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Planting black locusts

Started by Bruno of NH, February 19, 2019, 10:43:40 AM

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Bruno of NH

Thinking about buying 100 locust seedlings 6" to 12" to plant on my property any advise would be welcome.
My property has been logged of any good lumber only spruce and soft maple left.
Thanks Bruno
Lt 40 wide with 38hp gas and command controls , F350 4x4 dump and lot of contracting tools

Magicman

They jump up quickly but take many years to reach any worthwhile size.  They are shallow rooted so even though their limbs are sparse, I still wonder about their taking any snow load.  Not only do they reproduce with seeds, they also root sprout and can reproduce/spread rather quickly.
Knothole Sawmill, LLC     '98 Wood-Mizer LT40SuperHydraulic   WM Million BF Club Member   WM Pro Sawyer Network

It's Weird being the Same Age as Old People

Never allow your "need" to make money to exceed your "desire" to provide quality service.....The Magicman

Bruno of NH

I have just read an article from Cornell university about growing black locusts .
The things it can be used for and easy growing sound interesting to me.
I also like the bees like it.
Will the thorns cut tractor tires ?
On my friends property out back hrs giving me the larch trees.Im going to have a friend thin the are this year.
They are tall and I can get some lumber from them. 
Lt 40 wide with 38hp gas and command controls , F350 4x4 dump and lot of contracting tools

Magicman

Black Locust thorns will give you fits, but should be of no danger to your tractor tires.
Knothole Sawmill, LLC     '98 Wood-Mizer LT40SuperHydraulic   WM Million BF Club Member   WM Pro Sawyer Network

It's Weird being the Same Age as Old People

Never allow your "need" to make money to exceed your "desire" to provide quality service.....The Magicman

TKehl

I'll second that.  If you have a bald car tire on an implement it may make a hole, but most tires no.  They are more like rose bush thorns.

The flowers are edible also.  Taste a bit like pea shoots.

Thin the snakey ones for posts and firewood and let the straight ones grow.  Get some goats to hold back the water sprouts.   ;) :D ;D
In the long run, you make your own luck – good, bad, or indifferent. Loretta Lynn

Magicman

Some states/locales consider Black Locust an invasive species.  At times I do too and it is native here.  It will readily stump and root sprout.  After a logging operation the open logging roads will almost immediately be covered with Black Locust sprouts.  I have sawn it for bridge planking.

Ironically as rot resistant as it is, older trees very often will have a rotten heart.  I suppose this is because the original tap root has died and the tree is living off of the outside feeder roots.  :-\
Knothole Sawmill, LLC     '98 Wood-Mizer LT40SuperHydraulic   WM Million BF Club Member   WM Pro Sawyer Network

It's Weird being the Same Age as Old People

Never allow your "need" to make money to exceed your "desire" to provide quality service.....The Magicman

Bruno of NH

MM
The large trees (2 ) the tree company dropped off this year all had center rot and long splits around the center.
That's why I cut it into firewood.
You can't plant it in Mass.
Lt 40 wide with 38hp gas and command controls , F350 4x4 dump and lot of contracting tools

Magicman

After the tap root dies and the tree looses that center support they commonly will become leaners.  Gotta be careful because they will barber chair in a heartbeat.  :o
Knothole Sawmill, LLC     '98 Wood-Mizer LT40SuperHydraulic   WM Million BF Club Member   WM Pro Sawyer Network

It's Weird being the Same Age as Old People

Never allow your "need" to make money to exceed your "desire" to provide quality service.....The Magicman

nativewolf

One of my all time favorite trees. Just superb.  I would plant 1000 instead of 100 and plan on culling for fence posts.  They have to be kept honest to get good straight poles, plant sycamore/yellow poplar, etc, fast growing competition to keep them growing for sun.  

I have piles of it, some rotted in heart (what a great firewood!) and others sound as a bell.  It has to be cut before mushrooms how, it rots from broken branches, gets some fungus in heart that rots living heartwood so better to be cut young.  Fencepost wood by age 8, sawtimber by 20.  

Really really nice wood when sawn.  Great for soil, good for wildlife.  

edited:  I will post pics later this week when I go back to one of my stash piles.
Liking Walnut

Magicman

In the late 50's my hometown of Lorman, MS was declared the "Locust Fence Post Capitol" of the world.  Rail flatcars were loaded with posts and shipped wherever.  Also, Power and Telephone cross arm pins were made of Black Locust. 

