Kudzu

Ronald Nigh (danamex@mail.internet.com.mx)
Thu, 19 Aug 1999 17:57:47 -0500

Gene McAvoy wrote:
>Re Kudzu
>
>Wow - Talk about reiventing the wheel and not learning from past mistakes.
>Aren't the 2 million acres of kudzu infested lands across the south east
>adequate evidence of kudzu's invasive potential. Exotic invasive plants
>are probably the second greatest threat to our remaining natural ecosystems
>after habitat destruction resulting from direct human activities. Kudzu
>is biological pollution of the worst sort.
>
>If you need any further evidence of the destructive potential of exotic
>invaders, I suggest a vist to south Florida, where invasive plants now
>cover some 12% of the land mass with severe ecological impact to some of
>the most unique ecosystems in the continenetal US.
>

Curious isn't it, how everything depends on the mind. In the 1960s kudzu
was still touted in the Rodale Encyclopedia of Organic Farming as a miracle
plant. I remeber there was a picture of a cow grazing contentedly in kudzu
up to its ears.

Of course, "invasive potential" is exactly what we are looking for in a
ground cover/green manure, and kudzu is a proven green manure and forage.
There aren't that many options for heavy clay soils. Perhaps it should not
have been introduced in the first place, but who could say? In agriculure
"exotics" are the rule rather than the exception. But now that it is here,
kudzu's status as "biological pollution" says more about our own
mismanagement of our ecosystems ("natural" or otherwise) than it does about
kudzu itself.

Kudzu is now a "natural" element of our landscape; it does little good to
satanize it as a "threat"--a similar mentality classifies thousands of
plants as "weeds" to be "controlled" with herbicides. Herbicides deflect
sucession to more "weedy", resistant plants and so we increase our problem
rather than solving it. Yet under proper managment, kudzu can be a highly
useful tool, as can many "weeds". We must understand and manage
successional processes on our fields and that's really what cover crops are
about.

Ronald Nigh
Dana, A.C.
Mexico, D.F. & San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas
Tel. y FAX 525-666-73-66 (DF)
529-678-72-15 (Chiapas)
danamex@mail.internet.com.mx

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