Love It, Or Hate It... It Grows On You!


This abandoned cabin is tucked back in the woods and even though it is visible from the highway it is hardly noticeable. There are many such houses which lie in the path of the ever spreading kudzu vine.


In Georgia, the legend says
That you must close your windows
At night to keep it out of the house.
The glass is tinged with green, even so...

From the poem, "Kudzu,"
by James Dickey



There's so much of this fast-growing vine in the Southeastern U.S., you might think it was a native plant. Actually, it took a lot of hard work to help kudzu spread so widely. Now that it covers over seven million acres of the deep South, there are a lot of people working hard to get rid of it! But kudzu is used in ways which might surprise you...

Kudzu's History:

Kudzu was introduced to the United States in 1876 at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Countries were invited to build exhibits to celebrate the 100th birthday of the U.S. The Japanese government constructed a beautiful garden filled with plants from their country. The large leaves and sweet-smelling blooms of kudzu captured the imagination of American gardeners who used the plant for ornamental purposes.

Florida nursery operators, Charles and Lillie Pleas, discovered that animals would eat the plant and promoted its use for forage in the 1920s. Their Glen Arden Nursery in Chipley sold kudzu plants through the mail. A historical marker there proudly proclaims "Kudzu Developed Here."

During the Great Depression of the 1930s, the Soil Conservation Service promoted kudzu for erosion control. Hundreds of young men were given work planting kudzu through the Civilian Conservation Corps. Farmers were paid as much as eight dollars an acre as incentive to plant fields of the vines in the 1940s.



"Cotton isn't king in the South anymore.
Kudzu is king!"

Kudzu's most vocal advocate was Channing Cope of Covington, Georgia who promoted use of the vine to control erosion. Cope wrote about kudzu in articles for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and talked about its virtues frequently on his daily WSB-AM radio program broadcast from his front porch. During the 1940s, he traveled across the southeast starting Kudzu Clubs to honor what he called "the miracle vine."

Cope was very disappointed when the U.S. government stopped advocating the use of kudzu in 1953.

Kudzu Control:
An Impossible Dream?

The problem is that it just grows too well! The climate of the Southeastern U.S. is perfect for kudzu. The vines grow as much as a foot per day during summer months, climbing trees, power poles, and anything else they contact. Under ideal conditions kudzu vines can grow sixty feet each year.



While they help prevent erosion, the vines can also destroy valuable forests by preventing trees from getting sunlight. This problem led Dr. James H. Miller of the U.S. Forest Service in Auburn, Alabama to research methods for killing kudzu. In eighteen years of research, he has found that one herbicide actually makes kudzu grow better while many have little effect. Miller recommends repeated herbicide treatments for at least four years, but some kudzu plants may take as long as ten years to kill, even with the most effective herbicides.



The USDA declared kudzu to be a weed in 1972!



Dr. Errol G. Rhoden, along with other researchers at Tuskegee University, has successfully raised Angora goats in fields of kudzu which would otherwise be considered wasted land. The goats keep the kudzu from spreading further while producing profitable milk and wool products. Rhoden says constant grazing will eventually eradicate kudzu. If kudzu is to provide a continuing food source, animals must be removed from the fields occasionally to allow the vines time to grow.




Common names for kudzu include:
mile-a-minute vine,
foot-a-night vine,
and the vine that ate the South.

Current research may lead to new medicines made from kudzu, but for now only hamsters and mice can benefit from these drugs. Research with laboratory animals at Harvard Medical School has revealed that a drug extracted from kudzu root may help in the treatment of alcoholism. The drug is based on a 2,000 year old Chinese herbal medicine. Several years of testing may be required before the drug can be made available for human consumption.

In China and Japan, ground kudzu root (called kuzu) has been a common ingredient in foods and medications for centuries. Kudzu is respected and enjoyed there. It's far more versatile than say, turnips. But kudzu grows better in the South than it does in its native lands. Its natural insect enemies were not brought to the U.S. with it.

That's why visitors to the South are sometimes awe-struck by scenic vistas which reveal miles and miles of seemingly endless vines.

Southerners just close their windows at night to keep the kudzu out.



I used to love playing in this stuff as a kid!

Get Kudzu products here: http://www.krazykudzu.com/

Kudzu Timeline

2699 B.C. Chon-nong, Emperor of China at that time, composed a catalog of Chinese herbs and it is believed kudzu was listed in it.

200 B.C. The earliest verifiable records show that kudzu was in use as an herbal medicine.

1700’s Kudzu was imported into Japan from China.

1876 First introduced into the United States at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in the Japanese Pavilion.