My late Brother and I sawed fence posts every Winter from trees that we had felled the previous Spring.  It was a continuing process.  After we finished bucking trees we would fall trees that  would be bucked the next Winter.  We had no chainsaw, all of our felling and bucking was done with a buck saw and a 5' crosscut saw.  The posts had to be "seasoned" and the bark off before they were acceptable so we never bucked fresh felled trees.
Knothole Sawmill, LLC     '98 Wood-Mizer LT40SuperHydraulic   WM Million BF Club Member   WM Pro Sawyer Network

It's Weird being the Same Age as Old People

Never allow your "need" to make money to exceed your "desire" to provide quality service.....The Magicman

Bruno of NH

Folks are wanting wood products not treated with chemicals. 
I think that's only going to grow.
I probably won't make it to see a reward from it but it will be a cool project to see what happens. 
Will dear eat the small saplings ?
Lt 40 wide with 38hp gas and command controls , F350 4x4 dump and lot of contracting tools

btulloh

From what I've seen, deer will chew the buds of any species of saplings.  Over time they become saplings with a 4" caliper but are still 2ft tall.  I guess you have to hope they don't do it all of 'em and some get big enough to overcome the browsing.  Seems to be more of a problem with field planted nursery stock and trees planted in my yard though.
HM126

lxskllr

Locust is nice. The flowers smell good, but the trees drop pollen like crazy. I have some giants next to my drive, but I'm afraid they're reaching end of life. Reading up on them, they aren't terribly long lived, and one of them has gotten shelf mushrooms. Might be a future post here. If I remove them myself, it'll be a climbing job, with the biggest partially arcing over a power line. Might be a good video opportunity for you all if I do it myself  :^D  I think I know how I'd do it, but I'd need an assistant, and a little bit of rope work. A problem for another day...

TKehl

It's a preferred browse with my goats, so I'm betting deer like them to.  
In the long run, you make your own luck – good, bad, or indifferent. Loretta Lynn

GullyBog

I'll second the nice flowers, about the best smelling tree blossom in my opinion.  Black locust is kind of weedy in these parts but so is yellow pine or any other fast growing tree.  It does well on old strip mines and if it can grow in those rock piles it's a good tough tree.  We do have an issue with a little bug called the locust leaf miner.  In mid to late summer it sucks all the juice out the leaflets and the trees start to go brown long before the other species change into their fall colors.  If it's a wet summer they might flush out some new leaves, if it's a droughty year they just quit for the season.  When I travel up north I think the locust look straighter and have less shelf fungus but that might be a grass is greener thing.
There might be a little dust on the butt log, but don't let if fool ya bout what's inside

WV Sawmiller

   They grow naturally here and do make great fence posts and barn poles (When you can find one big enough without heart rot) and such. They are shallow rooted and are the first thing to go during an ice storm especially after several days of soaking rain that has softened the ground. They usually take the 2 trees below them at the same time they fall which can then domino to take down a whole mountainside. They grow on the side of sheer slopes like the tree the cartoon guy is always hanging on to. The roots growing in the cracks of those sheer cliffs contribute to our rock falls. My goats used to love them and my horse and mule keep the young ones at bay now. They make great honey when there is a good crop of blooms. I'd be careful about climbing one that is leaning because of the shallow roots. The thorns are mostly on the younger trees and not as much of a problem on the older ones. Usually when people are complaining about locust thorns they are complaining about honey locust which I understand is a type of Acacia.
Howard Green
WM LT35HDG25(2015) , 2011 4WD F150 Ford Lariat PU, Kawasaki 650 ATV, Stihl 440 Chainsaw, homemade logging arch (w/custom built rear log dolly), JD 750 w/4' wide Bushhog brand FEL

Dad always said "You can shear a sheep a bunch of times but you can only skin him once

lxskllr

10-4 on the climbing. I didn't realize they had a shallow root system. I don't think I've ever seen one blow over, but perhaps I just wasn't paying attention. The ones around here have held up to some ferocious winds.


I actually looked at them for a couple seconds this morning. The powerline tree goes farther over the line than I remembered, and has a significant lean. It's something I'll have to give very careful consideration to, and get some more easy climbing under my belt if I were to tackle it. If it had to come down tomorrow, I wouldn't do it.

Jemclimber

Black locust is a very strong wood. I feel comfortable on much smaller wood than lots of trees, like silver maple for example.  The bark is thick so I don't wear my bashlin pole spikes, which is what I wear most. On locust, I wear my Gecko's with the longer tree spike to avoid kickout.

Look at the tree and smack it with a hammer to see if it's hollow. Make sure your ground guy knows to let the branch run so as not to shock load the tree and bomb as much wood over the line as you can.  Have fun and be safe.  I wish I had more black locust. I love the smell of the flowers and the wood is the best.
lt15

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