I posted this in the tomato forum, but thought I'd throw it out here as well - since I'm sure many of you may have encountered similiar problems with kudzu... please advise!
Argh... I thought I had found a good, sunny spot for a modestly sized raised bed for my tomatoes/peppers (I live in a piney wooded area, truly "full sun" yard space difficult to come by!), by I just discovered several kudzu roots growing underneath the surface! Would it still be possible to build a bed there (obviously I would need to raise it up pretty high, at least 12" or more)? I'd RATHER have a "permanent" bed for my veggies, as this would be cheaper & easier (I think) than buying 20 huge plastic tubs to make "earthbox" style containers... Of course, I definitely don't want to do all the work to build this bed & then have my plants fail due to the kudzu coming up from the ground! What about laying down some kind of "floor" on the ground, and building higher walls for the bed? Any thoughts?
Raised bed possible over invasive roots (kudzu, etc.) ??
I have never had the problem of dealing with Kudzu, but I know that it is very hard to kill.
However, no plant can grow if you remove all the top growth, by that I mean that you cut it or pull it out every time it appears.
It will be another chore, besides the regular chores, but i think it is doable.
If you put a floor on the bed, your drainage will be impaired, and you might have problems.
I don't know what else you could do, other than removing as many of roots as posible before you start. and putting some kind of barrier in the soil around the bed, after removing the roots.
Kudzu is tough stuff. Had some growing over a couple of trees behing our property - county land. Took a machete to the vines - a week later the ones hanging from the tree and sent new roots to the ground. And the cuttings I left on the ground were growing, too.
Spoke with someone at Teas Nursery - sold me a can of the super strength roundup - said do not dilute - pour on the cut off root stumps and dip the ends of the "air born" vines in the RU, too. Then be prepaired to repeat several times. Took most of a summer, but finally won.
I figured RU would be a large part of the solution, but I'm nervous about even attempting to build a bed there, with all the underground roots... plus - there are a lot of tree roots (pines) in the ground all over, so naturally I'm worried about hacking those up as well! The only other place around our house that gets sufficient sunlight for veggies is in the front yard, close to the curb... I was trying to avoid putting them there, as it seems like it might look a little weird, but might not have a choice!