Honey Locust Tree

[MoKelly]

We have several of these bad boys on the property. Slowly they are dying. They are roughly 25-30 feet tall. These trees are dangerous to people and rubber tires. Apparently, people know to avoid them but tires aren’t so smart.

Recently, a dead one fell over and had to be cleaned up. It takes forever as you can really hurt yourself if you aren’t very slow and careful. Lots of cutting and moving to a burn pile.

Does anyone have any magic solution for taking down dead locust trees? One idea I had was to burn them standing. I imagine the tree going up in flames and all that will be left is a pile of ash. I have room such that the fire itself won’t be an issue but I can imaging the tree dropping branches and falling before fully burned.

Another idea was seeing telehandlers on TBN and thinking I could drive up, attach, pull the thing out by it’s roots and carry into the woods.

Again, I’m afraid reality may be very different.

Any thoughts?

I’m afraid there may be no magic bullet and I’m going to need to dispose of them the old fashion way.

MoKelly

 

[MossRoad]

Other than cutting them down before they die, there's not much you can do to prevent branches and thorns from falling off it as it falls.

 

[ovrszd]

Honey Locust root very well. It will take a mammoth Telehandler to pull them out of the ground.

 

[MoKelly]

So far no magic solution.

My wife likes the way they look in summer - so, cutting down while alive is not likely.

She signs off on all trees to be cut down - all 30 acres. Good thing she wasn’t around when the 50 acres of farmland was developed along the river!

She seems to believe wide open pastures came that way - despite all the surrounding woods!

At least along with locust trees God invented tire plugs!

MoKelly

 

[MossRoad]

We have about 10,000 trees on a 10 acre plot. About half are locust. Fortunately, they are black locust, and do not have thorns on the large trunks. Only the saplings under about 2-3" diameter have thorns on the trunk and they aren't but about 1/2-3/4" long. The smaller branches higher up on the large trees have those thorns as well, but again, once they hit about 2" in diameter, no thorns.

We have only a couple honey locust that I can think of. They are the stuff of horror movies.

 

[MoKelly]

We have only a couple honey locust that I can think of. They are the stuff of horror movies.

They certainly are! I’ve heard neighbors refer to them as Jesus Trees - the thought being the Crown Of Thorns was made from the branches.

I guess they have a purpose in nature - they are still here after all these years.

MoKelly

 

[Slowpoke Slim]

Maybe a steel tracked dozer to push them down and push them into a pile for burning?

 

[Liquidsilver]

Yeah, I don't have many... but I don't wait for them to die. I break them down and burn 'em. No need for those thorns and I have inner tubes!

 

[Slowpoke Slim]

And maybe the dozer "gets away" from you and you accidentally knock down a few more live ones?

 

[MoKelly]

And maybe the dozer "gets away" from you and you accidentally knock down a few more live ones?

I like your thinking!!! I didn’t think of a dozer. Interesting. Thanks!

MoKelly

 

[ponytug]

I have seen folks use an excavator to push them over and pop up the roots with a ripper attachment. If you go the dozer route, I would use one with a forestry ROPS. I wouldn't want limbs coming at me.

Personally, burning them while they stand sounds like a recipe for things getting out of control, but I have no experience doing it.

But, yes, definitely a tree from a horror flick.

All the best,

Peter

 

[buck12]

I push the small ones over with my tractor and use the grapple to move them to the burn pile. For larger ones, I cut them down and make as few cuts as possible to get them where I can move to the burn pile with the grapple.

 

[MoKelly]

I push the small ones over with my tractor and use the grapple to move them to the burn pile. For larger ones, I cut them down and make as few cuts as possible to get them where I can move to the burn pile with the grapple.

You can do this without getting flats on your tractor?

Are the trees still alive or dead?

MoKelly

 

[ovrszd]

I'll jinx myself here. I've taken out dozens of Locust trees and never had a flat. Various methods used based on size. Alive and dead.

 

[MoKelly]

I counted last evening. We have 1 dead locust standing (it’s 30 feet tall) and 8 more very much alive and growing.

So, not an emergency.

The last one we cut up and burned where it fell. That made it more doable. No way I can transport those beasts anywhere.

By the way, it’s snowing here right now. 38 degrees.

And we had 2 college tennis matches scheduled.

Mother Nature creates locust trees and makes it snow on April 20.

MoKelly

 

[MoKelly]

I'll jinx myself here. I've taken out dozens of Locust trees and never had a flat. Various methods used based on size. Alive and dead.

Hopefully no jinx. I’m sure you just know what your doing way better than me.

I can find 6 - 9 inch twigs from those trees 10-20 feet away from the tree. I assume the wind breaks them off and blows them away.

The largest spike I’ve seen on a twig away from the tree was 1-3/4 inches. Sharp as a needle.

MoKelly

 

[ponytug]

I counted last evening. We have 1 dead locust standing (it’s 30 feet tall) and 8 more very much alive and growing.

So, not an emergency.

The last one we cut up and burned where it fell. That made it more doable. No way I can transport those beasts anywhere.

By the way, it’s snowing here right now. 38 degrees.

And we had 2 college tennis matches scheduled.

Mother Nature creates locust trees and makes it snow on April 20.

MoKelly

Yup, this storm is supposed to set low temperature records across the Midwest.

Do you coach tennis? Just curious what you do with college tennis.

Have you considered making fence posts or ground contact beams out of the honey locusts? (Personally, I would love to have honey locust posts instead of the copper pressure treated posts that we have. The pressure treated posts rot out in seven years or less here, which is about the lifetime of copper pressure treated posts in this area.)

All the best,

Peter

 

[turnkey4099]

I like your thinking!!! I didn’t think of a dozer. Interesting. Thanks!

MoKelly

The problem with the trees, as you know is the thorns. Unfortunately, no matter how you handle them the thors coms off and get scattered around the work area. No way to clean them up.

I planted a row of shademaster honey locust back about 1980. Those are a thornless variety, About 20 years later I noticed that one of them had reverted to type and had the thorns. I died the same day of chainsawitis. I was still getting flats off of that small sapling sizedd tree 10 years later.

 

[MoKelly]

Yup, this storm is supposed to set low temperature records across the Midwest.

Do you coach tennis? Just curious what you do with college tennis.

Have you considered making fence posts or ground contact beams out of the honey locusts? (Personally, I would love to have honey locust posts instead of the copper pressure treated posts that we have. The pressure treated posts rot out in seven years or less here, which is about the lifetime of copper pressure treated posts in this area.)

All the best,

Peter

My wife and I are tennis officials for fun. So, we officiate men and woman college matches in St. Louis. She also runs USTA tournaments for juniors and some UTR events that I officiate.

It’s an opportunity to do work together and have some fun.

We have maybe 2 inches of snow on the grass right now - nothing in the concrete or street. Still snowing heavily - huge flakes.

I’ve not thought about posts. That is a great idea. There is a guy a few roads over with a mill. I’ll talk to him.

Thanks.

MoKelly

 

[Diggin It]

Rent your place out as an artillery range?