I just moved to a new neighborhood, and there is kudzu everywhere. People have backyards which are completely covered in the stuff (mine isn’t far from it, in fact). There’s a neighborhood group that spends a significant amount of their free time hacking away at the stuff. Since erosion is a problem in the area, I’m not particularly inclined to get behind the effort, but I’m wondering of there’s more to it than I realize.

I’m not a real flora kind of guy, so I’m not particularly familiar with the arguments. Will someone fill me in on the whole kudzu controversy?

It’s not from around here. Watch out, they’ll be hacking at you next.

It is very invasive. It will climb trees and kill them. My maternal farmer-family hates it. If you are ever on I-85 heading from Durham up to Richmond, you can see it all over everything.

On the other hand, (and I didn’t know this until seconds ago http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kudzu#Food ) you can eat it.

Kudzu is evil, kudzu will eat your dog. Kudzu will have your house for lunch and climb all your trees. Kudzu will chase you down the road and nip at your heels. Kudzu wants to conquer the world, then play with it for awhile before EATING IT!

Did I mention, kudzu is evil?

Yes, it is quite invasive. Back in the 1950s—right here in Buncombe County—when I was a little farm boy growing up, we had an erosion problem in one of our hillside fields. Lots of farmers did, hard rains washing out gullies and all. So the county agriculture extension agent came to my dad (and lots of other farm folk) and said, “Don’t you worry none about that darn old erosion now, you hear? We got us this great new plant from Japan called ‘Kudzu.’ You plant these here little green babies and your erosion problems are OVAH!”

Right.

We planted it.

I still live on that farm and—over the years, like many farmers around here—we have tried chopping, bush hogging, burning, defoliants, nuclear explosions, diverting asteroids from space and crashing them into that kudzu-choked field, and even Mexican laborers with weed-eaters. NOTHING STOPS KUDZU.

Drive throughout the south and you see lots of Kudzu, especially in Georgia where it is marching on Atlanta just like Sherman. Except Sherman just burned Atlanta, kudzu intends to EAT it, choked I-85 and I-285 and I-75 and ALL!

That’s kudzu.

Would you like some some shoots for your garden? No charge. Come on out and dig all you want. Bring some friends.

Did I mention kudzu is ALWAYS hungry?

Did I mention kudzu is evil.

Did I mention I hear an ominous vegetative rustling coming across my yard and

Ralph, the home is waiting on you.

Jason, the home was eaten last Tuesday and green tendrils even now probe under your door.

I thought that was the dildo salesman being overzealous.

you know you are not that lucky, it’s Kudzu the Karniverous.

Good thing for you that this plant doesn’t attack those of us who forget to capitalize.

i capitalized Kudzu the Karniverous ... anything else will simply be eaten.

Kudzu doesn’t have the natural biological controls when growing here that it does in Asia.  In fact there it is relatively ‘well behaved.’ Here in the south it swallows up huge acreage and even brings down trees with huge overgrowth.  It displaces native plants and vegetation that provides food for birds and other animals.

On the plus side it provides good cover for groundhogs and is food for goats and even people.  Helen has made me stuffed kudzu leaves as an alternative to grape leaves and it was, well, just ok.  But i haven’t tried it as a leafy green or anything like that and i think its highly fibrous nature makes for poor nutruition.

Also on the plus side it has a pretty wisteria-ish kind of flower and when it covers trees and bushes it gives the landscape a surreal topiary feel.

Still, it’s worth fighting to control in my opinion.

That gives me a little background, and I’m starting to see the logic in getting rid of it. On the advice of a couple of people, I’ve hacked away six-inch sections of the bottom of the vines on my trees (which are probably decades old, and are about the thickness of a soda can). I’ve not seen any results yet, and I’m told I may not until winter. How long does it take for the things to wilt once you’ve snipped the main vine?

Steve Shanafelt - 30 June 2008 11:50 AM

...How long does it take for the things to wilt once you’ve snipped the main vine?

no one’s sure, but it has so far outlasted the dinosaurs, several ice ages, and Jason Bugg’s last pair of shoe.

[editor’s note: I started to correct the typo above to make shoes plural, but I realized it is actually funnier as it stands]

It should start to wilt within a few days, but there are typically some ‘sneaky’ vines going up the trees that you might not have seen.  In a week or so the leaves should all be folded and turning brown and if you notice any perky green look for another smaller vine to snip.

found some facts about kudzu, such as:

“kudzu is a fast growing weed that has infested about 11,000 square miles of the southeastern United States. It costs around $500 million every year in lost cropland and control costs.... “

see:

http://www.neatorama.com/2008/04/17/houses-covered-in-kudzu/

11,000 SQUARE MILES!

Kudzu is a comin’ after YOU!

For the record kudzu has many uses including a high quality starch favored by vegetarian cooks. Here’s the whole story of this “pernicious” weed, for the record, that is. 

http://www.maxshores.com/kudzu/

It’s really amazing how tough these things are. It has been almost a month since I cut the roots of the vines on my trees, and it only visibly started to die off last weekend. My backyard, however, is swarmed with the stuff.