In a message dated 29-Sep-09 2:36:04 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, writes:
Good grief that’s all we need!! That stuff is just plain awful! Someone ought to be shot for importing it into this country.
Phyllis H.
Of course the annual grasses that came along with the introduced wheat, rye, barley, and innumerable other crops have also wreaked environmental havoc with native ecosystems in the US, decimating the native bunchgrass and wildflower assemblages that covered ancient California, yet we’re glad to have the grains.
I think this kind of thing is food for thought on whether "bright ideas" for human intervention in natural systems are likely to have unforseen and detrimental consequences: it’s pretty common that they do. So what will we learn in the coming decades about the advisability of the introduction of pesticidal genes into food crops? There are people who worry about these things, and others who seem to see no farther than the current "progress". I’m among the worriers.
Melissa
At 12:16 PM 9/29/2009, wrote:
Don’t know who brought it to the exposition, but you can thank the U.S. government for promoting it!
In a message dated 29-Sep-09 2:36:04 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, writes:
Good grief that’s all we need!! That stuff is just plain awful! Someone ought to be shot for importing it into this country.
Phyllis H.
I’ve heard it makes a good livestock feed, and in Asia it’s a source of fiber for cloth, rope, and paper as well as food. So if we all baled it up, fed it to the goats, using the fibers to lead the goats with while wearing the stuff as work pants while anticipating a kudzu meal at the end of the day, one supposes kudzu could be kept in line.
Facetiousness aside, the best thing to do about this non-native invasive species is for all of us to memorize what it looks like and yank it up by the roots the second it appears on our property.
Chris durrill
Friends,
We here in the Deep South hope that you in the North learn to “enjoy” kudzu just as much as we do. However, if you go on an extended summer vacation and have a small bit of kudzu at your property’s edge, don’t be surprised to come and see your home shrouded in kudzu! Perhaps you might also enjoy another one of our Southern delights . . . fire ants!! With climate change seemingly apparent, fire ants may be next for you!!! Don’t you just love exotic plants and animals?
Ted
Theodore E. Snazelle, Ph.D.
101 Water Oaks Drive
Clinton MS 39056-9733
—
Ah fire ants, I once encountered a hill in tall grass while in Georgia. The bites took two years to fade off of my legs
I am still quite curious as to that patch in Southern Ontario. Everything seems to say that it cannot survive repeated hard freezes, and doesn’t seem to have spread further than Southern Illinois, N.J. and W. Va. Is it possible it has made itself into a hardy variety, won’t spread far, or just hasn’t been killed off yet?
Regards,
Drew Mc Farland
Granville, O.
In a message dated 30-Sep-09 9:53:51 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, writes:
Friends,
We here in the Deep South hope that you in the North learn to “enjoy” kudzu just as much as we do. However, if you go on an extended summer vacation and have a small bit of kudzu at your property’s edge, don’t be surprised to come and see your home shrouded in kudzu! Perhaps you might also enjoy another one of our Southern delights . . . fire ants!! With climate change seemingly apparent, fire ants may be next for you!!! Don’t you just love exotic plants and animals?
Ted
Theodore E. Snazelle, Ph.D.
101 Water Oaks Drive
Clinton MS 39056-9733
—
I had forwarded the info on kudzu in Canada to another gardening list and the same types of questions arose. One reader, who lives in Mississippi and knows quite a bit about kudzu had this comment about hardiness:
“To eradicate kudzu, the frost line needs to reach below the root system, which can be at least 3 feet, and possibly 6 feet, deep.”
I would speculate that this seaside patch was able to keep its roots from freezing long enough to get established and now has gone deep.
Debbie in NC
–
Of course the annual grasses that came along with the introduced wheat, rye, barley, and innumerable other crops have also wreaked environmental havoc with native ecosystems in the US, decimating the native bunchgrass and wildflower assemblages that covered ancient California, yet we’re glad to have the grains.
I think this kind of thing is food for thought on whether "bright ideas" for human intervention in natural systems are likely to have unforseen and detrimental consequences: it’s pretty common that they do. So what will we learn in the coming decades about the advisability of the introduction of pesticidal genes into food crops? There are people who worry about these things, and others who seem to see no farther than the current "progress". I’m among the worriers.
Melissa
At 12:16 PM 9/29/2009,
wrote:
I’ve heard it makes a good livestock feed, and in Asia it’s a source of fiber for cloth, rope, and paper as well as food. So if we all baled it up, fed it to the goats, using the fibers to lead the goats with while wearing the stuff as work pants while anticipating a kudzu meal at the end of the day, one supposes kudzu could be kept in line.
Theodore E. Snazelle, Ph.D.
101 Water Oaks Drive
Clinton MS 39056-9733
—
Ah fire ants, I once encountered a hill in tall grass while in Georgia. The bites took two years to fade off of my legs
I had forwarded the info on kudzu in Canada to another gardening list and the same types of questions arose. One reader, who lives in Mississippi and knows quite a bit about kudzu had this comment about hardiness:
“To eradicate kudzu, the frost line needs to reach below the root system, which can be at least 3 feet, and possibly 6 feet, deep.”
I would speculate that this seaside patch was able to keep its roots from freezing long enough to get established and now has gone deep.
Debbie in NC
–