Roger San

This is some established Kudzu near where I live. In fact this is extremely overgrown, out of control kudzu along the side of a highway...near Hardy, Arkansas...think Clash of the Ozarks and you are in the right vicinity.

I use it to feed my rabbits and apparently it is great animal fodder etc etc. The ground where this is at has amazing soil. The kudzu actually puts nitrogen into the soil, keeps erosion down etc but as you can see it is all up and down everything for miles here. The kudzu pictures I took are on a very steep mountain. Originally when it was planted back in the 1930's farmers were paid to put it in. The soil was extremely used up in the South and the kudzu stopped erosion and fixed the soil with Nitrogen. I have found several books on the topic. The kudzu would be planted between rows of other crops with a 15 foot spacing then tilled in etc. Problem being it grows up trees, steep hillsides not suitable to traditional farming etc. I have a strange fascination for the plant and would love to have a piece of property away from my house that has kudzu on it mainly for harvesting etc.

You can still bale it from what I have read but you have to cut it low and bale it high. I believe this refers to the round balers that make the large round bales of whatever. I am not a farmer by trade so I am still learning some of this stuff and collecting equipment as I go. Farmers have used it to feed cows, pigs, chickens (mine don't like it), goats, rabbits etc. It is completely edible (I would recommend the small new shoots) and tastes sort of like turnip greens or spinach greens to me. I have tried slightly larger leaves and they are a bit fibrous to put it mildly.

It does not require any watering or fertilizer although fertilizer is recommended if you are trying to get it established. Also if you are hell bent on removal there was a young kid who injected helium into the ground around kudzu...basically made a nozzle and a metal tube he could drive into the ground and turned on the gas. Apparently it wiped out the kudzu where this was done. From a permaculture standpoint it is a pretty cool plant. If it is near enough and you are diligent in harvesting you can easily feed just this to rabbits. Our rabbits love kudzu, sort of like a birthday present for them when I get it.

That being said having it on your property could end up being a monoculture as it is super fast growing and extremely aggressive covering everything in its path. I have experimented in containers with it taking cuttings and rooting them. The roots are very aggressive in plantings filling up peat pods quickly. I have found it is not super easy to get it going but I have also not tried letting it go to ground so to speak in order to control it.

So that being said it is not as crazy eyed as it is made out but I am not sure I would plant it on property. If I had existing property with it I would use it for sure probably by overgrazing it with goats or other animals. You can kill it by continually cutting it but the big problems there are it likes to go up steep hillsides and trees. Not sure if you have ever tried taking a tractor on a 45 degree slope but not my idea of a fun time. In places like Georgia it was reported that green snakes would get into the kudzu and bite cattle when they were grazing on it. Not sure what a green snake is but apparently it was not good. They would use hogs to root out the roots and tear up the kudzu but of course hogs have there own brand of fun. The hogs would also eat any snakes found etc.

In any case my 2 cents on kudzu. Fun plant but is for sure a challenge to manage.

Hi Paula,

Kudzu is surprisingly hard to get started believe it or not. I have successfully cloned it/taken cuttings and experimented with it in pots. I attempted to move it outside and it died off. I used a rooting hormone to get the roots going but I can tell you beyond a shadow of a doubt it is voracious. There is a roadside area about 2 miles or so from my house where I can get all the cuttings I want from it. Up the road a few more miles there is literally a forest of Kudzu. It has literally dripped off of the trees and covered everything in its path.

I have used it for my rabbits for feed. They love it more than anything else I have given to them. Where we live the vines die back at the first sign of frost but I would imagine without that it would be much worse. I have watched the steady progression of patches around where we live. About 4 miles the other way I would guess it has moved up the road about 50 feet or better this year. The thing about it that is bad is that it will get entwined with everything in its path. It will wrap around thorns and brambles and cut the hell out of you if you are trying to get at it. Essentially it puts a root crown down about every foot or so in about 5 directions. That root crown does the same thing so you end up with a mass of roots and vines everywhere that is practically impossible to untangle. If you were able to chop it there are benefits but it is certainly playing with fire so to speak.

My thoughts on kudzu change every now and then. I still like to give it to my rabbits for a treat and it is super good for them. I am not so certain I would want it in my woods since it would cover and destroy them eventually and the really bad part is it wraps around everything in its path. Imagine if it was wrapped around a blackberry bramble, roses etc and the idea of trying to get in there to get it out. The other weeds don't die inside the kudzu, rather they sit in there waiting for a hand etc.

All in all I am glad it is down the road and not on my property. You could certainly grow it in a container but the roots and vines are very geared for putting out crowns and would be out of control in short order.