Early after its founding the Coalition planned to experiment with fences as kudzu barriers, as this June 2005 photograph taken at our test site demonstrates. In this case, the idea was to use inexpensive polyethylene sheets as barriers that are too slippery for kudzu to climb over. Experiments were undertaken with both black and white sheets.

Tests of fences covered in polyethylene sheets have a dual objective: Kill the covered kudzu, and prevent growing kudzu from crossing the fence. The photograph shows how side-by-side comparisons were made of the effectiveness of black and clear sheets. May 2005.

Clear sheets split due to degradation by the ultravioliet light (UV) in sunlight. Black sheets do not split because UV is blocked by the black colorant (carbon black). This light-blocking characteristic halts photosynthesis in underlying kudzu leaves, and kills them quicker. The splitting of clear sheets plagued all experiments involving clear sheets. July 2005.

The splitting problem occurred when using polyethylene sheets for barrier fences. The Coalition decided to test Callahan's Kudzu Barrier Fence. The fabric material for the fence should better resist UV degredation and tearing, and offer less wind resistance. For now we prefer to treat Coalition installations that use this product as "experiments", instead of urban site-specific treatments.

The first photograph (March 2006) shows a relatively short version of the fence installed at the Coalition test site in place of a polyethylene sheet fence used last year (see the white sheet fence on the first photograph at the top of this page). Several inches of fence fabric are buried in a trench dug along the bottom of the fence, the depth acting as a barrier to kudzu vines growing under the fence. The second photograph shows the same fence successfully holding back kudzu at the peak of the growing season (June 2006). Unfortunately, Johnson grass grew taller than the fence. It became necessary to stomp-down the grass by foot to prevent kudzu from using the tall grass as scaffolding to climb across the fence!

A different version of this fence was built at the Spartanburg Humane Society. This fence lies parallel to a property line, over which kudzu arrives from an adjacent lot. Slightly different contruction methods are used for each fence to learn which is most cost effective and easiest to install. April 2006.

This photograph demonstrates what happens when a fence has some feature that a vine can "grab" and climb. Although the vine shown is not kudzu, it could just as easily have been kudzu in this case. And although kudzu cannot wind around an object larger than about 8 inches in diameter, it can piggyback onto other vines which can climb such an object. This is typically how kudzu climbs trees. July 2006.