A kudzu 'farm' in Chattanooga, Tennessee
Kudzu was introduced from Japan into the United States at the Japanese pavilion in the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. In the 1930s and 1940s, the vine was rebranded as a way for farmers to stop soil erosion. Workers were paid $8 per acre to sow topsoil with the invasive vine.
Many historians believe it was the persuasive power of a popular radio host and Atlanta Constitution columnist named Channing Cope that finally got those seedlings in the ground. Cope wasn’t just an advocate. He was, as cultural geographer Derek Alderman suggests, an evangelist. Cope spoke of kudzu in religious terms: Kudzu, he proclaimed on his Depression-era broadcasts, would make barren Southern farms “live again.” There were hundreds of thousands of acres in the South “waiting for the healing touch of the miracle vine.”
The city of Chattanooga, Tennessee, has undertaken a trial program using goats and llamas to graze on the plant.
Kudzu can grow up to 60 feet per season, or about one foot per day.
Here is an interesting source stating kudzu is not that bad:
[smithsonianmag.com]
8
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5 comments
Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.So invasive down here in SW FL. I worked as a park ranger for FL DEP and we did a lot of removal of mon-indigenous plants and this stuff grew in Mountain sized areas
Meme0309
Level 5
Aug 17, 2018
2
Well, you must be intimate with the stuff then. It's a lot of digging!
Japanese revenge after Hireshimo (sp) and Nagasagi (sp) .
Cast1es
Level 9
Aug 17, 2018
1
Just a little before all that went down. Perhaps foresight?
Oh yes, I remember from my days in Alabama. It does its best to cover and smother everything it can reach.
MikeInBatonRouge
Level 8
Aug 17, 2018
1
Yes, it's hungry!
Excellent. The thing about kudzu is you can't really grasp it's impact until you've driven through a region that has been swallowed by it. Houses, trees, electrical poles. Anything in it's path. It's like a giant monster that's swallowing the earth.
freeofgod
Level 8
Aug 17, 2018
3
It's in parts ... here and there throughout the city. It grows on wires over roads! Amazing in its own way. It looks pretty cool if you don't know it's invasive. I've seen entire sides of mountains covered. I'm sure you've seen similar.
That would have been during the dust bowl era , when droughts caused the soil to be so dry , the topsoil blew away . Sounded good then , a Royal constant fight now .
Cast1es
Level 9
Aug 17, 2018
2
As far as I know, the Dust Bowl was in the western states. But hey, people are constantly making mistakes and screwing the environment. Just another very obvious error!
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