Author Topic: For our southern friends..  (Read 924 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline ironglow

  • GBO Supporter
  • Trade Count: (9)
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 31290
  • Gender: Male
For our southern friends..
« on: July 26, 2022, 02:48:17 AM »
..Haven't seen any around here, so  perhaps you can fill us in on how it affects what you do, and how it acts with your hunting sports.  Found this article..

    Kudzu Facts- Although it seems like an obvious fact now that kudzu is a nuisance, its fall from grace from ornamental plant to weed took nearly 100 years. For many years, the fast-growing vine was widely marketed for use for shading porches, as food for cattle and a cover plant to prevent soil erosion.
The flowering Japanese plant was introduced to the United States in 1876 at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia and was exhibited again at the New Orleans Exposition in 1883.
It wasn't until 1970, when it had covered millions of acres of the country, mostly in Southern states, that the USDA declared kudzu a common weed, according to Claire Wilson of Auburn University. It was later listed as a "noxious" species. Now, without natural enemies in the region, it spreads at the rate of 150,000 acres each year, faster than it can be mowed or poisoned to control it.
Here are 13 things to know about kudzu:
1-Kudzu grows up to a foot per day. The rate of growth led to its nickname: "The Vine that Ate the South”.
2-Researchers have studied the possibility of using kudzu to make ethanol.
3-Farmers were paid to plant kudzu. In the 1930s, the government paid up to $8 an acre to plant kudzu, hoping to curb erosion
and add nitrogen to the soil.
4-Kudzu covers 7 million acres across the
southeastern U.S.
5-Kudzu can be useful. The sturdy vines are used to make baskets and artworks, and blossoms are used to make jelly.
6-All kudzu species are native to Asia. They come from the countries of Japan, China, India and Taiwan.
7-Kudzu was initially ornamental. By 1900, kudzu seeds were sold as an ornamental vine to shade porches and courtyards of Southern homes.
8-Kudzu came to the U.S. in the 1800s.
Kudzu was shown at the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition, but those plants were destroyed. An 1883 exposition in New Orleans introduce the vine to the South.
9-Kudzu gets its name from a mistake.
The American word "kudzu" is a misspelling of the Japanese word for the plant, “kuzu”.
10- Kudzu is edible. Certain parts are, anyway, Leaves can be boiled, deep fried or eaten raw. Roots can be ground into flour or cooked like potatoes. Some people make jelly from the blossoms.
11- Kudzu is extremely bad for the ecosystems that it invades because it smothers other plants and trees under a blanket of leaves, hogging all the sunlight and keeping other species in its shade.
12- Both cattle and goats will eat kudzu and will weaken and eventually control the plant.
13- There are at least 15 types of kudzu. The kudzu species we see in the south is one of the many species generally categorized as kudzu.
*Pictured is Kudzu in Marion, NC
(By Kelly Kazek)   
If you don't want the truth, don't ask me.  If you want something sugar coated...go eat a donut !  (anon)
Agree Agree x 1 View List

Offline BUGEYE

  • Trade Count: (3)
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 10268
  • Gender: Male
Re: For our southern friends..
« Reply #1 on: July 26, 2022, 03:51:31 AM »
It's a scourge on the south.
Deer will bed in it and they'll eat the new tender tendrils but not mature leaves.
It's hard to kill and if you turn your back on it, it just might wrap itself around you and you'll disappear forever. :)
Give me liberty, or give me death
                                     Patrick Henry

Give me liberty, or give me death
                                     bugeye

Online Dixie-Dude

  • Trade Count: (0)
  • A Real Regular
  • ****
  • Posts: 977
  • Gender: Male
Re: For our southern friends..
« Reply #2 on: July 26, 2022, 04:01:58 AM »
If you guys in the north want some, I can send you some sprigs for you to set out. 
Opelika Portal

Offline BUGEYE

  • Trade Count: (3)
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 10268
  • Gender: Male
Re: For our southern friends..
« Reply #3 on: July 26, 2022, 04:04:02 AM »
If you guys in the north want some, I can send you some sprigs for you to set out.
That might restart the civil war. :)
Give me liberty, or give me death
                                     Patrick Henry

Give me liberty, or give me death
                                     bugeye
Agree Agree x 1 View List

Offline mcbammer

  • Trade Count: (1)
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2249
  • Gender: Male
Re: For our southern friends..
« Reply #4 on: July 26, 2022, 06:25:33 AM »
   my grandpappy bailed it for hay , he'd leave the pic-up reel high to keep the runners from wrapping up but it was still rough on a hay baler . I loaded a many a bale on the hay wagons ,  Kudzu has a dusty fuzz on it that  stings , especially when dry    . come  quit'en time I would go to the fish pond and jump in .

Offline ironglow

  • GBO Supporter
  • Trade Count: (9)
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 31290
  • Gender: Male
Re: For our southern friends..
« Reply #5 on: July 26, 2022, 06:27:11 AM »
If you guys in the north want some, I can send you some sprigs for you to set out.

