why can't kudzu stop growing?

Question

is there anyway to stop kudzu from growing?

Answer 1

Kudzu is sometimes referred to as "the plant that ate the South", a reference to how kudzu's explosive growth has been most prolific in the southeastern United States due to nearly ideal growing conditions. Significant sums of money and effort are spent each growing season to prevent kudzu from taking over roads, bridges, power lines, and local vegetation.

For successful long-term control of kudzu, the entire root system must be destroyed.

If any root crowns remain, the plant will grow back.

Mechanical methods involve cutting vines just below the ground then destroying all cut material.

Close mowing every month, regular heavy grazing for many successive years, or repeated cultivation may be effective.

If done in the spring, cutting must be repeated as regrowth appears to exhaust the plant's stored carbohydrate reserves.

Cut kudzu can be fed to livestock, burned, composted, or enclosed in plastic bags and sent to a landfill.

Late-season cutting should be followed up with immediate application of a systemic herbicide to the cut stems, to encourage transport of the herbicide into the root system.

Repeated applications of several soil-active herbicides have been used effectively on large infestations in forestry situations.


Efforts are being organized by the U.S. Forest Service to search for biological control agents for kudzu, and a particular fungus is currently in testing.

The city of Chattanooga, Tennessee has undertaken a trial program using goats and llamas that graze on the plant. Currently the goats are grazing along the Missionary Ridge area in the east of the city .

Answer 2

Well it would not be as good for the Kudzu to stop, lay down and die now would it :)

On a serious note kudzu can be a real problem. And simply put there is not any "easy" fix. If there was it would be solved already. Basically you have 3 options.

1) Live with it, remove (weed, rip and or cut) the vines from places they should not be, as they get there. Basically keep your yard and house clean and let the wilds go. If it gets the trees just cut the vines around the base to get it out of the canopy.

2). Aggressively approach the problem with all tools and attempt eradication of all kudzu on your location. This will require dedicated weeding, herbicide application and probably have to be pursued for years to be successfully. Many of the best herbicides will require a licensed applicator to buy / use. This is not a low cost option ( if you are heavily infested) expect it to cost an easy $50-$100 per acre and a big amount of time. Stop the assault for even for a year and its back like it was never gone.

3). The home owners best shot. Use your hands tools and common unrestricted herbicides like roundup or labels brush killer (stump killer works well). Treat with herbicide and after a month rip up what is not dead, destroy as much as you can. The repeat the application of herbicide on what you missed. Dd this as many times as you care or is needed.

This is may never get eradication but you can do a lot to get it under control. Remember, spray the heck out of the kudzu as per label. But if you have desirable things like shrubs or garden plants ( lawns etc) you cant just spray every thing. One trick is to get a foam paint brush some gloves and waders. Paint strait (concentrate) stump killer on just leaves of only kudzu (don't drip on good things). Basically dab 'em all over. Hit only the kudzu and things you hate, the brush killer or stump killer will kill all. Huge coverage of the many vines is very important but you don't need to hit all the leaves in a give square foot, just be average and even. The kudzu is often like 1 big plant (since all the vines are connected) and it can take a real herbicide dose to kill it back.

Answer 3

'Why can't kudzu stop growing', makes no sense. That is like saying why can't you stop walking. HOW to get it from growing is another question, and how to stop it as well is another question. The problem with kudzu is that it is an exotic.... never meant to live where it lives here in the US. As a result, it has no natural enemies. It was introduced into this country by someone who must have thought it was pretty.... people make those kinds of errors all the time --- introducing plants and animals into places where there are not natural enemies.... the list is endless, but here's a few: Cane toads into Australia to eat something.---- now those toads are all over everywhere in Australia and a threat.---they are poisonous to dogs and any other critter that tries to eat them.... Rabbits as well into Australia, and they now eat everything. Tansy weed into Oregon, now all over the place. When mixed into chopped hays, kill cattle, snakes into islands in Indonesia, now eating birds who have never had to face such predation and are therefore threatened with extinction........, the list is endless. About the only way to get rid of kudzu is to physically remove it, but it only controls it in that area only. As far as I am aware, herbicides used to kill it, also kill everything else.

Answer 4

While killing Kudzu is seen as a labor intensive task, the process is simple enough. While others say it's impossible, there's nothing impossible getting rid of this invasive weed, landscaping companies put a price, you and some volunteers can do it for cheap, all you need is a shovel, a trowel, a saw, some gloves. Like a maze in reverse, follow the vine down to the ground and grab a shovel, dig up what's called the root crown. The root crown will look like a starfish or sea urchin; massive assembly of roots emanating from a central point, it's the food source that allows the plant to regenerate easily enough even if you cut the vines, that's what you gotta get rid of. Take a saw and cut all the roots that travel to it's crown from a distance of one to two feet away from the crown. All regeneration stems from the crown, not the roots, once you've gotten rid of the root crown the rest of the vines will die. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EA_OKp2gYNE