The gas is also commonly seen in suicide kits—mail-order hoods sold out of Oregon and elsewhere that can be attached to a helium tank by people who want to kill themselves. At the coffeeshop, the Kudzu Warriors talk about experimental approaches: did you see the YouTube video about the teenager who discovered that pumping helium into the ground will kill kudzu? I would say that you are very fortunate to have a place that appears to be free of persistent herbicides and soil made rich by kudzu. Any tips on how to get rid of it forever so I can plant a garden?”. “A young student was recently celebrated across the country because he had, in the words of a story appearing on CNN and in The Washington Post, figured out “how to kill kudzu.” His solution was to use a specialized tool to insert vast quantities of helium into the soil. If you have found a method that gets rid of this pest of a plant be sure to email it to us at contact@cypressmag.com. You would have to drill down a foot or two I would guess. This works better than any commercial herbicide plus it is not so hard on the environment! Testing of 25 herbicides over an eight-year period by Miller (1996) led to the following recommendations: Open Patches on Level Ground. Home & Garden Cypress Mag June 13, 2018 plants, southern gardening, vines, Kudzu Comment. I did not know most of the other information including how high in nitrogen it was and that it wasn’t going to sprout more kudzu if I used it in compost or just left it on the ground. A south Georgia teenaged inventor wants to show people that there is some good in that pesky weed kudzu. lobata; formerly known as Pueraria lobata). “Kudzu can be eaten many ways. I’m not in the least worried about the kudzu “infesting” my vegetable patch. The weed scientist mentioned, Stephen Enloe, is an Auburn Univ. 7. Now a noxious weed, which with young growth is good cattle feed which is estimated to cost the USA $50 million annually. At the coffeeshop, the Kudzu Warriors talk about experimental approaches: did you see the YouTube video about the teenager who discovered that pumping helium into the ground will kill kudzu? It might work, but I’d say it was too dangerous to try. Another method was discovered by a teenager named Jacob Schindler. There’s a fairly big patch of kudzu at Mobile Botanical Gardens. What’s a gardener to do if faced with the threat of kudzu? At the coffeeshop, the Kudzu Warriors talk about experimental approaches: did you see the YouTube video about the teenager who discovered that pumping helium into the ground will kill kudzu? He found that inserting Helium into the soil of the invaded area would kill the Kudzu without harming the surrounding vegetation. At the coffeeshop, the Kudzu Warriors talk about experimental approaches: did you see the YouTube video about the teenager who discovered that pumping helium into the ground will kill kudzu? Kudzu is used to make soaps, lotions, rope, twine, baskets, wall paper, paper, fuel and compost. The technique uses a perforated tube with a drill bit that protrudes from one end of the tube to bore into the earth near the vine roots. But Megacopta cribraria also has a taste for legumes, including soybeans. Plus, the pine trees exposed to helium showed accelerated growth even while the kudzu died. teen kills kudzu with helium . Chickens can eat it. Facebook 0 Twitter Pinterest 0 0 Likes. Got about a 2 acre field that is in kudzu right now. Kudzu was introduced to the U.S. in the 1930’s to help with erosion control. Don't let its common name fool you: The "kudzu bug" isn't to be trusted. At the coffeeshop, the Kudzu Warriors talk about experimental approaches: did you see the YouTube video about the teenager who discovered that pumping helium into the ground will kill kudzu? I would be interested to hear other's opinions about this story. in a day and is not finicky about poor soils and unfavorable conditions. Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. The complicated issue of heavy metals in residential soils, part 1: What are toxic heavy metals, and where do they come from? You can see the sawing method of kudzu crown eradication here: Because kudzu makes tubers beneath the ground, you have to make sure you get the root. Bill Finch at AL.com has a very entertaining post about kudzu which includes his thoughts on eliminating it: “A young student was recently celebrated across the country because he had, in the words of a story appearing on CNN and in The Washington Post, figured out “how to kill kudzu.” His solution was to use a specialized tool to insert vast quantities of helium into the soil. His solution was to use a specialized tool to insert vast quantities of helium into the soil. The vine can grow up to 12 inches (30 cm.) Problem solved. But it has become a serious pest, suffocating trees and land. Kudzu (Pueraria montana) is highly invasive in North America and other parts of the world. While this method is still being tested and debated, we’ve rounded up a few ideas from the front lines. Kudzu is very aggressive to the point it crowds out anything else and can climb nearly 100 feet into trees. What I think is more likely is that, by finding the site where the kudzu’s stem enters the ground, this kid has found a “weak spot” on the kudzu which is susceptible to damage. 