John Wahlmeier

Alright, bad idea to consider planting it.

How about harvesting it from the wild. The roots appear to be a good source of starch that people could use and removing the root would at least knock the Kudzu back a bit. The leaves could probably be gathered for sheep and goats. The book claims that more than 2 harvests per year weaken and eventually will kill the kudzu. Perhaps the problem is partially from people not knowing how to use the plant that is taking over their land.

A caveat, kudzu is a noxious weed in many states and if found by state officials would be destroyed or the landowner would be charged a hefty fine.

Has anyone had any experiance with growing kudzu under controlled conditions. I mean growing it in areas or ways in which it doesn't take over. I just finished a review on "The book of Kudzu" and it seems like it could be an extremely useful plant for organic growers provided it did't get out of hand.

My review is here

http://uncommon-skills-uncommonskills.blogspot.com/2012/09/kudzu-miracle-plant-that-ate-south.html

And the book can be found here if you want to read for yourself

The Book of Kudzu

Any experiance with it?

uncommonskills

Maybe Kudzu would work better than locust. I just finished reading the book of kudzu by William Shurtleff and Akiko Aoyagi and they both maintain that kudzu leaves are a great forage for animals including poultry. Considering you are in Montana, the cool climate should prevent it from completely taking over and it is a nitrogen fixer as well. It might be a better choice than black locust. Just be sure to keep the vines from strangling your other trees.

It looks like it may be some type of artemisia, maybe mugwort. It is hard to tell from the pictures.
They are thought to help with digestion, and all of them have a silvery sheen to them. Below is an article with some close ups of mugwort, you might be able to ID it with that.

http://onlineathens.com/stories/092511/liv_890332540.shtml

I am thinking of planting a few trees/bushes/guilds in my poultry yard for the chickens and quail. I want to plant mulberries, siberian pea shrub, and small acorn white oak.

I have read that mulberries are high protien and can feed chickens almost with a complete diet. Persimmons might be an option but they hang on the trees for too long and I don't think my poultry could forage them. I would like to have some that attract insects as protien suppliments.

What else would be a good idea to plant in a rotated poultry pasture. There are going to be 4 plots that the poultry are released into consecutively so that they do not destroy their yard.

Would nanking cherries be an option? What about underplanting (clover, alfalfa, chicory, are what are currently being planted).

What do you think, what would be the best for poultry flocks.

I have a review of it here

http://uncommon-skills-uncommonskills.blogspot.com/2012/08/book-review-resilient-gardener.html

I think it is an excellent book, but it isn't a permaculture book. One thing that the book does make abundantly clear is that the bulk of food can come from calorie crops, as long as they are balanced for a diet, with variety and other vegetables and minerals provided by other foods. I think that many homesteaders forget this, that we can grow main crops that provide calories and the base of a diet. We usually think of veggies, fruits, and specialty crops rather than main crops, and this book helps bring the ideas of growing main crops back to the discussion.

www.uncommonskills.com