Do you have kudzu or bamboo in your area?

[-]

SMKnightly@reddit

Ppl keep trying to plant bamboo in our area and just don’t understand what they’re doing to themselves, their neighbors, and the future owners of their land. Just don’t do it

[-]

vasta2@reddit

It’s fine if it’s clumping no? I have clumping in my yard and it’s only growing in a fairly small circle and it’s 8 years old. Running bamboo is a different beast tho

[-]

MM_in_MN@reddit

No. I live where the ground freezes for months at a time

[-]

Ok_Caterpillar2010@reddit

Both kudzu and bamboo here. Want some?

[-]

Deolater@reddit

I've been told that kudzu doesn't grow like crazy and smother trees and all that in Japan, is that true? What's it like there?

Here it's an ugly, hairy, destructive mess

[-]

Kudzu's not as bad as people first thought, it grows fast but requires lots of sunlight. It looks bad when you're driving, since roads carved through the forest provide lots of light and ideal growing conditions, but it's generally not spreading deeper and taking over forests.

It also doesn't damage what it grows on, besides the smothering. Ivy ruins tree trunks and walls, sinking little roots into whatever it touches, but kudzu just wraps vines around things. It doesn't have thorns or chemical defences, and is even good cattle feed.

[-]

ThrowAwayIGotHack3d@reddit

Yep! Absolutely everywhere, I think the bamboo is technically running bamboo so it's really thing

[-]

MarquetteXTX2@reddit

Bamboo as in bamboo trees? Yes we do but I rarely ever see those trees..

[-]

NaomiiiTwinz@reddit

Kudzu is everywhere is the south

[-]

Traditional-Job-411@reddit

We also have bamboo here. It’s all rampant.

[-]

fasda@reddit

Some of it is a native species

[-]

eyetracker@reddit

Yep. Any time some western or country song talks about the canebrake, it's one of the 3 native species.

[-]

Better_Pea248@reddit

Also wisteria

[-]

Carl_Schmitt@reddit

and privet

[-]

Firefly_Magic@reddit

Privets aren’t bad are they?

[-]

Carl_Schmitt@reddit

In the South privet is terribly invasive. Illegal to plant in Tennessee and Florida, but honestly anyone who plants it belongs in prison.

[-]

Scott72901@reddit

And English ivy. I’ve had my house 25 years and I’m still fighting a battle against that stuff that started a quarter century ago.

[-]

SparkSignals@reddit

Yup Im from NC...Robeson County lol right on the border.

[-]

FlyByPC@reddit

It's eaten my back yard in Philadelphia.

[-]

marchmay@reddit

Both. Found a whole bamboo forest in my neighborhood once. Homeless guy was living in it.

[-]

HonestLemon25@reddit

Kudzu has made its way to my region in the last 10 years or so. It’s starting to take over everything.

[-]

RoxieRoxie0@reddit

No. I have Himalayan black berries.

[-]

omgcheez@reddit

I’ve seen some bamboo, but I see way more ivy. Tree of heaven is pretty obnoxious. Water Hyacinth is also brutal here and clogs waterways.

[-]

AnchoviePopcorn@reddit

Both.

[-]

RhinoGuy13@reddit

We have a ton of bamboo behind our fence line. I like how much privacy it offers.

[-]

Educational-Big-6609@reddit

Oregon - no

[-]

Forsythia77@reddit

Neither here, but tons of those smelly ass Bradford Pears aka cum trees.

[-]

SparkSignals@reddit

Yea they need to genocided 😂

[-]

Bluemonogi@reddit

I have not seen kudzu or bamboo growing in my area of northeast Kansas.

What we do have is the Virginia Creeper which sounds like a ScoobyDoo villain. It grows like crazy, is hard to get rid of and gives me a rash with the slightest contact.

[-]

majinspy@reddit

I live in Mississippi and yes to both. Kudzu has eaten a considerable amount of the state. Bamboo is rampant whenever it's allowed to be, though it isn't as wild as kudzu. I have friends with few acres of "bamboo forest" that's pretty neat.

