Vernon Parish Democrat. (Leesville, La.) 1917-193?, 1922-03-30
Helpful Pointers About
the Kudzu Plant
George D. Coleman

Kudzu is unlike any other nitrogen
gathering plant. There is no need to
inoculate the soil with bacteria as you
plant the roots and not the seed and
the roots carry their own bacteria. AL
falfa, clover, etc. most of them, will
not grow in sour soil; but kudzu will.
Of course, kudzu will grow faster and
better where the soil is not sour. but
it will grow in a soil deficient in lime.
1t will grow in the poorest and sandiest
soil and does better in a light sandy
soil than in clay. Nevertheless, if UNI
der every root you put forkful of
manure. muck, OF black soil, with a
half-shovel of wood ashes, unleached
or leached, and if you have it. about
tablespoonful of sulphur, it will give
it start that will amount to six months
of growth without this help. If you
have an abundance of roots you can
afford to put the roots in rows four feet
apart and four feet apart in the row
as it will cover the ground more quick
| ly; but when you have not the album
dance of roots to plant, put them in
rows s #. apart and 6 #. apart in the
row, and when manure or fertilizer
with ashes is put under them and
tablespoonful of sulphur, the s feet
by 6 feet will, at the end Of the sea-
son. make as good a showing as the
closer planting without the help. Oh,
yes, know the old doctrine or dogma,
never mix unleached ashes or lime
with manure" but don't MIX them:
put the manure in, tramp it down, and
throw an inch of soil over it and tramp
that, then put your ashes in and throw
one-haH inch of soil on that. Then
spread out the roots and cover them
with soil and be sure to tramp that
soil TIGHT AROUND THE ROOTS
and have the crown of the root from
one to two inches under the cover
soil. Doctrines and dogmas are ali
right in their place but never let them
rule you when you think for yourself,
that is to say, use judgment and have
sense.
Kudzu will be slow in coming up UNI
til the soil is warm; but when the soil
is warm it grows fast. 1t will throw
out runners in all directions and the
joints of the vines throw down roots
that become inoculated and form new
roots that can be used to plant new
fields.
Kudzu is greediIy eaten by all stock
and chickens and has so much protein
and sugar that the kudzu hay can be
red to working animals and keep them
in fit condition for work without grain. !
Kudzu is easily cured for hay and will
stand the toughest treatment and still
be good for feed. Some seven years
ago in Monticello. Florida, | met man
whom Mr. Pleas. the introducer of
Kudzu in Florida, induced to put in
small field of kudzu. He moved it for
hay, and as he was gathering it in, a |
heavy thunder storm came on before
he had haulel in but few loads; be-
fore he started to haul the next day
another thunder storm wet it again. |
and again the third day; and it cured |
SO dark that he deemed it no good ex-
cept for bedding and stored it in a |
lean-to next to his barn, to be used
as bedding. When he had fed all of
his good kudzu hay, he put some tim
othy and clover in the racks for the
animals and began using the dark all
most black and spoiled, as he thought,
kudzu hay; but to his surprise, he
found that his animals would not eat
the timothy and clover until they had
eaten up the kudzu bedding. | saw
some kudzu vines growing against a
horse stable and run up and covered
the roof. The chickens ate all the
leaves they could reach near the
ground and then flew and clawed their
way on the roof to get at the leaves
Young pigs grow fast and fat on kud-
zu as it has quite a lot of sugar in it.
have read the statement that kudzu
roots were planted in northern Wiscon-
sin and that it grew fast and thick dur
ing the summer; but the first frost cut
1t to the ground and that winter the
ground froze three feet deep. But
when the soil got well warmed up in
late June, the kudzu roots started to
grow and made strong growth. How
well it will do as a hay crop in the
North | do not know, or that it has ev-