fauna and flora.

“A plant that's exotic to the United States isn't native to any one of the states. It may get into the United States by accident. Or it may get in by intent, such as through the decisions of the highway department or the horticultural industry. Most exotic plants that are brought into the United States transplant well, and therefore naturalize successfully. But a small minority responds aggressively, and ends up out-competing everything in sight. Kudzu is one such example. And it's in the United States because the Highway Department chose to bring it in. In its native Japan, kudzu has a reputation as a bank-holder, against soil erosion. There, it gives seasonal interest by the long-lived greenness of its foliage. But there, it also has natural controls on its growth. But these controls stay in the archipelago when the plant is exported. Therefore, kudzu is free to grow rampantly, without the fear of being topped by anyone or anything that keeps it in its place in Japan.”

Now around here, they blame Eleanor Roosevelt, but I have not found anything to support that theory……

So, you may just kill it right……. To kill this plant without using chemicals you need to pull up the root, all the root. It will travel 100’s and 100’s of feet in every direction. You need to find the crowns and burn them. Then unfortunately, it will still come back eventually.

You can take it out with chemicals. Now I am not a chemical guy, but I think if it was going to take out my house or one of my out buildings I would be tempted! From what I have read, you need one agent to kill the roots and one agent to kill the foliage. 2-4-D will kill the foliage and if you repeat for 3 to 5 years is will eventually kill the plant as it needs to have leaves to grow. I am not sure of the chemical compound that kills the root system, but folks around here refer to it as “Agent Orange”. Now it’s funny how the state can come and spray and kill it dead, but will they tell you what the chemical is…….. Nope.

For us this It is not an immediate problem, but it is about 600' from our house and will make it up here in a few years. So as you can see this is definitely on our minds.

We will implement the “permiculture” way of dealing with life's problems

What we will do first is use goats, goats will eat all the foliage to as high as they can stand down to the ground, then we will trace the vine down to the roots and dig them up as best as we can. We will cut the vine so they cannot get any nutrients from the ground. Then repeat the process for a number of years until it has finally died off.

Well we have been talking about the bad of Kudzu, is there any good things about it????

First of all, you never have a Kudzu problem in a cattle pasture, Kudzu is like ice cream to cattle, they love it! So, if you can get cattle into the area where the Kudzu is, go for it! Problem solved and the cattle will love you for it!

The vine is incredibly strong and lasts for what seems like forever, strong vine has a ton of uses on the homestead.

I have never tasted it, but from what I understand, the leaves make a great tea, some around here say it helps with digestion and other ailments.

And yes, its original intent of soil stabilizing is true it does stabilize road banks and steep slopes. The unintended consequences far out-weigh the benefits in my opinion.

Wikipedia link & House Photo Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kudzu