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permaculture - Re: [permaculture] The March of Kudzu.

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  • From: "Margaret L. Wilson" <booldawgs@frontiernet.net>
  • To: "permaculture" <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] The March of Kudzu.
  • Date: Sun, 20 Apr 2008 08:28:06 -0700

Thank you for all the information. I have heard that it is terribly invasive but I didn't know all the details. I read about it being good forage, similar to alfalfa, 20 or so years ago. I believe it was in Countryside magazine. It has always been in the back of my mind that it was a useful plant. I guess not :-))) I think it is considered an invasive weed here in Oregon. I guess I am very lucky that I have never even seen it. They were really cool pictures though.
Margaret
http://farfarawayfarm.blogspot.com/
----- Original Message ----- From: <Marimike6@cs.com>
To: <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Sunday, April 20, 2008 5:48 AM
Subject: Re: [permaculture] The March of Kudzu.


Margaret says:

"It seems like such a waste if this can be used as
forage or even a human food. It looks like it would feed a lot of cows or
sheep if it is a forage. I have never lived where this stuff grows but I
have read a bit about it. Why isn't it being fed to livestock or used for
biofuel or something useful. I have to work, really work to grow enough
forage for my livestock. This is too easy."

Unfortunately, I have of necessity become something of a kudzu expert.

1. Why isn't it being fed to livestock? A starving goat would probably eat
some. Otherwise, for reasons known only to them, it is not popular with grazers.

2. Why isn't it used for biofuel? Its habit is a huge tangle of vines. It's
hard to harvest efficiently and bulky. It doesn't compress well. One ton of
harvested kudzu would represent an awful lot of work, and would require ten
trailer loads to transport.

3. Does it have any virtue whatsoever? Yes, it was originally established
here to stabilize steep slopes-- which it does very well. Unfortunately the
stabilized slopes then become useless for anything but supporting Carboniferous
proportions of rampant kudzu.

An infusion of the leaves in tea is said by the Japanese to be a good cure
for alcoholism. Of course, their kudzu very likely has alkaloids in different
proportion than ours.

The starch in the root mills very fine, and is a useful flour for art
projects, like potato printing. It is also nutritious and can be used like any
ordinary flour. Digging up the roots requires prodigious energy though-- like
digging turnips if the turnip roots were five feet long, with their nether ends
tangled up in China. There are easier ways to feed your pigs, although they would
probably like it.

Final positive trait: In August they have a very pretty little flower, that
smells exactly like grape soda. A cluster of them looks a lot like wisteria.

My suggestion: if you do not presently have kudzu on your property, get down
on the ground and kiss it. Under no circumstances try to see if you can grow
just a little bit of it. That would be like trying to start a little prairie
fire on a breezy day.

Michael
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