Where can I get kudzu and mile a minute?

[A Happy Seedling]

I know I've posted about this before and got wisdom on invasives. This time I'm ready. I have built a large glass box on my lawn separated in halves, one for kudzu, one for the triangular-leaved Mile A Minute. This box is locked and has an airtight seal. The vines aren't going anywhere. I want kudzu for cooking because it is edible. I want mile a minute because I dried and shaped its leaves and stems into fishing equipment, owing to the spines, at my old place but I have none here. Is there anywhere I can get confirmed Kudzu and Mile A Minute plants or seeds in VA?

I also added a plexiglas section for greenbrier. Where can I get this?

Thanks,
AHS

[rainbowgardener]

Yes, I remember when you wrote in before wanting these and everyone said please don't unleash any more of it on the world; they readily escape cultivation. You understand that kudzu spreads from the roots (as well as being able to root itself where ever the vine touches the ground). So even though the box controls everything above ground, keeping the vines from rooting and the seeds from spreading, it is still spreading underground.

Do your boxes have ventilation? If not, any plants in them will just cook. If yes, that is another way for them to escape.

But if you want to find kudzu just watch the roadsides. You are firmly in the area it has taken over, as am I. Just watch for an area where the trees, telephone poles and everything else have been so covered in vines that all you can see is their shape:

Here's what the leaves and flowers look like:

then dig some up. As noted, it roots very easily. You don't really even have to dig it up. All you have to do is bring a piece of the vine home and stick it in moist potting soil with a humidity dome. The stuff is allegedly edible. If so it seems like we would have solved the world hunger problem. But there are many other edible plants and weeds you could be growing, without going to all this trouble.

Mile a minute vine is sometimes called northern kudzu. It has a much more limited distribution: It is in Virginia, but only in the northern most counties.

[!potatoes!]

do the neighbors a favor and collect kudzu from where it's growing already but unwanted if you want to eat it. the main useful edible portion is the starch in the roots (aside from flowers)...much easier to get enough root to deal with if it's somewhere growing free instead of a box in the yard. i'd collect some and see if you actually want to eat it first before growing it.

i know the leaves are supposed to be edible, but they're not terribly pleasant.

[A Happy Seedling]

The box has a glass floor as well. Vines are not going to root. It has separate potting mix in the bottom.
My boxes have tiny holes bored in the top, BUT these are too small for a vine stem to come out of.
I can't find any Kudzu around me. I did find a vine that looks like the picture but has darker hairy leaves and deeper lobes. A relative maybe?
If Mile a Minute is so restricted, is there any place I can get it? I'd love to have it.

[rainbowgardener]

honestly, you seem a little obsessive about this. Most people would not think it worth this much trouble... Is it the thrill of having something so universally hated and somewhat "dangerous," that no one else plants? There's something going on here that I don't really understand.... It isn't about being able to eat the plant or use the mile a minute some how, because there are MANY more edible plants/ weeds (I understand that kudzu isn't really edible in terms of being able to get it down, unless you juice it like wheat grass) and useful plants/ weeds, that would not require trying to keep it under guard, nor risk having your house engulfed and everyone hate you.

(In case you think I am kidding:)


You can't get them in catalogs, because illegal to sell.

There was an interesting set of instructions once in Mother Earth News Magazine:

"Plant at night so neighbors won't see you and throw rocks,
Drop seed and back away quickly. DO NOT HOLD IN HAND.
Fertilize heavily with cinder blocks."

I found one place that sells kudzu vine seeds: http://www.chilternseeds.co.uk/search?q=Kudzu+vine but they are in the UK. I imagine it would be illegal for them to sell/ ship to you.

But really it is not hard. If you are so obsessed with this, find a roadside with kudzu and clip yourself some. It often appears on sites that have been disturbed - road cuts, logging areas, etc....

[BirdLover]

Yes, you do seem to be obsessed. These plants will most likely become illegal to grow. So if you have them growing on your property, it would be akin to having toxic waste on your property. It could be costly to erradicate. The roots might break the glass bottom and grow past it. How would you know? By the time it gets out of control is when you would know. These plants have already done so much damage. I hope that you change your mind. There are much better choices to be made.
I am wondering why you don't give your location. USDA is not a location.

[rainbowgardener]

Happy Seedling said his/her location is in Virginia. In the profile it says zone 7. That pretty well locates it to the eastern third of the state. But other wise I basically agree...

[A Happy Seedling]

honestly, you seem a little obsessive about this. Most people would not think it worth this much trouble... Is it the thrill of having something so universally hated and somewhat "dangerous," that no one else plants? There's something going on here that I don't really understand.... It isn't about being able to eat the plant or use the mile a minute some how, because there are MANY more edible plants/ weeds (I understand that kudzu isn't really edible in terms of being able to get it down, unless you juice it like wheat grass) and useful plants/ weeds, that would not require trying to keep it under guard, nor risk having your house engulfed and everyone hate you.

