Angus 1895
5 year old buck +
What are the pros and cons of locust trees?
Thanks
Thanks
What’s the skinny on locust trees?
- Thread starter Angus 1895
- Start date
Catscratch
5 year old buck +
No pro's. Kill them. Nuke them. Kill their babies. Hit them hard and then do it again.
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S.T.Fanatic
5 year old buck +
Their pods hang all year by us. They pop open mid-late winter and are a magnet for turkeys.
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b116757
5 year old buck +
Honey Locust
The good
game does like the pods
The Bad
They have vicious thorns capable of puncturing tractor tires.
Remember the ^^^ good well they spread like wild fire because game like the pods.
I eradicate them on my place I pretty much hate them as much as Brandon hates voter ID laws.
You can get scions for thornless heavy cropping verities and top work them to wild trees. I haven’t done any of this but have considered it.
For Control I use a herbicide called Milestone
16 oz to 100gallons of water couple quarts of surfactant as foiler spray.
For hack and squirt 10:1 mix water to Milestone.
Tordon RTU will also work for cut stump or hack and squirt
If I had it I might try grafting it to named verities if you don’t have it you don’t want it.
Black Locust
Makes good fence posts and firewood.
The good
game does like the pods
The Bad
They have vicious thorns capable of puncturing tractor tires.
Remember the ^^^ good well they spread like wild fire because game like the pods.
I eradicate them on my place I pretty much hate them as much as Brandon hates voter ID laws.
You can get scions for thornless heavy cropping verities and top work them to wild trees. I haven’t done any of this but have considered it.
For Control I use a herbicide called Milestone
16 oz to 100gallons of water couple quarts of surfactant as foiler spray.
For hack and squirt 10:1 mix water to Milestone.
Tordon RTU will also work for cut stump or hack and squirt
If I had it I might try grafting it to named verities if you don’t have it you don’t want it.
Black Locust
Makes good fence posts and firewood.
Black locust -
Pro's : Best firewood out there. High BTU, splits easy, & grows straight. Beautiful grain for traditional Bow. Flowers in spring are attractive to pollinators. Small seed pod & seed is beneficial to wildlife.
Con's : "Weedy" tree. Can take over. Small thorns can puncture a tire.
Pro's : Best firewood out there. High BTU, splits easy, & grows straight. Beautiful grain for traditional Bow. Flowers in spring are attractive to pollinators. Small seed pod & seed is beneficial to wildlife.
Con's : "Weedy" tree. Can take over. Small thorns can puncture a tire.
GoldenTriangleIL
5 year old buck +
I have been using the branches and whole trees of the smaller honey locusts as browse cages for the shrubs I'm planting. Works really well but hard to work with, make sure you have eye protection. Otherwise I eliminate it. I rarely find that game, besides rodents, has an interest in the seed pods. Already had one flat this year.
j-bird
Moderator
So in my area we have honey locust - they have the large thorns, and we have the black locust which has the smaller thorns. both grow quickly and both can become a problem. They do flower and produce a "bean pod". The honey locust can produce a rather large pod that some wildlife will eat. the wood tends to be a decent to good firewood for heating a home as well. But beyond that I don't think they have any actual timber value. Black locust in particular used to be used a lot for wooden fence posts. Both will stump spout if you cut them. My father will tell you that "you cut one and 100 come to the funeral!" I have not seen them as a major contributor to wildlife, but I certainly wouldn't just kill one just because it is there. The honey locust will produce thorns large enough to puncture ATV tires. In my area both are native, so again....if I need to cut one that is fine, but I don't promote them. The ONLY way I would promote them was if I wanted some sort of thorny natural barricade...and even then you would have to "re-set" them every so often. I always felt a natural wall of honey locust, green briar, hawthorn, young hedge apple is about as appealing to a trespasser as a couple fences of barbed wire!
Knehrke
5 year old buck +
Judging by their relative abundance, perhaps the only tree we will have left in a few decades. Blights, insects, disease, etc.. have decimated many other species, at least around there, but the black locust are thriving. I recall hearing that their timber value was decent, better than expected, but don't sell timber so don't know for sure. Hence, at least at present, they have earned a free pass from the wrath of nehrke.
