I interview Alexandra King, Brian Kerkvliet and Mark Vander Meer about how awesome Black Locusts are.
Good fodder for ruminants, excellent bee nectar, the best wood for outdoor furniture, fence posts, pole structures, and the handles for many tools. Fast growing and tolerates all sorts of awful conditions. And one of the very best firewoods.
http://www.youtube.com/paulwheaton12#p/u/0/du9LeeYX1o8
black locust, arguably the best homesteader tree
That is really interesting. I had never heard of them before. I wonder if they would grow here in the east?
I have them all over the place here in West Central Ohio. It's a favourite for fenceposts amongst the organic crowd. They say they'll last even longer than preassure treated. But you either have to peel them or plant them upside down. otherwise they'll root.
For reals?!!!
Cajun they are in far east TX too so may well be in south LA. They are not native but were planted for practical use but like most locust have escaped cultivation.
If you aren't sure where some are down there in the Briar State, just remind me later in the summer and I'll send you a pod or 3 of seeds.
I live in Ky and I would love to try them here.
Cajun, when when we lived in Hopkinsville, Ky. we had tons of them. We could find them growing around the creeks in the bottoms. Another good tree is bodark, osage orange, or hedge apple.
Is that in the mountains? I wonder if we might have some here?
I have a big chunk of bow d'arc seasoning in the shop. I'm going to make an English longbow from it after it has seasoned for a year. It's in a plywood box and is packed with ashes. I am ripping out and old fence line this spring/summer. Next year I want to plant an Osage fence.
Will the osage orange root on site?
I'm going to start them from seeds. They used to plant them real close together with gate openings and in 5 years they would have a fence that was "horse high, bull strong, and hog tight".
I could use some of those fences!
Get the green "apples" from them and let them rot. There are thousands of seeds inside of them. If you take a couple of the "apples" and throw them under your house they will deter bugs also. and yes they grow every where. And they make furnature as well as bows. I made my son a bow with some aged hedge a few years ago, its amazingly easy, to see the layers.
Are they full of pickers?
I'd love to have osage orange for a fence! Someplace in my stack of notes I have a link for where you can order either the apples, or even seedlings.
There are lots of locusts growing locally but not many black locust left.
My cousin posted a pic of her DD holding one of the "oranges". I think it was on a trip they took to Helen Keller's homeplace. I'll have to ask her about it. I did not even know what it was.
Darius, I don't know about where you are, but they have them in Yorktown, Va. I was stationed there at the weapons station and I kept a hedge apple in my room at the barracks to keep the roaches out of my stuff. There were a bunch of the trees there all along the Colonial Parkway, and on Jefferson Blvd just south of Newport News. Go to colonial Williamsburg sometime in the fall and pick up a few hedge apples. They won't care.
They will grow here, I know. One of the oldest specimens known is about 75 miles from here.
It would be cheaper to mail-order some than the gas across the state to Colonial Williamsburg!
I think you can find them at the forestry service for your state. Most states still sell them for fences. you have to plow a furrow, lay the bare root plants in them and cver them back, and water. when the trees get about 6-10' tall you cut them about halfway through the stem, bend them over and then they heel themselves. If you weeve themm at the angle it will make a much tighter fence.
What a good idea, chance. Thanks!
Darius, you can find a good description on how to do it in the book of old farm skills.
I don't know that book...
It's just a small paperback book. I've seen them at the librarys and the book stores. It's just about old time farm skills and practices.
Do you know the name? I couldn't find anything by that name on Amazon Books.
I cant think of the name, but I will try to go by the library and look up the name. I can recignize the book by site I've seen it so many times.
Darius, I havent found the book yet but I did find a good article on building a hedgerow , on ehow.
Thanks. I can look THAT up!
Folks have also used mutaflora rose for hedges.
