permaculture

["Johnathan Avery Yelenick" <yelenick@riseup.net>]

i think my only retort would be for you to take a hard look at David
Theodoropoulos's book, "Invasion Biology: Critique of a Pseudoscience".
It's quite enlightening on issues involving Kudzu.
oh,oh...also, i think the classic permaculture adage, the problem is the
solution, may be germane here too.
ciao,
johnathan yelenick
blacktail permaculture
south platte river bioregion

> Message: 8
> Date: Wed, 2 Jul 2008 11:37:01 EDT
> From: Marimike6@cs.com
> Subject: Re: [permaculture] kudzu starts
> To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
> Message-ID: <ca7.2c8ecafc.359cfa9d@cs.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
>
> 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
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 9
> Date: Wed, 2 Jul 2008 11:15:21 -0500
> From: "Trudie Redding" <tredding@mail.utexas.edu>
> Subject: Re: [permaculture] kudzu starts
> To: "permaculture" <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
> Message-ID:
>       <B38BF414E6C5BC45A93575AF64F58E9202492020@E2K3.engr.utexas.edu>
> Content-Type: text/plain;     charset="us-ascii"
>
> Thanks for letting him know, I sure hope the people in Colorado will
> stop him, lots of dead trees etc in the path of kudzu in Georgia, Kansas
> etc.
> There might even be a prison sentence involved, he might ought to get
> his facts straight about the pros and cons. He could spend all his labor
> hours just trying to eradicate it and never get anything else planted,
> no diversity, I have some potato vines(don't know real name,) come up
> from a tuber, not edible, they climb and break limbs off the pecan,
> orange , berry trees, I keep my eyes open, if I am sick and cant get out
> they take over
> Trudie
> I'll never forget the path of a tornado in Kansas, one yr later the
> kudzu had buried all the blown off roofs, dead cars etc, it makes it
> look good, but underneath, a huge dangerous 5 mile long gully and lots
> of stuff that will probably be there 15 yrs later, very dangerous and
> not a single live tree.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: permaculture-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org
> [mailto:permaculture-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of
> Marimike6@cs.com
> Sent: Wednesday, July 02, 2008 10:37 AM
> To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
> Subject: Re: [permaculture] kudzu starts
>
> 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..........
>