ben north

Where i live (north carolina) they are absolutely horrendous, the deep sapprolite and clay soil lets them build subteranian cities, and have had them absolutely destroy beds of all types. The best solution ive found is to trench around beds and bury mesh about a foot deep.... they dont seem to like going deeper than that. 1/4 inch hardware cloth works, expanded lath works, have wanted to try some experiement s with filling the besd with coarse rammed gravel as well... but either way, that physical barrier really seems to do the trick and they dont seem to like coming up (my cat, hawks, snakes, and owls are up there)... hope this helps

William Bronson wrote:I presume you don't keep animals, or at least not enough of r the right kind to munch their way through the clippings.
If I was going to go as far as to use fire , I think I would make them into biochar.
A trench could be dug right near where they grow, and after quenching, filled back in.

No I have only been at this land for a few years now, and haven’t gotten to the goats yet. Biochar sounds like a good idea, been wanting to build a hookaway retort for making charcoal anyhow

Ruth Meyers wrote:I've been fighting Japanese honeysuckle for nearly a decade.  I'll never win because it had such a head start and covers a lot of my woods edges and open bramble land.  But I can vouch for the fact that clippings don't re-root.  The roots can be pulled up to some extent and they also just dry out and die.  I chop and drop and it's obvious where I've worked.  

yes it’s an uphill battle... but it does keep the soil nice

I think I may try my hand at building a big rocket powered steamer, and giving it a try..... it’s tough stuff, but can’t possibly survive steaming..... I have had success with fermenting it in barrels with urine, but that takes months and quite the stink when unloading into the compost

Trace Oswald wrote:

Eric Hanson wrote:Ben,

For my 2 cents, I like the idea of drying to death, but I would suggest doing it in a tub or something so that if the there is just one plant that aren’t 100% completely dead, regrowth won’t take over the garden bed.

I would want to make certain that ... she's not only merely dead, she's really most sincerely dead.

Eric

Fixed that for you.  Sing in your favorite Munchkin voice...

I see what ya did there, and I love it

Yeah it’s nasty, smells nice, blossoms make a wonderfully refreshing tea, but nasty.... keep ripping it up to keep it from progressing back into my land

Was thinking a drying rack is in order to keep it well off the ground. Kudzu is one thing, but that honeysuckle seem to take root just by looking at it. I can’t believe anybody actually plants the stuff

Hey all
wondering about the best way to compost invasive plants like Japanese honeysuckle and kudzu, the front of my property has them in abundance. Obviously I would harvest in the spring before they blossom and set seed, but I am wondering if it would be worthwhile to build a big steamer or something to thoroughly kill the vines and insure they don’t grow in my gardens after I chip and compost them. Have thought about just drying them to death but seems like roasting or steaming would make the process go along quicker and not take up space

funny enough i have been cutting green kudzu vine off the front of my land (near hickory nc) lately to do just this.... not sure how the book says to process the fiber but i have a good hunch that i know how to make high quality fiber much quicker than the hand peel method... gonna get these vines retted and put up to dry for when i have more time to process them later in the year... need to build some simple equipment anyhow and pick up my spinning wheel from my folks place in new york before i can do much  

oscar wilde once said "if you are going to tell people the truth, you should atleast make them laugh, or else they will kill you"
i hear you brother!
i get shit all the time for being a little rough around the edge if they have a problem they do not need to read or have anything to do with it!
the first thing i tell people i have never met before is that if they take offense to anything i say or do it is there fault for hanging around

cheers!