[-]

BippidiBoppetyBoob@reddit

Not here

[-]

Adorable_Dust3799@reddit

Neither. Not at house, or cabin.

[-]

bloopidupe@reddit

Someone in my neighborhood planted bamboo and now I have to stay vigilant to keep it out of my yard.

[-]

Technical-Leader8788@reddit

They should face charges

[-]

United_Wolf_9215@reddit

Yes... need more goats.

[-]

Technical-Leader8788@reddit

I’ve read you can feed the inner part of bamboo to chickens in small quantities but honestly it’s not worth the effort to break up for them

[-]

Ghoulish_kitten@reddit

Bamboo in my back yard, and sometimes we get elder Asian ladies coming and asking for pieces.

Our patch in our backyard has never gotten bigger bc we cut the roots back regularly.

[-]

Technical-Leader8788@reddit

Please tell me they don’t want to plant it

[-]

Fred42096@reddit

Bamboo, no kudzu thank god

[-]

SparkSignals@reddit

Kudzu and Bamboo yes. Bamboo is native, kudzu is invasive. American south.

[-]

Happy_Confection90@reddit

Neither here, but Oriental Bittersweet has become a problem.

[-]

Wide_Breadfruit_2217@reddit

No kudzu in PNW. Bamboo only if planted on purpose. Are invasive equivalent is himalayan blackberry.

[-]

RsonW@reddit

Himalayan blackberry and Scotch broom in my part of California.

[-]

Drew707@reddit

Not sure what Scotch Broom is, but the blackberries are pervasive. Bamboo is a weed, too. The worst thing about blackberry is it grows exactly where the poison oak does. Both can fuck right off; I don't care how good blackberries taste.

[-]

nauticalfiesta@reddit

scotch broom is blooming right now in the seattle area, and blackberry is fucking annoying to deal with.

[-]

VoiceArtPassion@reddit

We’ve been seeing a lot of knotweed in my corner of the PNW

[-]

FlyByPC@reddit

Bamboo, no. (Not yet, anyway.)

Kudzu, yes. The back yard is the Kudzu Zone. It's not worth trying to fight it -- the other four or five properties surrounding the back of the lot are overrun with it, too.

[-]

MiddlePop4953@reddit

No, it can't live through the winter up here. We have enough invasive species here, we don't need any more 😅

[-]

Penguin_Life_Now@reddit

Yes, we have both at least to a limited degree, though each are MUCH more common within 2-3 hour driving distance from here.

[-]

FewRecognition1788@reddit

Yes, both.

[-]

Low_Key_2827@reddit

Yes to both. I've heard Kudzu has eaten the south, but it's working its way north too. We have it up in Connecticut now. It's the worst.

[-]

3Duder@reddit

Yes, I rented a house in Austin Texas for a year and part of the lease said I had to keep the patch of bamboo from spreading, I had to chop up fresh shoots every day with a pick axe.

[-]

PlayingDoomOnAGPS@reddit

Why not just remove the bamboo?

[-]

3Duder@reddit

Not my house and it's really hard to get rid if

[-]

Technical-Leader8788@reddit

Hope the rent was cheap af for this

[-]

3Duder@reddit

At the time the rent for a 2 bedroom house in Austin was less than a 1 bedroom apartment in northern Virginia. It was a pain in the butt though.

[-]

refinnej78@reddit

Yes, both. In South Carolina

[-]

BrainFartTheFirst@reddit

Yes to the bamboo but no to the kudzu thank God.

[-]

ReferenceCreative510@reddit

Yes to the running (spreading) bamboo. Specifically because of a neighbor.

[-]

cranberry_spike@reddit

I'm in the Midwest. No kudzu, and im not familiar with bamboo but apparently there is a native bamboo species, which is news to me 😅

[-]

haveanairforceday@reddit

No.

The sonoran desert is pretty decent at killing most invasive plants. Not all, for sure, but its not like the south

[-]

anneofgraygardens@reddit

no.

