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  • From: Marimike6@cs.com
  • To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] kudzu starts
  • Date: Wed, 2 Jul 2008 11:37:01 EDT

Jonathan asks, "I was wondering if anyone might have any kudzu (Pueraria
montana) rhizomestarts I could buy or trade for? I could pay shipping costs.
It's
pretty hard trying to find a purchase source on the internet due to this
plant's condemned status. But nonetheless, what a useful species! Forage for
goats,
bees etc., valuable root starch, prodigious soil builder and a nitrogen fixer
to boot! Safe enough to use here outside of Denver, Colorado where we don't
have a lot of rainfall and cold winters to check it dispersal; not that
anthropogenic dispersal is 'bad' or anything :) Maybe a guild possibility in
this
bioregion with Juglans due to J.'s nitrogen requirements. Pack that with
pawpaw
and goats and I think we might have a winner!"

How much do you need? I can give you a couple of boxcar loads. But I would
suggest that you first check with Colorado's Department of Agriculture to see
whether they would tolerate its introduction.

Back in the 19th century we had a fellow called Mr Johnson, who introduced an
ornamental grass he thought highly of, hoping it might do well in the south.
It did.

To this day, farmers around hear curse and spit on the ground whenever they
hear the words "Johnson grass". We wouldn't want kudzu to become known
locally
up your way as "Jonathan grass".

It is in fact, a miracle weed and quite easy to grow. And it has been
mentioned as having a biofuel potential on a par with corn, in terms of
recoverable
therms per acre. The starchy roots are nutritious, and goats have been known
to
browse on the stuff. But I think as your familiarity with it increases you'll
be encountering problems with the harvesting. The tubers it grows from go
down to about five feet, and have to be grubbed up mechanically. Hand
harvesting
is not feasible, and quite a lot of deep plowing would be required to expose
the roots.

So think twice-- no, three times, before intentionally putting this weed from
hell into a new environment. Once established, (assuming it takes to your
site) you can never get rid of it and use your land for anything else. You've
got
kudzu forever. If you painstakingly remove every last root you can find, it
reseeds itself by magic.

Michael




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