permaculture

["John D'hondt" <dhondt@eircom.net>]

Well, I could not get kudzu or soybeans going in Ireland either. Kudzu 
survived for a few years in a poly tunnel but did not produce anything much. 
As soon as it was banned to our wild outdoors it completely died within a 
month or two and that was during one of our warmer summers. We can grow soy 
bean plants but we are lucky if we get as many beans back as we put in the 
ground.
john

> LOL, "tried to get kudzu established and it wouldn't take" lol! say I from 
> the deep South. Nature will always try to find a balance - perhaps she 
> considers soybean an invasive species and is trying to correct...
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: mIEKAL aND <qazingulaza@gmail.com>
> To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>; Madison Permaculture 
> <permaculturemadison@googlegroups.com>
> Sent: Tuesday, October 18, 2011 11:50 AM
> Subject: [permaculture] Kudzu bug threatens farms across U.S. South
>
> (another fine mess we've gotten ourselves into - when I lived in
> Madison I tried to get kudzu established in my yard but couldn't get
> it to take...)
>
>
> Kudzu bug threatens farms across U.S. South
>
> http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/SciTech/20111018/kudzu-bug-threatens-us-south-soybean-crops-111018/
>
> The Associated Press
> Date: Tuesday Oct. 18, 2011 6:48 AM ET
> BLACKVILLE, S.C. — Kudzu -- the "plant that ate the South" -- has
> finally met an insect in the U.S. that's just as voracious. The
> trouble is, the so-called "kudzu bug" is also fond of another plant
> that's big money for American farmers.
>
> Soybeans.
>
> "When this insect is feeding on kudzu, it's beneficial," Clemson
> University entomologist Jeremy Greene said. "When it's feeding on
> soybeans, it's a pest."
>
> Like kudzu, which was introduced to the U.S. South from Japan in the
> late 19th century as a way to fight erosion on the region's worn-out
> farmlands, this insect is native to the Far East. And like the
> invasive vine, the kudzu bug is running rampant.
>
> Megacopta cribrari, as this member of the stinkbug family is known in
> scientific circles, was first identified near Atlanta in 2009. Since
> then, it has spread to most of Georgia and North Carolina, all of
> South Carolina, and several counties in Alabama.
>
> And it shows no signs of stopping.
>
> Kudzu and soybeans are both legumes. The bug -- also known as the bean
> plataspid -- breeds and feeds in the kudzu patches until soybean
> planting time, then crosses over to continue the feast, said Tracie
> Jenkins, a plant geneticist at the University of Georgia.
>
> University of Georgia researchers have recorded losses as high as 23
> per cent in untreated fields.
>
> One thing that concerns researchers is the bug's hardiness. Jenkins
> said they may be able to respond to temperature and other
> environmental changes by turning a gene or genes on or off, making
> them particularly adaptable.
>
> Studies of climate data in the bug's native land are not encouraging.
>
> "I think it's going to be able to dwell anywhere in the United States
> that we grow soybeans," says Greene. "So that should be concerning for
> some of the states that produce millions of acres of soybeans."
>
> That seems to be where they're going.
>
> In 2010, Georgia produced 6.8 million bushels of soybeans, South
> Carolina 10.5 million and North Carolina more than 40 million,
> according to the American Soybean Association. Jenkins said there have
> been unconfirmed sightings in Tennessee, which produced 44 million
> bushels of soybeans last year.
>
> > From there, it's not far to states like Illinois and Iowa, where
> production is measured in the hundreds of millions of bushels.
>
> "They're moving north and west," Jenkins says. "And I think they'll keep 
> going."
>
> Especially without an effective way to control them.
>
> Jenkins is trying to pinpoint the country of origin by studying the
> DNA of a bacterium, or endosymbiont, that lives in the bug's gut. She
> is comparing DNA from the U.S. bugs with samples sent to her from
> India, Japan and China.
>
> The samples she's analyzed from the various states have all so far
> been traced back to the same maternal line -- meaning this infestation
> could have begun with a single gravid or egg-bearing female that
> hitched a ride here on a plant or in someone's luggage.
>
> Jenkins is hoping a weapon might emerge from her DNA analysis.
>
> "If there's a gene that's allowing it to adapt really well, if it has
> the insect gene, then I might be able to pull that out and use it
> against it," she says.
>
> For now, farmers are having to rely on chemicals. So far, the results
> have been mixed, at best.
>
> Insecticides that work on other stinkbugs have shown promise. But a
> couple of days after an application, the fields are re-infested.
>
> "The problem with this insect is its sheer numbers," said North
> Carolina State University pest specialist Jack Bacheler. "It's not
> that this thing can't be controlled. But it's probably going to be
> costly to do so."
>
>
>
> Read more: 
> http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/SciTech/20111018/kudzu-bug-threatens-us-south-soybean-crops-111018/#ixzz1b9IFZxuS
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