Surgical Crown Removal

Surgical crown removal seems to be the best method to elliminate the Kudzu. Now let me tell you, this is very hard, back breaking work, but it does get ride of the Kudzu. We started with the Kudzu nearest the house and worked on it for about four hours a day for a week. After that time we cleared an area of about 4000 square feet. Because part of this area is sloped I seeded it with Dutch White Clover to help control erosion. This seed was an affordable option. I got 10 pounds of seed that covers about an acre for $40.

Now even though we dug and cut, dug and cut, and dug and cut thousands of Kudzu crowns in this area, you will still miss some. So as spring goes on and the temperatures increase the Kudzu will start to grow and you will easily see new vines coming off the crowns you missed. Just watch the newly cleared area every couple days and go get those crowns you missed.

It has been over a month since we did our first clearing and I will still find three or four crowns that we missed, but it alot easier and the clover is growing into a beautiful ground cover. Just keep at it and watch for new shoots. Our plan is to keep doing sections until the Kudzu is gone. I have been spraying the herbicide Crossbow in other areas just to keep it under control until we can get to that section for surgical crown removal.

The Fire

It is spring here in North Georgia and the Kudzu is still mostly killed back from the winter freeze off. Dry, crunchy vines with old foliage cover the ground with a dept of about 6-8 inches. My first briliant idea to gain easy access to the crowns is to set fire to the dry tinder and burn it to the bare ground; so I light fire to it and within three minutes it was ablaze. So much so that I started yelling at my wife to get the water hose as I fight the out of control blaze with a shovel. Okay, not such a good idea after all, for I was within a minute or two of calling the fire department.

If you attempt this burn off method do so with great caution...

The Battle Has begun

So my wife and I just purchased our first home in the North Georgia mountains on two acres. A lovely little fixer upper with a Kudzu problem on about half of the front acre. I have lived all over the country but have spent most of my life in the Southern States, primarily Florida. So I have always seen this "foot a day" vine growing everywhere. Now it's on my land and I want it gone...

For the past month and a half I have spent countless hours reading about how to control, and hopefully eliminate this nemesis. From what I have researched it seems that there is no herbicide out there that will kill it for good. Seems like it will kill it and then grow back because of just how hardy it is. I did find a site called www.kokudzu.com where they say surgical crown removal is the only real way to eradicate the Kudzu problem. And that's where our battle begins...