The challenge of Kudzu

[2manyrocks]

Roughly one year update---

The kudzu has not recovered in places where I was able to remove the tubers. However, the challenge was in finding all of them to remove them. There were areas where I thought I had gotten them all removed only to find them growing this season, but overall, the situation has improved. It's a pain, but a pickaxe can be used to remove tubers.

I used Milestone herbicide as recommended by Dr. Weaver in some areas, and it appears more effective at killing the kudzu than glysphospate.

 

[5030]

I hear you can eat it...lol I've never seen any here, don't even know what it looks like actually.

 

[2manyrocks]

Goats will eat it if there's nothing else to eat first so I doubt it's anything a person would want to eat.

This is what a young patch looks like and this is the crown that is just on the surface.

 

[5030]

Looks like Creeping Charlie to me (which we have here). Similar leaves and vines.

 

[jyoutz]

I contacted the author of that study. He recommended aminopyralid (Milestone, Chaparral, and OpenSight).

Kudzu seems more entrenched and harder to get rid of when it gets to the tree line. My little experiment in post 35 above is still a bit of a shock to see the extent of the vine system in an open field once the other vegetation was removed.

While I have the vines exposed, I'm thinking about the best method to dig out the tubers that appear to be in the top 6-10 inches of soil. I'm wondering if it would be more effective to kill these tubers than to continue spraying. So why not a little experiment to see?

I could cut and remove the vine and then dig with a PHD. My concern is the PHD getting bound up in the root system and/or shredding the tuber and it re-establishing itself. I could try a root ripper on the 3pt hitch, but I'd have to buy or fabricate one. Have even considered using a lawn edger, but I'm not sure it would dig deep enough.

I keep looking at my pile of scrap steel thinking something will come to me....

If you spray the leaves with a systemic herbicide, it should in theory translocate to the root tubers and kill them. A mechanical method would still leave some tuberous material in the soil to regrow. I have never dealt with Kudzu, but I have yet to find a plant that tordon won’t kill when sprayed on actively growing foliage.

 

[the old grind]

Glypho will work best in early Fall when leaves give their last energy to the tuber to prepare it for Winter. Any other time of the year the tuber is mostly feeding the greenery and glypho isn't transferred as effectively underground as with most weeds ... which are typically sprayed early in season or on regrowth after recent rains.

Note: This aspect also applies to Japanese knotweed and phragmites (common reed) that propagate by rhizomes and/or runners. Spot-spraying (vs 'blanket') may take a season or two but results seem to compound, costs are reduced, and non-target plants aren't impaired as much. Just time your application right for the treatment's mechanism. It matters.

btw, always use a surfactant when mixing herbicides that don't include any. (most)

 

[2manyrocks]

Although I would like to be able to use Tordon, my understand is that Tordon is a restricted herbicide in Tennessee for which I would have to take a course and get a license to use. Milestone may not be as effective as Tordon, but requires no applicator's license.

The time, work, difficulty and expense required to eradicate kudu is one of the reasons why landowners give up and let it spread.

Kuzdu grows like crazy during July and August here when the temps and humidity is the worst and I am least inclined to fight it.

 

[jyoutz]

Although I would like to be able to use Tordon, my understand is that Tordon is a restricted herbicide in Tennessee for which I would have to take a course and get a license to use. Milestone may not be as effective as Tordon, but requires no applicator's license.

The time, work, difficulty and expense required to eradicate kudu is one of the reasons why landowners give up and let it spread.

Kuzdu grows like crazy during July and August here when the temps and humidity is the worst and I am least inclined to fight it.

Tordon is restricted in all states. Several years ago I had a big vegetation project on my land. I went to the university cooperative extension service and asked for the self study materials for the farm/ranch personal use pesticide/herbicide license. They gave me the materials which I read over in one evening, then came in and took the test. About 15 minutes later, I was done and passed. I was issued a 4 year license for $25. The license restricted me to only buying and applying chemicals on my own property and no commercial applications. This is all I needed to buy the chemicals. The product worked great. Anyone who owns a bit of land and needs restricted use chemicals can contact their state’s cooperative extension agent and it’s a really simple process.

 

[Jrasband]

I think that is way too kind. Spreading farm-eating plants around the country without looking into the longer term effect is somewhere between criminal negligence and malfeasance in office. If you ever fought the scourge of autumn olives on a farm (and whizzed away the manpower and expense involved fighting them) you would have a different appreciation for the issue. There should be an expense restitution program (Ha Ha) rather than more of the same behavior. It happened too many times. You will not find a USDA admission that they even made these mistakes.

If you want to hear a scathing one-sided discussion, sit down on a porch with an old farmer and a helpless USDA employee who happened to attend the same family reunion !!

I don't think Kudzu could be considered a farm eating plant, it is easily controlled in a field where you can easily access all of it.

Also, I think autumn olive may be more of a nusaince in other places but here in SW Virginia it is not aggressive - the berries are delicious, and a good source of food for wildlife. Therefore I leave them alone. Tree of Heaven and horse nettle, on the other hand, can go to hell!

 

[Jrasband]

Around here housing and development are biggest threat to farming and will eventually be lost to progress.