1884 It was made known in the South through the exhibit at the Japanese Pavilion at the New Orleans Exposition.

1900 Kudzu is planted around porches throughout the South for it’s fragrant flowers, its ability to provide shade and its ability to climb up the porch.

1902 Botanist David Fairchild observed that kudzu can be invasive.

1902 Florida farmers Charles and Lillie Pleas devoted 50 years of their lives promoting the benefits of kudzu as an agricultural and soil saving plant. After his death a bronze plaque was erected near his agricultural center, announcing "Kudzu Was developed Here."

1935 U.S. Soil Conservation research affirms kudzu’s effectiveness in erosion control, soil improvements, and cattle feed. The U.S. Government then offered assistance payments of up to $8.00 for each acre of kudzu planted.

1938 David Fairchild’s warning about the invasiveness of kudzu is published.

1940 The Soil Erosion Service, established by Congress in 1933 (later renamed the Soil Conservation Service) Nurseries produced the 73,000,000th kudzu seedling and employs thousands of Civilian Conservation Corps workers to plant them along highways and ditches.

1943 Kudzu Club of America is formed in Atlanta by Channing Cope.

1953 USDA removes kudzu from its list of recommended cover crops.

1960 Kudzu research focus shifts from propagation to eradication

1966 Dr. Wing-Ming Keung of Harvard University Medical School said that their basic research on kudzu as a treatment for alcoholism has produced promising results.

1970 USDA declares kudzu a weed.

1979 Union, SC has its first kudzu festival, including a beauty pageant, sporting events and Kudzu craft and cooking demonstrations.

1981 The Kudzu comic strip began.

1982 Chattanooga, TN has its first Kudzu Ball.

1985 Diane and Matt Hoots (founders of Krazy Kudzu Product, Ltd.) made their first kudzu baskets.

1994 Krazy Kudzu Products, Ltd. was formed to market kudzu products.

1994 Georgia State Representative Tom Buck introduces a bill to make it a misdemeanor to have Kudzu growing from your property onto another person’s property.

1996 First annual kudzu festival held for Dalton, GA.

1997 Congress proclaims kudzu a noxious weed.

1999 First Kudzu Festival at Stone Mtn., GA.

2000 Kudzu is compliant



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[This message was edited Thu Oct 2 11:04:34 PDT 2003 by yamomma]

thought you meant this kudzu...

Handclapsfingasnapz said:

see above.
1981 The Kudzu comic strip began.

this shit is right on the other side of my fence. every week i have to take a weedwhacker to the stuff making its way over and under the fence and into my grass and trees and bushes and everything else. this stuff is pretty but it is a severe pain in the ass.
and weed killer only makes it worse. the only way i have found to completely kill it is diesel fuel. and it still comes back next year!

kudzu is responsible for the deaths of many children year after year. it's like attack of the killer weed. (just kidding about the children)

chemmie said:

Oh, man you had me there!

I remember this stuf creeping over the highway after a nights growth.

Why the Lord God Created Kudzu

http://www.kudzukingdom.c..._kudzu.htm

Any other south eastern US people with Kudzu stories?

I'm completely lost. You're kidding right? WTF does this have to do with anything?
"God altered the DNA of one plant" - you're joking, right... lol
Could someone give me a clue as to the point of this thread or any thread that mentions Kudzu?
or maybe you're you a complete nut? oh, ok... that explains it, nevermind

Looks kind of nice...from a distance.

taffee said:

Hell yes that was a joke! But someone that wrote didn't think so.

Also, My friends and I used to play in this stuff as kids. It's an amazing REALLY FAST growing vine that takes over acres of land every year. Anyone who ever lived next to this stuff would know what a scary plant it is on how it creeps up to your back door within just a few days. It's almost impossible to kill and/or maintain.

I thought it was neat. After looking at this plant all my life, I never read up on where it came from to begin with. I find the above amazing how it's not even from here and it's like a cancer now.


What does this have to do with anything?
It's the General Discussion forum silly!
[This message was edited Thu Oct 2 18:17:35 PDT 2003 by yamomma]

Today, I was showing some video footage to some people I work with. In one scene there was a shot of a kudsu field. No one knew what it was.

So I researched.

Neat stuff.

Another reason to stay out of the South!

it's great to go driving on the country roads in the north georgia mountains in the middle of the summer. this stuff is all over the power lines across the roads and sneaking into the roads. it's crazy. pretty but also spooky.

then you can see shapes in it like dinosaurs. yippie!

yes, I remember my bothers and I picking out the dinasaur shapes looking out the window of my dad's van.