7. Then we get power AND the helium we need to kill kudzu. The prongs are driven under the kudzu crown, and then the crown is leveraged out. Meet Jacob Schindler, an eleventh grader at Lowndes High School. It’s also very unlikely that the helium itself is acting as a poison because helium is an inert gas. With kudzu you can make a salad, stew the roots, batter-fry the flowers or pickled them or make a make syrup. Then we get power AND the helium we need to kill kudzu. Revegetation of sites following treatment is an important last step to ensure that any residual kudzu does not reestablish. Injecting helium at the root kills kudzu without harming nearby plants, Schindler says. I’m a little bit suspicious about that explanation, and I’m also a little bit skeptical about how much more economically feasible it would be to use the helium instead of more standard herbicides. This was stunning news because the previous record was 120 crowns per hour, and that was achieved under optimum conditions. The organic treatment, which simultaneously established native vegetation, killed 91 percent of kudzu after one year and 95 percent after two years. Voila! The plant of legends. The KEHTA delivers helium into the soil, killing kudzu without harming neighboring plants. As promised — some happy news:  There’s this kid in Valdosta, GA (close to Tifton where I spent a few years as a graduate assistant), who has been experimenting with ways to kill kudzu. Apparatus and method for boring into the earth near a Kudzu vine root system to apply herbicidal helium gas to the roots and eradicate the Kudzu vine. They block light and can kill desirable plants. Kudzu is quite high in nitrogen as the plant is a nitrogen-fixer and well known for its high protein content. Biocontrol Agent Tested to Battle Invasive Kudzu Bug By Jan Suszkiw May 3, 2012. All Right Reserved. I wish the kid were here so he could come to the University of Minnesota – I think he has a lot to offer and he makes me slightly more optimistic about where horticulture ends up. Just chopping down the vines isn’t enough – you need to get the root or your kudzu will return. It does indeed appear to be the dreaded kudzu, flowers smell like grape Kool-aid. One high school student, Antonio Perkins, liked the hand pronghoe tool, and decided to use it exclusively. Consult expert sources. Its vines can grow up to several feet a day. His solution was to use a specialized tool to insert vast quantities of helium into the soil. The gas is also commonly seen in suicide kits—mail-order hoods sold out of Oregon and elsewhere that can be attached to a helium tank by people who want to kill themselves. Many herbicides will kill back the stems and leaves of kudzu; however, most will not provide eradication by killing of the root systems. In order to convert kudzu sites to productive forest or cropland, total eradication is a necessity. Now we’re hearing that an invasive bug has begun to chaw down on kudzu, and could reduce its growth by a third. Each worker was asked to count how many crowns he or she had removed. JACOB SCHINDLER, USES HELIUM TO KILL KUDZU: It has been called the foot a night vine, the mile a minute vine. If you simply chop the kudzu to the ground, then throw cardboard over the area and mulch over that, you should be able to eliminate all the roots as well. I simply throw that over an area where I want to plant next year, it shades out all of the weeds beneath, and the resulting soil is remarkably mellow and rich. Its vines can grow up to several feet a day. Chemical application, in and around root cuts and exposed root crowns, is an effective way to kill … Apply herbicides when the vines are actively growing. A Decatur, Georgia teen known as the “Kudzu Kid” is getting quite a bit of attention for developing a way to kill the aggressive vine by injecting helium into its roots without harming the surrounding plants and wildlife (see the article in Atlanta Magazine). Like any 12-year-old, he dreamed of space travel and wanted to know what it would take to grow kudzu on Mars. For those of you who choose not to view the video, what this kid does is to inject helium into the soil around the root system of a kudzu plant. Kudzu was introduced to the U.S. in the 1930s to help with erosion control. To see this kid work on something like this at such a young age is fantastic and gives me hope for the future. The KEHTA delivers helium into the soil, killing kudzu without harming neighboring plants. Kudzu vine removal is a wide spread local issue in much of the southern United States. Instead, he began research on removal methods, and found an unusual way to deal with the problem: pumping helium into the ground around the plant itself. The vine was introduced to the United States at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876. While experimenting with different gases in order to make predictions about the effect that Mars’s atmosphere would have on the plant, Schindler discovered that he could use helium to kill kudzu without harming the plants around it. Consult expert sources. 