Ah , kudzu . The industrial plant of legends . Gabrielle has it in her railway yard and wrote to ask how to pop Pueraria lobata for good :
“ I ’m in Northwest Central Florida , near Inverness if that helps and I have a kudzu problem . It was here when we buy this foreclosed property . Any tip on how to get rid of it forever so I can plant a garden ? ”
If you sing to extension agents and commercial-grade raiser , they will almost invariably advocate kill Pueraria lobata with herbicide .
in person , I hate herbicide and do n’t recommend it . The only flora I ’ve ever used weed killer upon in recent memory iscogongrass – and only because I call for to get my glasshouse open and I could not remove it all by hand . If you have cogongrass growing on your property , you may not have a plant life nursery , so I did what the inspector advocate and RoundUpped the stuff .
Kudzu is a different tale . Some have report thatit can be take away quite efficiently by handby using a prong hoe :
“ During the first half of 2006 , some military volunteer commence using the pronged end of the 16″ and 26 ” hand pronghoes as a jacket extraction machine . The prong are drive under the kudzu crown , and then the crown is leveraged out . This is much like using aWeed Wrench , or like using a hammer to remove a nail . This approach is moderately successful . About half the clock time the crest fully separates from the root word , hopefully leaving behind no residuary crown tissue that could restore into a kudzu plant .
A discovery occurred during June 2007 when the Spartanburg Urban Youth Corps work with the Coalition on kudzu removal . One gamy school student , Antonio Perkins , liked the hand pronghoe tool , and decided to apply it only . Each worker was asked to weigh how many crown he or she had hit . When break time hail , Antonio report that he had killed Pueraria lobata at a rate of 186 treetop per minute . This was arresting news because the former record was 120 peak per minute , and that was achieved under optimum condition . We complimented Antonio on let on the record book , and asked him to prove his method . He pulled taut the vines coming from an exposed crown , and then chopped below the crown with the hoe remnant of the pronghoe , thereby removing the cap in one motion . Antonio ’s achiever with this method point that the dull process of carefully excavate the poll with the pronghoe , and then sawing off the crown , was sometimes unneeded . ”
you’re able to see the sawing method of kudzu crown eradication here :
Because kudzu give Tuber beneath the ground , you have to make indisputable you get the root . Just chopping down the vines is n’t enough – you need to get the root or your kudzu will riposte .
If you simply chop up the Pueraria lobata to the footing , then throw cardboard over the region and mulch over that , you should be capable to winnow out all the roots as well .
Bill Finch at AL.com hasa very entertaining post about kudzuwhich includes his thoughts on eliminating it :
“ A young student was latterly celebrated across the nation because he had , in the words of a level appearing on CNN and in The Washington Post , figured out “ how to kill Pueraria lobata . ” His answer was to employ a specialized tool to tuck immense quantities of He into the soil .
I applaud his ingeniousness , but he , like all of us , has become a victim of kudzu hyperbole : Kudzu is n’t particularly difficult to kill . His research would be far better applied to in truth difficult smoke , such as cogon grass or privet .
Now we ’re hearing that an invasive bug has begun to chaw down on kudzu , and could reduce its growth by a third . Hooray , I guess . But if kudzu is an annoyance , it ’s mostly because we ’ve let it become one .
One of the reason kudzu has never really caught on as an agricultural trade good is that it is , in fact , too well-to-do to pop . Kudzu is unusually sensible to overharvest , and horse , cattle , Capricorn can graze it out and eradicate it in a class or two .
you may copy that by cutting the vines back down to the soil , then plainly mow the region every two or three hebdomad during the peak growing time of year , just as you would a lawn .
There ’s a fairly big patch of kudzu at Mobile Botanical Gardens . I ’d been reflect how to get it under control for several years , until I finally recognized what a dandy resource all that kudzu could be for starting unexampled garden .
I ’m using it for mulch to make my young veggie garden . If previous analyses prove out , kudzu is a decent source of organic matter , a good source of N ( pound for pound , much better than manure ) , and make even deoxidize the incidence of some soil pests . In a few proceedings , I can harvest enough mulch to make a mound declamatory enough to cut through 40 satisfying foot of garden three feet deep .
I simply discombobulate that over an sphere where I want to plant next class , it shade off out all of the weeds beneath , and the result soil is remarkably high and rich .
I ’m not in the least worried about the kudzu vine “ infesting ” my vegetable spell . Kudzu is difficult to set up from semen , and the slash vines will not take root . If by some miracle any of them did , a quick Yankee-Doodle would eliminate them . ”
Kudzu is quite high in nitrogen as the works is a nitrogen - fixer and well known for its high protein content . genius Lycopersicon esculentum grower Charles H. Wilber used kudzu in his compost aspart of the formula for growing his monolithic fruits , as described in his book .
High protein = high nitrogen .
And at long last , if you really have hassle with kudzu , why noteat the weed ?
“ Kudzu can be eaten many ways . The young leave of absence can be consumed as a green , or juiced . They can be dried and made into a tea . Shoots can be eat on like edible asparagus . The blossom can be used to make pickles or a gelatin — a taste between apple and peach — and the theme is full of comestible starch . Older leave-taking can be fry like potato chip , or used to roll food for computer memory or cooking . With kudzu vine you could make a salad , brood the roots , batter - fry the flowers or pickled them or make a make sirup . bleak root can be cooked in a fire , roots stripped of their outer bark can be roast in an oven like any etymon vegetable ; or grated and ground into a flour to make a thickening , a cream or tofu . Kudzu is used to make soaps , lotions , rope , string , basket , wall paper , paper , fuel and compost . It can also be bale like hay with most grazing animal like it , specially goats . Only the seeds are not comestible . “
If I had kudzu growing on my property , I ’d use it inmy weed tea recipe .
Stick a bunch of vines in a barrel , cover with water supply , let it decompose down for a few weeks , then use it to water your garden .
Gabrielle , I hope this has given you a few good melodic theme . Thanks for written material .
- Image at top cc licence . picture cite Nature Serve .
