I saw on the cooking chanel one time that you can fry the leaves and eat them..... kudzu wouldn't be that invasive if people would eat it.... it was brought over here to help wash off spots to prevent mud slides etc. and people get so upset. if we all grew kudzu are lifes would be so much green-er.....
ely
CLOSED: Kudzu
youre a mess, larry, lol
This was a funny thread! I have seen the blooms on Kudzu here but I turn my head because I don't want the plant to feel good about itself! LOL!!
Oh, the Kudzu near my house is still 4 acres or so away - I figure we won't have to move for at least 6 months or so! I am currently battling honeysuckle, virginia creeper, and of COURSE poison ivy!! I finally obliterated most of the morning glories. I don't just pull them up - I cuss them and twist them into a million pieces! Oh and one more thing - never and I mean NEVER plant a black eyed susan vine unless weeding is a hobby for you.. Three years later and I'm still pulling up the darn things!!!!
Hey Melissa, perfectly understandable request for you to make - there are many many folks who don't know Kudzu - which is a good thing they don't know him personally!!
Nicole
hmmm, four acres is nothing for Kudzu. There are still old timers out there that believe you have to close the windows at night to keep the Kudzu out of the house. Good news is, once it gets there you wont ever see another poison ivy vine, another morning glory vine, another black eyed vine - or much of anything else. ;-) Make sure you teach your neighborhood pets and children to keep moving or they too will be covered.
HA! Well at least maybe it will cover my neighbor's skate board ramp and pontoon boat! I really am moving but it's not because of the Kud. Another far away neighbor's retired horse and her 5 'pet' goats were found wandering in the field in front of my house. I put them in my dogs fenced area until they could come get her. They went to town on the honeysuckle threatening to eat the fence. Maybe I need to get some 'loaner' goats! Can't have farm animals in my neighborhood but maybe just for the weekend!
well Melissa, do you feel bad enough, huh? huh? huh? lol
When I first got my place in the country (12 acres), a lot of it was over-run by honeysuckle, wild morning glory vine, blackberry bushes and creeper. After killing myself a few weeks and barely making a dent in it I decided to try what everyone around me told me I should do in the first place and put a few goats in there. You wouldnt believe what they did in just a few short weeks. It was like a bomb went off - they cleared everything out and all I had to do was give em water. lol I dont much care for goats though so as soon as they had it down - they were gone. lol
Kewl! My goal is when I move to move somewhere I can have a few farm animals. Not sure which ones I want yet except I would love to have a few chickens! I met a really cool goose at the GA Roundup too that would crawl in my lap and lay his head over my shoulder. I could even pick him up! He was a sweetie and I was told his name is Louie. Here's a pic!
cool. All the farm geese that I ever met were mean as nails. cute picture
I know! That was what I expected when he approached me! He was a sweetie though!
Ok - those photos totally creeped me out!!! Looks like something out of a SciFi movie...and I anin't goin' thar!
(Not yours, Nicole! LOL! You look fabulous, as always! BTW, been enjoying the heck out of your lettuce. I grew it on the interior window sill all winter and spring!)
Seque - Kudzu is an amazing plant. Im trying to get some photo's of kudzu caves. As soon as I can I will post them. I have to drive down into the bottoms through about 50 acres of Kudzu to a small town that has been blanketed over by the stuff. People drive through tunnels of the stuff during the summer to get to thier driveways. Its really amazing. As soon as I get the courage up to get that far into kudzu I will get ya some pictures. Imagine a street with driveways going to houses. Along the street there are telephone poles. now imagine those photos I already shown ya of kudzu growing over the telephone poles so that the people have to hack tunnels in the kudzu to get to thier driveways. Its amazing. I will get photos as soon as I can.
CREEPY - I'm picturing people with Kudzu growing on them. Chia-people!
Nicole,
I KNOW exactly what you mean about the black-eyed Susan vine!!! I had it in a hanging basket 3 yrs ago and now it is all over my yard. I cannot get rid of it. This spring, I have pulled seedlings every single day for the past month or so.
sequee, that's funny
Wow, you guys have really opened my eyes. I was on a business trip to Atlanta a few years ago, and marveled at the lovely green vines growing everywhere, it really looked nice to an uninitiated mind. We were in a drought and most of the mountains were burning that summer, so that much green implied moisture, and looked like a good thing! I had no idea what this stuff was, or how terrible it could be. I'm like Melissa, I thought it would be nice to have. Even now, I tend to ignore when people tell me something is invasive, because so many things are invasive where you have moisture and humidity, but I struggle to get them to grow here. The combination of single digit humidity, lack of rainfall, altitude and intense sun cures many plants of their obnoxious invasive tendencies. But I think I will leave the kudzu to you Southerners.
lol - Kudzu doesnt care about climate. It eats herbicides for fertilizer (thats scientific fact in at least one study). Fire only gets it mad, fungus is a delicacy to it. We hear tales that slugs and snails flee from it. ;-)
Just remember - 12 inches a day! Thats its growth rate.
Kudzu is slowly aclimating itself to northern climates so beware. So far just in my neck of the woods I have seen them try fire, herbicides, convicts manually hacking at it, tractors tilling it every other day for weeks - and that small area is still covered in Kudzu. The fire and the tilling had it down, you could see ground but every little piece rooted and weeks later, couldnt see the ground again. Its just impossible.
at the university here its accumilating to cold so beware!!!!!! its awful stuff. even in the droughts we have it survives.
its everywhere here and its ugggg to get rid of.
they have found cows like the stuff. okay south lets let the cows loose and put road signs up
watch for kudzu eating cows.
shoot to eat it you got to get near it and i will be the first to say southerners dont go near this stuff if they want to be seen agian.
when i was a kid my mom told me tales of the boogy man and things like that to keep us out of things we didnt need to be in down in the south its kudzu tales that scare ya.
the plan was good for eriosion control but we could of picked a better plant!!!!!! one that doesnt eat everything in its path. even telephone poles arent safe.
HAHAHA! Sequee! You are funny! Glad you're enjoying the lettuce! I had a couple survive the winter but my lazy self didn't plant any until last weekend. Slgrowers - I can't wait to see those pics!!!!