[-]

Lower_Kick268@reddit

Yeah, we used to have a bunch in my yard at my old house, we would chop the whole bamboo woods down every like 2-3 months and give the bamboo away to a guy we know that likes making stuff

[-]

Zillajami-Fnaffan2@reddit

Neither

[-]

Character_School_671@reddit

We have cheatgrass and tumbleweeds.

Kudzu and bamboo can't hack it on 6 inches of annual precipitation.

[-]

IceManYurt@reddit

Yes, both

[-]

river-running@reddit

Both.

[-]

avicia@reddit

Yes, owner of my house planted bamboo decades ago. it's a horror show.

[-]

Pop-19502020@reddit

Need to import some pandas.

[-]

AtheneSchmidt@reddit

In this economy!?!

[-]

fbibmacklin@reddit

Kudzu, yes. Hard to kill.

[-]

Imaginary-Duck1333@reddit

East TN- kudzu here, kudzu there, kudzu everywhere!

[-]

partsguy64@reddit

I’ve got all y’all beat. We’ve got Dollar Generals. They go up faster than kudzu can grow…….aaaand they’re everywhere!!!

[-]

Trick_Stage1834@reddit

In the south here...kudzu and poison ivy are taking over! And im scared to death of the latter.

[-]

Morak73@reddit

Bamboo in NE Ohio.

It struggled until the roots reached the lake. Now its unkillable. It spread to the neighbor's property, who mowed it, burned it, and dug at it.

The bamboo is winning.

[-]

AtheneSchmidt@reddit

I've never seen either growing in the Denver Metro area of Colorado. I do have a grape trellis made of bamboo stakes, though.

[-]

Beginning-Bedroom-89@reddit

Kudzu, everyone seemed to have answered for me because I didn’t have a clue what it was but im also not in the south lol. Bamboo tho we do have them they’re just largely in botanical gardens/parks

[-]

KJHagen@reddit

Not here in the Rocky Mountains. We have other invasive plants though.

[-]

chivopi@reddit

Both were where I grew up in MD.

[-]

HailingCasuals@reddit

What is kudzu?

(I think that answers the question.)

[-]

muchquery@reddit

A leafy vine that can grow about a foot a day. It pretty much chokes out every other plant underneath it.

[-]

artemisinagayway@reddit

It’s a super invasive vine that wrecks basically everything in the South. My parents lost half their fence and a palm tree to it, and even after they removed every trace of it, it still grew back.

[-]

Technical-Leader8788@reddit

It’s the devil.

[-]

leannmanderson@reddit

My city has a sister city in Japan Isesaki. We have beautiful Japanese gardens, including moon bridges, a massive koi pond, and a tea house, as a result, and that's where you will find most of the bamboo in the area, with some in private gardens.

We have kudzu all over.

[-]

Claxton916@reddit

No. I’m in the north.

[-]

Spiritualy-Salty@reddit

We have invasive Arundo donax in this area

[-]

old_Spivey@reddit

We had a huge grove at the end of the street, but a neighbor with vitiligo that everyone calls Panda, goes in there and crashes around knocking much of it down.

[-]

sfdsquid@reddit

Japanese knotwood.

It looks like bamboo. It's a scourge. Idk who had the bright idea of planting it at this house before we moved in.

[-]

VoiceArtPassion@reddit

We have bamboo in Washington but no kudzu. We also have Japanese knotweed.

[-]

Financial_Island2353@reddit

Both. They're EVERYWHERE

[-]

RespectableBloke69@reddit

Yes

[-]

Disastrous_Ad1260@reddit

Both

[-]

Annunaq@reddit

Both.

I garden as a hobby and I can’t help notice the damage those two plants have done to parts of our ecosystem here.

Driving by Augusta National you can see where they’ve planted bamboo in the past as a privacy screen. Can’t help but think what all their neighbors without the same resources as that golf club have to do to keep it from swallowing their yards.

[-]