Black Locust Life Cylcle

[Kirk_Allen]

Anyone familiar with the life span of the Black Locust?  We have a farmer that is giving me at least 6 Black Locust that are around 30 DIB. He said that they are all about the same size but this year none of them budded out. 

Since they are all dead and about the same size I was wondering if they may have simply hit the end of the road.  I know that may be a streatch but until I have the logs here to cut into I have no other idea as to why all 6 of them died this year. 

[populus]

Locust stems are short-lived (the roots go on forever!) and 30" locust is probably overmature. Typically, locusts check out after 30-100 years, depending on growing conditions. However, it is unlikely that 6 locusts, even overmature ones, would die all at once. There must be some cause, even if the trees were already in natural decline. Locust borers are a possible cause, but they usually cause stems to break off. The trees could have the fungus Fomes rimosus, and that would be bad news since it causes substantial wood decay. Look for brown conks (fruiting bodies) on the stem.

[beenthere]

Kirk
The locust around here come out pretty late. Maybe that is the case with yours. ???

[SwampDonkey]

Kirk,

Did the guy do any dozing or dumping earth within the drip-line of the trees? Might be caused by disturbance or root smothering. My cousin did this near 10 poplars that are mostly all dead. The pileated wood peckers are chipping away at 'em now. ;)

[Kirk_Allen]

Turns out that 2 of the 6 died last year.  The other 4 must have died over the winter.  All his other black locust, which are much smaller are budded out and seem to be doing well. 

No heavy machine work anywhere near these trees. They are basically surrounding the outer parimeter of his home property line.

THEY ARE BIG!  The biggest is jsut shy of 40" DIB and the other 5 are all 28" DIB.  He is going to cut them down after planting is done and bring them to the mill site. 

I asked him what he wanted for them and he said nothing. I had givin him a grain truck load of slab wood for fire wood so this is his way of saying thanks.  I told him make sure he comes get the slabs from them when Im done cutting them because it makes for some great firewood.

[etat]

40" DIB and the other 5 are all 28" DIB

Those are some monster of a locus trees. I've seen a few that might push that 40 inch size but not many.  Around here as a rule they die or fall down long before they get that big. Although I've never actually heard the term 'fungus Fomes rimosus' I've seen it a lot on locus trees, at least judging from Populus's description. 

[ohsoloco]

Hope they're good logs.  Any black locust I've ever seen cut down that was of any size (over 12" diameter) they were rotten inside  :-\

[Daren]

Kirk
We need to get together some time so I can rub your head for good luck, for central Il. you get more than a few nice trees (I just recently read the thread about the jag you got last summer). I have never even seen a locust bigger than 24", but I too heard they are bad on the inside when they get really big. I hope not for you. (Just in case you are worried they are bad, I guess I could just take them and saw them, so you don't waste your time)

[Kirk_Allen]

Waste my time?  Sawing lumber is never a waste of time.  Even if the centers are rotten, I am sure that the outer sectoion will produce some nice boards.  Power of Positive Thinking!

I walked through the woods today and took another look at the Osage the farmer gave me.  Wow!  Its bigger than I realized.  LOTS OF GOOD WOOD!

Just north of it is a Cherry that is uprooted and it looks to be about 20".  Farmer said I can take ANY tree in the woods that has died or blown over! 8) 8)

Might have to do a Timber Cruise tomarrow before the Martinsville Race 8)

Hey Daren, I will be going through Shelbyville on Tuesday.  I have to go to springfield for a 10 am meeting but should be coming back through that afternoon.  If you got some time maybe we could meet for a cup of coffee.

[Daren]

I was just joking about wasting your time sawing, like I said I have never seen a locust 24", and would really like to see inside one, rotten or not. I will have to raincheck the coffee this time, nice weather really snuck up on me, I have got way behind on the things I have to do in spring. I am trying to get a few jobs finished so I can free up some time to start working on the cabin again(power gets put in this week) And my skidsteer is finally supposed to show up this week, I have been shut off from sawing much for 3 weeks. The yard is full (had to mow around all the logs yesterday), I have had several calls, and had to tell them my situation and it would be a couple weeks, it will all work out. Maybe later this year I can swing by the farm (wifes parents live in Charlestown, might drop her off for a few minutes), or you can track me down at my cabin we just hang out there and pretend we are 1000 miles from home.

[Daren]

Well I said I had never seen a biggish locust. I guess I wasn't looking hard enough, I have some growing on some of my ground. Rural electric was putting power on my property for a cabin and I got a call from them saying they needed to remove a couple trees was that ok and did I want the logs for firewood . I asked what they had to take out, a couple white pines (my cabin is in the middle of 3 acres of row planted white pines, which could help with Kirks question, I'll explain later) a mulberry and a black locust. I said I had a little sawmill, I want the logs and they stripped and stacked them in a pile and chipped the tops and limbs . I also had a talk with the foreman and he said they do this all year and remove alot of trees for new service easement and he would call me if he had anything good. Any way the locust is 20" dbh and it has 2 solid 10' logs. The pines it snuck up in were planted in 1961, so at 40 years old it did alright. I was wondering about the mulberry, it is bigger yet, it was on the edge of my timber. Was it there before the pines, or do they grow that fast too?