The Vine that ate the South
As some of our regular blogger buddies know, we've been bandering about the issue of whether or not Southeast Missouri has Kudzu, a fast-growing vine brought to the U.S. from Japan in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. In the 1920's it was promoted by Florida nursery operators as an ornamental plant. In the 1930s the Soil Conservation Service used it for erosion control, and hundreds of young Civilian Conservation Corps workers planted it around the nation. Farmers were paid as much as eight dollars an acre to plant fields of kudzu in the 1940's.
The government stopped advocating the planting of kudzu in 1953 and with good reason. The USDA declared it a weed in 1972. Sources say it can grow a foot a day or 60 feet in a year. Whole sections of the southern states are covered in the plant, which has no natural enemies in the U.S. It grows better in our southern states than it does in its native countries of Japan and China. Legend has it that in Georgia you must close your windows at night to keep the vine out!You can google it and see photos of houses, barns, and farm equipment totally covered in it.
I was curious about whether kudzu had made it to our region, so I called Van Ayers, an Agriculture and Rural Development specialist at the Bloomfield Extension office. A Tennessee native, he's familiar with the noxious weed; in fact, he says that his dad actually PLANTED it in the 60's to control soil erosion on the road bank on his farm. The cattle liked it so well that they kept it well trimmed, when it tried to invade the pasture; in fact, one of their cows would break the fence down to get to it. She would wade in kudzu up to her belly and eat all day.
Kudzu, Ayers explains, is a nitrogen-fixated legume like soybeans, so animals love it. I gather that the plant can be controlled with heavy grazing, but it's difficult to bale for hay, since the vines foul up the machinery. However, a man in Rutherfordton, North Carolina produces over 1,000 bales of kudzu hay each year on his Kudzu Cow Farm, and his advice is "cut it low and bale it high."
Anyway - back to the Southeast Missouri question. Ayers says that he hasn't seen any kudzu in Southeast Missouri. "If you had it on your farm, you'd know it," he told me. His official position is "Kudzu is not as big a problem in Southeast Missouri as it is in some other regions of the U.S." I gather that he's hedging his bet, in case the vine IS out there - but no one's reported it yet. Kudzu dies back in the winter, but it picks right back up the next summer. We can only hope that our winters are too cold for it; however, I'm sure that I read where it had been found as far north as Pennsylvania.
I've wondered for years about that wild region of vine-covered trees in Dexter just off Hiway 25 near the 4-way stop, just past Bud Shell's car lot; however, that looks like grape vines to me. I guess the big difference between the grape vines and the kudzu is that the grape vines take YEARS to get to that point. Must not be a big enough issue to turn the cows in on it! And I'm sure Dexter has ordinance against cows - like my sister's city does about goats.
As for the culinary qualities of kudzu, there's a Kudzu tea, which is supposed to be beneficial, and research is being done to determine if it can be used to cure hangovers and treat alcoholism and migraine headaches. The blossums can be batter fried or made into a apple/peach-flavored jelly.
As clever as our own Cake Lady is, I'm sure she could come up with some excellent recipes - if she could find an adequate supply of the plant!
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However, grape vines are sorta heart-shaped and have just that one lobe (I wish I could draw it). The kudzu vines have three lobes. I've seen some leaves like that on my lane, but they obviously weren't kudzu, since they didn't grow a foot a day!
I don't THINK I was getting the run around from the Bloomfield extension guy. Of course, you wouldn't know, unless you're swamped with the vine, and no one will believe you!
The vines I was talking about are in that wild area on the right (west) of Hiway 25, behind that service station whose name eludes me... That region has been a tangle of vines ever since I can remember. I think it's beautiful!
Hey, one of you Dexter bloggers go out there and check it out. Oops! My photo didn't come up today, so you don't know what it looks like! Bobby, did you get my email?? Well, we'll try again tomorrow. I THINK I could recognize it from the photos.
Wow! Kudzu in Dexter! That would be a heck of a story! On second thought, I'll go look at it myself tomorrow. What's two trips to Dexter in two days? Just about $13.45 per trip...ACK!!!
Minnie, get out there and look at that kudzu for me!!! Do you have snake boots??
Our editor posted my kudzu photo this morning (Tuesday 9/11). Thanks, Bobby! It shows the shape of the leaf pretty clearly, though it doesn't capture the extent of the infestation possible with this insidious vine. Bobby says he saw it in California, which is his state of origin.
This would be a prime example of solving one problem by creating another, wouldn't it? Sorta like importing cats to kill mice and then being overrun by cats... or importing water hyacinths in Florida......Can't remember why?? And then importing...what was it? those manatees? No, that's not it!
Help me out here, Ducky Sage-of-the-South!
However, unlike snipes, kudzu is a bonafide environmental reality!! We were there TODAY!! YES!!!
MINNIE'S BODACIOUS BLOGGERS RULE!!!
My new blog will hit the streets in the morning!!!
YEE HA!!!
I traveled through Dexter again today and got directions to that kudzu on "Hospital Road," but it was too far out of my way and I was too tired to try to find it. Wish I'd known about the Hickory Hills location. I'm not even sure the vine I cut yesterday is kudzu. It doesn't look quite like the picture I posted on my blog.
I was afraid to get it out of the bag to test it on my goats, and it's a good thing I didn't! If your poop idea is valid, I'd have it all over my fields in no time!