(In case you think I am kidding:)


You can't get them in catalogs, because illegal to sell.

There was an interesting set of instructions once in Mother Earth News Magazine:

"Plant at night so neighbors won't see you and throw rocks,
Drop seed and back away quickly. DO NOT HOLD IN HAND.
Fertilize heavily with cinder blocks."

I found one place that sells kudzu vine seeds: http://www.chilternseeds.co.uk/search?q=Kudzu+vine but they are in the UK. I imagine it would be illegal for them to sell/ ship to you.

But really it is not hard. If you are so obsessed with this, find a roadside with kudzu and clip yourself some. It often appears on sites that have been disturbed - road cuts, logging areas, etc....

I simply like kudzu. I think it's a beautiful plant, period. It may be the vine that ate the South but to me, it's something new, and interesting. Besides, it makes good biology lessons because of its huge growth speed.

I like mile a minute because...find me any other plant with perfectly triangular leaves and I'll give you $100.

[Marlingardener]

I have thought long and hard about replying to this post. I don't expect anything I say will change you in any way, but it may help other members.
The best thing about gardeners is their respect and care for the soil, plants, and wildlife. Gardeners try to do their best for the environment, and sometimes mistakes are made. The mistakes are not willful, but come from good intentions gone astray, or simply not knowing. Gardeners do not knowingly plant invasive species, take wildlife out of its habitat, nor take plants. Gardeners are about helping plants thrive, helping wildlife live in a natural habitat, and improving the soil that may have been damaged. Gardeners are not about "me, me, me, I, I, I". Gardeners are much more about "us."
Gardeners should be proud of the good they do. In addition to making our planet a prettier and better place, they are also preserving it for the children to come.

[rainbowgardener]

I will quit responding after this, but I just have to say

RE: "I simply like kudzu. I think it's a beautiful plant, period." In isolation, as the picture I showed of the leaves and flower, it is a pretty plant, though not outstanding. But as in all the other pictures, the barren kudzu desert it creates out of what was once a diverse living forest, is UGLY. Nothing survives any more in the kudzu desert, not the birds, not the butterflies, not the squirrels or woodchucks or deer, not all the varieties of trees and shrubs and wildflowers that used to be there. I cannot see any beauty.

[rainbowgardener]

sorry, duplicate post by accident.

[A Happy Seedling]

I will quit responding after this, but I just have to say

RE: "I simply like kudzu. I think it's a beautiful plant, period." In isolation, as the picture I showed of the leaves and flower, it is a pretty plant, though not outstanding. But as in all the other pictures, the barren kudzu desert it creates out of what was once a diverse living forest, is UGLY. Nothing survives any more in the kudzu desert, not the birds, not the butterflies, not the squirrels or woodchucks or deer, not all the varieties of trees and shrubs and wildflowers that used to be there. I cannot see any beauty.

I agree which is why I am keeping it caged. I see this is a very controversial topic and it will earn me a bad rap but I will get kudzu SOMEHOW.

[rainbowgardener]

I told you how. It is easy. There's a road sign a few blocks from my house that has disappeared under it. Any piece of vine you clip from it will grow. Finding kudzu in Virginia or anywhere from NY to TX is not hard!

But yes it will earn you a bad rap. I still think you could use to examine your own motives. There's more going on here than you are admitting.

[BirdLover]

I agree with R.G.

I have a hard time understanding why someone would want this damaging plant so badly.

[applestar]

In my own quirky way, I could understand wanting either of them as a kind of a specimen, and my first thought on how to obtain any of either plants was to go join the volunteers that eradicate them in forestry and conservation programs. From all I've read, you only need a piece of the plant to grow more. But mile-a-minute is a barbed/thorny *vine* so I wouldn't want it for that reason alone -- too much trouble to take care of at any size.

But after looking up how Kudzu is processed into food/edible form, I don't think I would grow it for eating. Part of the problem is that it's the ROOTS you need to harvest, which means you need to grow huge plants, then basically kill it. You would need large area dedicated to growing mature harvestable plants while also growing immature plants for future harvesting.

I've read some published corporate profitability studies for adding kudzu to their health food lines, and apparently, cultivated kudzu just do not make good quality product, and they have to be wild harvested. Commercially, baseball bat-size roots are dug up deep in the "mountains" and then need to be milled and processed with specific techniques before they are even "Palatable" -- meaning they taste AWFUL as it is. --it's one of those wild forage "foods" that you wonder HOW anyone ever thought they could and figured out HOW to eat them. They also have to be processed under cold temperatures or they quickly ferment. They were/are only dug and processed in the frozen winter months, outside in the cold or unheated building.