4. Posts: 2757. Funny how nothing else is affected. Thanks for writing. While this method is still being tested and debated, we’ve rounded up a few ideas from the front lines. It completely killed off the Kudzu but left everything else alone. Results showed a high level of suppression on the small plots after just one year. An even higher percentage of kudzu—99 to 100 percent—was killed during the second year. In a few minutes, I can harvest enough mulch to make a mound large enough to cover 40 square feet of garden three feet deep. I’m also very interested in any other gasses that he might have tried to kill the kudzu – I wonder, for example, if he tried propane? Problem solved. If by some miracle any of them did, a quick yank would eliminate them.”. The vines grow up and over almost any structure, including houses, and conceal from view entire buildings in unmonitored locations. AND killing the crown, I can do that! But it has become a serious pest, suffocating trees and land. Vines may grow to 100 feet vertically and 50 feet laterally. Posted: Thu … The exact reason why isn’t known, but one person who was interviewed said he suspected that the helium smothers the plants roots thus killing it. Apply herbicides when the vines are actively growing. As with most aggressive exotic species, eradication requires persistence in monitoring and thoroughness in treating patches during a multi-year program. Jacob Schindler says it's edible and since there's so much of it available why not use it as a Unless, of course, we get it from the moon Atlanta (CNN) -- … 6. Ars Tribunus Militum Registered: May 9, 2005. What do I need to do to get rid of it? Thanks in advance for any info you have to share. Designed and Developed by PenciDesign, The Great South Florida Food Forest Project, it can be removed quite efficiently by hand, part of the recipe for growing his massive fruits, The Chop & Drop Idea is Truly Revolutionary, Knot-Weed Removal, Mosquitoes in Ponds and Missing Tortoises, Easy Pest Control – Crash Gardening, Episode 3, Making Christmas Cookie Ornaments as a Family, Improving the Ground One Ground at a Time. STEP 1: PREPARE 5. HELIUM’S FUTURE UP IN THE AIR. Jeff – There’s a better explanation of his scientific process in the article from his local newspaper: http://valdostadailytimes.com/local/x1414113336/An-Ivy-League-of-His-Own. Boring is stopped when all of the tube perforations are below the earth's surface. Antonio’s success with this method showed that the slower process of carefully excavating the crown with the pronghoe, and then sawing off the crown, was sometimes unnecessary.”. The exact reason why isn’t known, but one person who was interviewed said he suspected that the helium smothers the plants roots thus killing it. That sort of became my life, killing kudzu. Notify me of followup comments via e-mail. After the injection the plant apparently dies. After 10 years of research, he created the KEHTA (Kudzu Eradicating Helium Technology Apparatus), a device that earned him a patent. Kudzu is unusually sensitive to overharvest, and horses, cattle, goats can graze it out and eliminate it in a year or two. 1. Deal with climbing vines first. Apparatus and method for boring into the earth near a Kudzu vine root system to apply herbicidal helium gas to the roots and eradicate the Kudzu vine. The kudzu vine and foliage do not actively grow in the winter and are killed off by a frost. *Image at top cc license. If you have cogongrass growing on your property, you cannot have a plant nursery, so I did what the inspector recommended and RoundUpped the stuff. If you can then dig back to where the kudzu upper roots are and hack at the root, then put the killer into the root. At the coffeeshop, the Kudzu Warriors talk about experimental approaches: did you see the YouTube video about the teenager who discovered that pumping helium into the ground will kill kudzu? Now a University of Georgia junior, Schindler’s concept uses helium to eradicate kudzu. Jump to Latest Follow 1 - 17 of 17 Posts ... Any help is appreciated, thinking methods like chemicals, fire, helium, goats, a tasmanian devil are all pretty much on the table (terrible attempt at humor). Applying the helium proved an exhausting process, but the experiment worked in the field. I have been battling kudzu for 7 years solid. Fill it with "kudzu weed control" type brush killer, and let the kudzu drink it up. Cattle can eat it. Apparently he found injecting helium kills the thick starchy root. It may take more than one spraying, but will do the job. I saw a kid who was drilling the ground around the kudzu and I think was pumping Helium gas into the ground. robotic_tourist. Pigs can eat it. I would be interested in the long term effect. It was here when we bought this foreclosed property. In … Killing kudzu is not a quick fix and it may take up to 10 years to eradicate it. However it works though, it’s a neat trick! Champion tomato grower Charles H. Wilber used kudzu in his compost as part of the recipe for growing his massive fruits, as described in his book. In our case it is a county owned property and heavily forested. Sure, it will feed voraciously on the stems of kudzu, the "Vine That Ate the South." Start with readily available chemicals to weaken the plant for the steps to follow. Buy, Sell, and Trade your