You mention planting multiflora roses and here and you're liable to be sleeping with the fishes before they can flower!! They (USDA) came around here wanting folks to plant them back in 30s. They took off and are almost impossible to eradicate. And they don't work. Goats eat them, sheep and goats and dogs and cats and foxes etc just run underneath them. Chickens like to lay their eggs in the briar patch and good luck trying to get those eggs without a few scratches. That's if you find them to begin with. I have one old one in my fence line that I prune vigourously. I keep it just for the roseheps (24 to 30 times the vitamin C of OJ) any others I find I terminate with EXTREME prejudice. I have even resorted to round-up and I am as close to organic as I can get.
Did'nt know that the rose did such a poor job at it, just heard people talk about it. I have killed a few with laquer thiner. Not organic but it worked.
I have one of those trees that drops the green bumpy fruits - is that osage orange? If so, I'll gather some of the fruits next year and try the seed thing. Good to know about pest control too, although thankfully roaches are not a big deal here. I hate 'em.
NikB, I'd love to buy some rose hips off of you next season - I'm nearly out of the ones I wild harvested on my trip to Kansas a while back. I use them in teas.
~H
Sure sounds like an oasge orange to me!
Sure, I'll send you some roseheps. DMail me your adress. But wait till late july at least. I make tea with them and also just swallow them like big pills. I can get you all you want. I keep them under control here at Wolf's Rest Farm, but I help a guy make hay in the summer and he has a couple big fields that have overgrown fences all around them. I pick a lot of mulberries and wild raspberries there.
And yes, that sounds like osage orange. AKA bowdark AKA bough d'arc AKA hedge AKA wheel wood AKA well, you get the idea
I am SOOO jealous you have mulberries!
Thanks Nik and Darius re: osage orange ID. I'll have to figure out which tree it is again this summer as it's on the edge of my property somewhere. The dogs grab one or two and bring them to the yard, and I see them along the side of the road when I take walks.
Nik, I'll send my addy now via D-mail in case I'm not still a subscriber in July - hopefully I'll have a job before then.:) I had to let Countryside, Herb Companion and MEN lapse, first time in years...argh.
I have wild blackberries, but the honeysuckle has taken over most of the bramble patches on the property and I'm still too skittish to get in there and cut it out. But walking the property today I noticed some new plants out in the walkways, away from the patches. Think I could dig those up and pot them up? Or is the wrong time of year to do so?
You don't have to be a subscriber to post on this forum. Don't leave us!
You should be able to transplant or re pot with no problems right now.
I got all my neighbors mad at me a couple years ago for transplanting mulberries. I love them, but most folks here just think of the purple bird crap and hate the trees.It's great wood for smoking meat and for turning on the lathe, too.
Sunny, save me a couple of those osage oranges/hedge apples! BTW, they are cousin to mulberries. :)
Here's another forum's thread on them from last year:
http://www.greenwizards.org/?q=node/149
Here's a link to a very old one growing in Virginia
http://cnre.vt.edu/4h/remarkabletree/detail.cfm?AutofieldforPrimaryKey=1539
Growing and Planting
* Planting Hedge Trees - Old Timers told our friend Clark Knapp that they started Hedge Rows by dumping the Hedgeapples in a barrel, letting them sit over the winter allowing them to freeze and thaw until spring when they were soft. They then mashed them, added water and poured the slurry into a plowed furrow and cover about a inch or two. They kept the hedgeapples moist during the winter by drilling holes and letting about 2 inches of water stand in the bottom (if all the fruit is left submerged for extended length of time, they will not sprout). Mr Knapp is only 86 years old, and claims he is a few days away from being an Old Timer himself. I assume this method would be a good technique if one would want the hedge row to act as a fence. Mr. Knapp knows his business. Picture at right was taken on his farm. I tried this planting technique last spring and it works (over 300 seedlings in a 8 ft hedgerow).
* Small Osage orange trees can also be snatched from pastures. Identifying the tree can be tricky, hedgeapple trees have leaves very similar to Mulberry trees. You definitely do not want a wild Mulberry tree attracting flies to your front yard.
* Mr Hedgeapple will be preparing seed this winter and might have some available for sale. The winter season is the best time to plant trees to reduce stress & promote healthier growth. I am selling trees from my garden hedge row now (email me for details).
http://hedgeapple.com/
Nik, can we do some trading for some mulberry seedlings?