Thorny Locust tree

[turnkey4099]

Black locust is one of the most valuable trees IMO. Great fire wood and great building lumber, last for a very long time. Black locust will easily out last any treated timber bought at the box stores{lowes home depot etc..}

Ya got that right! I had to remove a 6x6" post in my basement tht was set in the mud at leat 40 years prior as near as I could trace it. Rotted by the looks "I'll just give it a good whack with the 10 lb sledge" BOING! Finally cut it with chainsaw (hint, don't do that if you are standing under a fire alarm, it gets noisy). The rot was just skin deep, only went in about 1/8".

Harry K

 

[Ken45101]

The "old timer's wisdom" about how to tell if a black locust post needs replacing:

When you set the post, put a rock on top of it. Every few years, come by and check on the rock. If the rock has rotted, it may be time to start thinking about replacing the post some time in the future....

Now that's black locust, not honey (big thorn) locust.

BTW, I've heard that the bark should be removed before setting the post.

Ken

 

[Slacker]

I've got Honey locust all over my property. The young tree's have thorns, but as they get older the thorns go away. The wood is the only type that'll throw sparks off my chainsaw chain. Hard as nails, dulls saw chains up real fast. That stuff burns HOT.
I've heard the old timers tell of making beer with the seed pods as they are very high in Fructrose. Never tried it myself, but it sounds legit.
ETA: I bent my loader arms pushing them down. Once they set up in clay, they don't give up easily.

 

[turnkey4099]

Hand an unpleasant surprise today while running the log splitter - happened to glance at a locust I planted over 30 years ago. I ordered Black Locust but in only a few years it was obvious they were not the 'black' variety. Big, long pods so I figured probably 'shade master' whick IANM is a thornless Honey Locust. Okay, just there for for a bit of windbreak (2nd row) so no biggee. Well, one of them now has those vicious thorns, maybe reverted to type? Anybhow, tree - meet Mr. Chainsaw.

The Honey Locust with the big thorns does not drop their thorns as they age, they are there for life...along with all the thorns and stuff on the ground under them. I saw somewhere, years ago, that the settlers used to use those thorns for nails.

The Black locust has small thorns (very painful though) only on 1-2 year old wood.

Harry K

 

[Slacker]

Here is what I've done to a lot of my Honey locust (hint: 90HP Felcon).
btw, the older Honey locust I have on my property have no thorns. The young ones do.
The tree on the left has massive thorns. The ones in the back are older and have no thorns.

Before:
http://personalpages.tds.net/~eflanagin/before_mulching.JPG

After:
http://personalpages.tds.net/~eflanagin/Mulched_after.JPG

 

[Ken45101]

Here is what I've done to a lot of my Honey locust (hint: 90HP Felcon).
btw, the older Honey locust I have on my property have no thorns. The young ones do.
The tree on the left has massive thorns. The ones in the back are older and have no thorns.

Before:
http://personalpages.tds.net/~eflanagin/before_mulching.JPG

After:
http://personalpages.tds.net/~eflanagin/Mulched_after.JPG

Wow! Very nice. I want to clean out some of our woods like that. Your place will look very pretty when it greens up

If you are not using the Felcon, I can store it for you....for free even! :laughing:

I'm getting a brush mower for the skid steer. I know it won't do as pretty of a job as you've done, but hopefully I'll be able to do a half decent job of clearing some areas. Of course it won't do anything for the bigger honey locust trees.

Ken

 

[schmism]

got to love when a brand new forum peep resurrects a 9 year old thread.... :thumbsup:

 

[AussieBill]

Hahaha! Just noticed that! We have so many of these pests that eradication is an ongoing concern and it began long before the blog was started. Some interesting comments though. I have never used the wood for household firewood or fence posts but that seems to me to be worth giving a go. In Australia we have very stringent fire restrictions and it is not easy to get a licence to burn off piles of wood or farm refuse. I thought about putting it through a wood chipper for garden mulch, but the thorns would still be a concern for kids, pets and the lawnmower.

I do also have one other plant pest that I need to tackle, and I do not know if any of you good people are familiar with it and I do not recall ever encountering it on any farms or ranches in the US. It is called African Boxthorn (Lycium ferocissimum). It is not a tree, more of a shrub with smaller needles, quite resistent to Roundup and if you want to cut it, you WILL loose a bit of blood. I have found in the past that if I throw a chain around it and rip it out, it can re-emerge from I guess to be remaining root tissue. I can tell you that I have put this on the fire before and it is a great burner, but forget it for fence posts as the branches are quite gnarley.

Any ideas?

 

[Drunes]

I could not pass this one up even though I am new the the forum I can see this is an age old issue. The front acreage I cut them with a chain saw and drag them off before the have a chance to dry out. The smaller ones I am cutting off with very long handle hand cutters and throwing them in a trailer with twine I can tie them up afterwards connect the twine to a tree at the dump location and drive away.

 

[s78wingrider]

You should the lumber from it!