  No thanks DD, we have enough problems with imported pests already.  We now have an "Ash borer' killing our ash trees and something killing our Beech trees.
  Now there are occasionally found. small patches of something called "Giant Hogweed".  It loks like the small, harmless "Queen Anne's Lace" or wild carrot...except it is giant in size.. Taller than a man and with huge blooms, feet across..

  Foreign imports, even beyond the border jumpers, seem to be bad news..Sparrows, pythons , sea lampreys, and some kind of very harmful barnacles inhabiting the Great lakes.
If you don't want the truth, don't ask me.  If you want something sugar coated...go eat a donut !  (anon)

Online Dixie-Dude

  • Trade Count: (0)
  • A Real Regular
  • ****
  • Posts: 977
  • Gender: Male
Re: For our southern friends..
« Reply #6 on: July 26, 2022, 03:18:30 PM »
We need to get back to building, producing, and making all our own stuff.  Only import tropical fruits and nuts, coffee, and tea.  However, we can actually grow tea in the US, but the leaves have to be picked by hand.  Don't know about coffee.  We could probably grow all our stuff in the US with greenhouses. 

In 1960, this is what we did. 
Opelika Portal

Online Mule 11

  • Trade Count: (0)
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 5078
Re: For our southern friends..
« Reply #7 on: July 27, 2022, 04:07:38 AM »
We need to get back to building, producing, and making all our own stuff.  Only import tropical fruits and nuts, coffee, and tea.  However, we can actually grow tea in the US, but the leaves have to be picked by hand.  Don't know about coffee.  We could probably grow all our stuff in the US with greenhouses. 

In 1960, this is what we did.

Why would we want to do that? There wouldn’t be as much washed out town hand greasing and making our enemies great again...

Offline oldandslow2

  • Trade Count: (0)
  • Avid Poster
  • **
  • Posts: 148
Re: For our southern friends..
« Reply #8 on: August 20, 2022, 09:57:52 AM »
How about some Johnson grass? I don't know that it will grow that far north and if not you are lucky. Maybe there is something out now that will kill it.

Offline nw_hunter

  • Moderators
  • Trade Count: (4)
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 5201
  • Gender: Male
Re: For our southern friends..
« Reply #9 on: August 20, 2022, 11:48:21 AM »
As a young boy growing up in the south, I hoed many fields of Johnson Grass. My Daddy was a cotton farmer, his three main enemy's were Bowl Weevils, Johnson Grass and drought.
Freedom Of Speech.....Once we lose it, every other freedom will follow.

Offline ironglow

  • GBO Supporter
  • Trade Count: (9)
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 31290
  • Gender: Male
Re: For our southern friends..
« Reply #10 on: August 21, 2022, 03:40:53 AM »
  I've heard of Johnson grass in high school Ag class, but have no real experience with it.  It may grow here, but not in any measurable amount.
  The Johnson range map shows it around here, but no big effects are noted..
If you don't want the truth, don't ask me.  If you want something sugar coated...go eat a donut !  (anon)

Offline Land_Owner

  • Global Moderator
  • Moderators
  • Trade Count: (31)
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 4526
    • Permission Granted - Land Owner
Re: For our southern friends..
« Reply #11 on: August 21, 2022, 10:52:30 PM »
It is a foul and obnoxious plant that
Quote
...gets its name from a mistake [a BIG one]
...introduced to the United States in 1876 [and fighting that "invasive species" ever since]
...spreads:
_____at the rate of 150,000 acres each year [you can SEE it grow]
_____faster than it can be mowed or poisoned [like Air Potato, another Asian invasive]
...smothers other plants and trees [with ZERO beneficial effect]

Offline nw_hunter

  • Moderators
  • Trade Count: (4)
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 5201
  • Gender: Male
Re: For our southern friends..
« Reply #12 on: September 05, 2022, 04:58:03 AM »
Here is one of our biggest plagues in the NW.  https://kingcounty.gov/services/environment/animals-and-plants/noxious-weeds/weed-identification/blackberry.aspx

These things are wicked, and they are nearly impossible to eradicate. If you drive interstate 5 in Oregon in late summer when the grass is brown, you will see large fields of green all along the highway. This is Himalayan Blackberries.Not green grass. If you can't get to them with Brush-hogs to mow them down, you are stuck with them.
Freedom Of Speech.....Once we lose it, every other freedom will follow.

Offline ironglow

  • GBO Supporter
  • Trade Count: (9)
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 31290
  • Gender: Male
Re: For our southern friends..
« Reply #13 on: September 05, 2022, 05:18:23 AM »
  Back a few years ago, our Legion post bought 4-5 acres behind our post.  It was covered with something called Japanese Knotweed.  It is an invasive species, and you have to keep on top of it.
   On our lot, it grows to about 8' tall..
 
  We mowed down and graded the entire area, just to put it down.  I now use our Kubota zero-turn mower to keep the lawn..but that stinker still keeps trying to edge in on the lawn.
  It apparently picks it's spots, since I haven't seen it take over any other fields..

 Apparently, some think the weed is beneficial in some ways...
   https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/japanese-knotweed-benefits#what-it-is
If you don't want the truth, don't ask me.  If you want something sugar coated...go eat a donut !  (anon)