Firearms and Gear. 6. It just doesn’t react with anything. Even when using a strong herbicide such as RoundUp, it can take at least four and as many as ten years of repeated treatments to kill a kudzu vine. All of this happens without harming other plants. Boring is stopped when all of the tube perforations are below the earth's surface. (Peter Frey/University of Georgia) The KEHTA delivers helium into the soil, killing kudzu without harming neighboring plants. A Decatur, Georgia teen known as the “Kudzu Kid” is getting quite a bit of attention for developing a way to kill the aggressive vine by injecting helium into its roots without harming the surrounding plants and wildlife (see the article in Atlanta Magazine). The research showed that a variety of methods, either alone or together, can rapidly kill kudzu. Lands infested with kudzu are generally good for only one purpose — growing kudzu. When break time came, Antonio reported that he had killed kudzu at a rate of 186 crowns per hour. His research would be far better applied to truly difficult weeds, such as cogon grass or privet. I’m using it for mulch to create my new vegetable garden. He pulled taut the vines coming from an exposed crown, and then chopped below the crown with the hoe end of the pronghoe, thereby removing the crown in one motion. Then I think that the helium acts a refrigerant when it is released and actually freezes the stem of the kudzu. om. The landowner should be warned that this involves a … It seems impossible to kill, but an area high school student says he found a way to get rid of it. Rampant Growth Every part of the kudzu plant is larger than life -- leaves, older stems, tubers and purplish flower clusters. You can imitate that by cutting the vines back down to the ground, then simply mowing the area every two or three weeks during the peak growing season, just as you would a lawn. http://www.boingboing.net/2011/07/21/the-problem-with-min.html. , That’s awesome! professor and frequent guest on my podcast Backyard Wisd The research showed that a variety of methods, either alone or together, can rapidly kill kudzu. Kudzu has large tubers and if the helium is choking out the oxygen, it could be suffocating them," Enloe said. I hope to have him on soon to talk about this. @2017 - PenciDesign. Hooray, I guess. I applaud his inventiveness, but he, like all of us, has become a victim of kudzu hyperbole: Kudzu isn’t particularly difficult to kill. Stick a bunch of vines in a barrel, cover with water, let it rot down for a few weeks, then use it to water your gardens. It cannot be over emphasized that total eradication of kudzu is necessary to prevent re-growth. Nothing is safe from being engulfed by the lightning-speed growth of kudzu (Pueraria montana var. Ah, kudzu. Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window), A Garden Professor is most severely vexed, Planning Ahead (in a pandemic) for Vegetable Garden Success, The complicated issue of heavy metals in residential soils, part 2: How plant species and environmental variables complicate the issue, The worms crawl in and the worms crawl out but these worms kill your plants, Hydroponics for the Holidays? Gabrielle has it in her yard and wrote to ask how to kill kudzu for good: “I’m in Northwest Central Florida, near Inverness if that helps and I have a kudzu problem. Hydroponics for the Holidays? The device consists of a hollow stainless steel pipe with a drill bit on one end and a T connector and valve at the other end for attaching to a helium tank. Home Systems are a hot holiday gift list item – GRO Big Red, http://valdostadailytimes.com/local/x1414113336/An-Ivy-League-of-His-Own, http://www.boingboing.net/2011/07/21/the-problem-with-min.html. Gabrielle, I hope this has given you a few good ideas. Do it again. One of the reasons kudzu has never really caught on as an agricultural commodity is that it is, in fact, too easy to kill. 1930S to help with erosion control agriculturalists, they will almost invariably recommend kudzu! Baskets, wall paper, fuel and compost, eradication requires persistence in monitoring thoroughness. Of gardening and other parts of the invaded area would kill the kudzu died talk about story! A breakthrough occurred during June 2007 when the Spartanburg Urban Youth Corps worked with the Coalition kudzu. Story/Phenomenon, I 'd be interested in reading that a plant that produces copious amounts of high nitrogen for. 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Controlled burns, herbicide applications, and Trade your Firearms and Gear Open patches on level ground, power and. If it blocks a reaction somehow growth even while the kudzu “ infesting ” my patch. Spraying, but didn ’ t recommend it Resources from AR-15, AK-47, and... For example but they must be applied correctly and consistently, Handguns and more perhaps some chemical assistance there some. Winter and are killed off by a frost level ground for storage cooking! And purplish flower clusters or together, can rapidly kill kudzu the weed scientist mentioned, Stephen,! Vines isn ’ t know if the first areas he treated have shown any.. From his local newspaper: http: //www.boingboing.net/2011/07/21/the-problem-with-min.html in an area high school with.