The challenge of Kudzu

[2manyrocks]

After seeing some kudzu vines in this area while bush hogging last summer, I cleared out the small trees and brush over the winter. Checking on my progress today, I was curious about how much of the kudzu had returned over the last 3-6 months.

This one vine is 20 feet plus long measured from where it comes out of the ground to the end as stretched across my tractor.

I cut this area with the rotary cutter about 4-6 weeks ago. The cutter didn't even touch the vine because the vine grows a couple inches off the ground beneath where the cutter reaches.

Kudzu can put down roots off the runners. The roots go several feet into the ground.

Other than using goats to graze kudzu to death, the only other practical method of control I've found is to spray it...over and over.

 

[ROUSTABOUT]

Deer eat it. Used to be so much you couldn't see the power line in lots of places.

 

[kthompson]

2manyrocks I agree with repeated spraying.

 

[5030]

I hear you can add it to salads too....

 

[2manyrocks]

Some say you can kill kudzu if you remove the tuber. It is evidently located in the topsoil even though the roots themselves can be several feet deep.

I dug up the tuber for this particular plant to see how big it was relative to the vines. It's about 8 inches long and was feeding 9 vines. The longest vine was not 20'+. It was only 19 1/2 feet. You can see all the vines from this one particular plant in the picture.

We haven't even had much of a growing season due to the lack of rain.

There were a couple of deer grazing in the grass nearby this evening. They will eat kudzu, but they don't seem to prefer it.

Wasn't planning to spray this early, but decided to get started anyway.

 

[lman]

Where is this kudzu? I didn't see your location in your profile.
I fought Japanese knotweed for about 20 years and finally got rid of it by spraying monthly in the summer.

 

[2manyrocks]

Middle Tennessee. Kudzu was planted here by the Civilian Conservation Corp in the 1930s.

Many have given up on trying to control it due to the difficulty and expense. Once it becomes well established, its very hard to kill because the root system is deep and because it can rapidly regrow vines. It seems to have a knack for growing into inaccessible gulleys, tree lines, and creek beds. Even this small patch on open ground isn't going away without a fight.

 

[newbury]

I've read that napalm works well on it. Maybe a mixture of diesel & soap plus a flame will help control it.

 

[stuckmotor]

My grandparents used to have a ditch bank covered with kudzu. It's been gone now for decades. I don't know whether a highway or power line right of way crew sprayed it, the herbicide used for the soybeans got it, or the newly reestablished deer had a feast.

 

[2manyrocks]

The highway or ROW crew may have sprayed it with picloram or something very potent like it. But it requires a herbicide license to apply it which means taking a test and paying a recurring license fee to keep the license active.

Part of the difficulty is finding an effective herbicide and then being able to buy and use it.

Regular glyphosate that doesn't require a license means repeated sprayings in my experience. If someone can recommend a herbicide that is effective on kudzu, please share.

This pond area was mulched for several days with a forestry disc mulcher on a compact track loader 6 months ago. However, the land owner hasn't done anything to control the kudzu in the last 6 months. The area has grown back up because the well established root and tuber system is still there and reproducing new vines. I sort of suspected they thought they had beaten the kudzu when they had it mulched, but ....

It almost seems like when you knock down kudzu in an area, it comes back two or three fold. So you have to be prepared to follow up with additional control measures.