Early February Newsletter

Dr. Gillian Newberry, Botanist at USC-Upstate, has discovered peach scale over wintering on upstate kudzu vines. Clemson identified the insect. We believe this may be the first such finding in South Carolina although others have reported it elsewhere. http://kokudzu.com/PeachScale.html  has microscopic pictures and a brief recap of the peach scale insect's impact on some peach orchards.

Rowland Alston's TV show "Making It Grow" did a segment about the Kudzu Coalition. Can you believe that we discussed kudzu on a show with that title? If you missed it, click on  http://www.kokudzu.com/MIG_06-08-30.html  to see and hear it.

Dianne Fergusson and Jules Bryant organized and sent out announcements about the Juanitta Baldwin art and writing contests for 7 to 12 grade students in Spartanburg County. The first prize for each is $250 with $150 for second and $100 for third. Go to http://kokudzu.com/KudzuKapers.html for details.

Steve Patton and Paul Savko erected a kudzu barrier fence on South Pine Street opposite Carolina Garden World. This fence uses Jack Callahan's patented approach to controlling kudzu. The vines do not go over or through the 50% shade cloth. For more complete info click on http://kokudzu.com/Fences.html .

Dozens of Broome and Chapman High School students were trained in kudzu control during January. These are the third and fourth high schools to work with us “in the patch”. The Spartanburg Day School and Spartanburg High are the other two. Pictures and more are available at http://www.kokudzu.com/StudentsKOKudzu.html .

The Special Ed students continue to have fun in the kudzu patch. Teresa Gaddy led the way at Chapman High. Several classes at Spartanburg High have already been “in the patch” and will be there again within a week. This may well develop into a significant initiative.

Eight of Jack Callahan’s tree shelters were installed in the kudzu experiment area behind the Y. These devices prevent kudzu from growing up small trees. For more info on how they work click on http://kokudzu.com/KudzuGuard.html . While on the subject of barrier treatments, Jack honored the Coalition last week by putting up the world’s first of his new, knit Kudzu Guards on a double guy wire situation in our experiments area behind the YMCA.

The skid-steer loader continues to expand our capabilities. Paul David Blakeley improves the techniques every month. This has made it possible for the Coalition to tackle larger infestations. See http://www.kokudzu.com/SkidSteerLoader.html for pictures and descriptions.

As evidenced by the web pages mentioned above, Lou Adams has done a superb job of building and maintaining the Kudzu Coalition web site www.kokudzu.com. The site now has 176 pages and 588 pictures. For example, Lou has added a page which identifies and links to the changes that have been made recently http://kokudzu.com/New.html .

Barbara Daniels, Lou Adams, Rich Mead and Paul Savko participated in last week’s SC-EPPC meeting. We are delighted to work with this young organization. Barbara is co-chair of the state Kudzu Control Task Force with Matt Nespeca from The Nature Conservancy in Charleston.

The Coalition has needs in three areas. These are:

volunteers who are interested in working with Special Ed students one or two weekdays a month, volunteers who have mowers which can be transported to selected sites one or two days a month, and volunteers who would consider being a mentor for students working on kudzu science projects. Click on http://kokudzu.com/ScienceProjects.html to see the kinds of questions that are posed to these students to stir their thinking. Contact Barbara at 592-4702 or Newt at 582-0990 if interested.

Thank you for your continuing interest and support.                       The Kudzu Coalition