IkemanTx
5 year old buck +
The skinny is BURN THEM ALL…..
they may be a nitrogen fixer, they may offer a carbohydrate filled seed pod, but the thorns will flatten a tractor tire, and there is no stopping them from spreading once they start producing seed.
Also, the “thornless” varieties DO NOT produce thornless offspring, so beware assuming you will avoid thorns that way. I am beginning the process of c
Hack and squirt on our family place now, and it will take a couple years to get them all. We haven’t had a piece of equipment yet last more than 2 visits to the property without at least one flat. Even the green goo doesn’t stop it.
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they may be a nitrogen fixer, they may offer a carbohydrate filled seed pod, but the thorns will flatten a tractor tire, and there is no stopping them from spreading once they start producing seed.
Also, the “thornless” varieties DO NOT produce thornless offspring, so beware assuming you will avoid thorns that way. I am beginning the process of c
Hack and squirt on our family place now, and it will take a couple years to get them all. We haven’t had a piece of equipment yet last more than 2 visits to the property without at least one flat. Even the green goo doesn’t stop it.
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We have native honey locust around me. They are generalist and tend to grow about anywhere. We really find them in abandoned pastures and fence rows along with Osage, bush honeysuckle, and multiflora rose. I occasionally see wildlife use of pods (squirrels and deer) but not much and only when animals seem desperate. I tend to kill them out on there own or along edges. I leave the occasional one or two deep in the woods alone as I want a little diversity in my oak/hickory timbers. But again, I murder the ones on the edges and use them for firewood unless I want to put a stand in it at that very spot. Big honey locust trees can make okay stand trees as they tend to have multiple stems and branches to break up a hunter's outline. But I do not consider it a benefit to wildlife diet where I am at. Pods mostly go unused and end up creating more thorn trees.
b116757
5 year old buck +
For hack and squirt try for near complete ringing of larger trees if using an axe or hatchet. Chainsaw maybe preferably for some trees. On smaller trees say up to 3” I try for about two hacks larger than that 3-6” probably 3 maybe 4 hacks.
I really have very good luck with the Milestone as a foliar spray I often add Remedy ultra to the tank mix and smoke near anything I aim the wand at. I do take my time and try for complete coverage. Trees that are the toughest to kill are ones that I’ve been mowed off and not chemically killed they often have a much larger root system than the sprouts would indicate and it’s tough to get enough poison to kill the roots with a single foliar treatment with very few leaves to translocate the chemicals.
I really have very good luck with the Milestone as a foliar spray I often add Remedy ultra to the tank mix and smoke near anything I aim the wand at. I do take my time and try for complete coverage. Trees that are the toughest to kill are ones that I’ve been mowed off and not chemically killed they often have a much larger root system than the sprouts would indicate and it’s tough to get enough poison to kill the roots with a single foliar treatment with very few leaves to translocate the chemicals.
S.T.Fanatic
5 year old buck +
Ours are black locust for the record. I’ve only seen 1 or two honey locust over the years in the wild.
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Angus 1895
5 year old buck +
I am thinking of using them as shade in a drought area.
I think I will buy a grafted tree
then learn how to graft
any volunteer will be rootstock
thanks for your opinion and observations
john
I think I will buy a grafted tree
then learn how to graft
any volunteer will be rootstock
thanks for your opinion and observations
john
b116757
5 year old buck +
Black or Honey? And I would throw Osage Orange into the running if it can be grown on your sight.
b116757
5 year old buck +
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Honey Locust Scionwood
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Catscratch
5 year old buck +
Given a choice I would pick osage orange every time. It has a huge benefit to deer on my place. Che is another option I like.
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Angus 1895
5 year old buck +
I am in Tendoy Idaho and I am wanting to shade the non irrigated side of driveway.
the arid side is about 500 yards long
the trees will have exposure to cattle at times.
i rotational graze
the arid side is about 500 yards long
the trees will have exposure to cattle at times.
i rotational graze
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