Is this a locust sapling?

[zogger]

Honey locust don't just "have" thorns. They are what multiflora rose aspire to be when they grow up.

Seriously, I have seen lots of honey locust with thorns 3 feet long with MANY additional branching thorns on the thorns. They are typically so thorny on the trunk, even squirrels can't climb them.

If the French had planted honey locust on the Maginot line instead of concrete bunkers, the Germans would never have tried to cross it. World history would be different.

Well, I'll dig it up and put it in the greenhouse then. Make a decision later on where to put it or not. Just want to see it grow really. I have no idea where it came from, haven't seen any mature trees that have thorns here, or those long bean looking seed pods. They must be around, just haven't seen them.

 

[slinger]

Once you have cleaned the thorns off the tree, or cut the tree down, or let it grow, or...never, but never, ever drive a rubber-tired peice of equipment in that area again!!!

Hary K

The gift that keeps on giving! I ruined a nearly new front tire on my 4440'JD mowing crp. The thorns break off in the tire and keep working into the tire weeks afterward.

Cut that tree down, burn the stump and cover the ashes with Tordon!

 

[pdqdl]

Honey locust isn't quite that bad. Tordon the ashes? :msp_scared:


You must be really mad about that flat.

Honey locust thorns don't keep working in, not in my experience. I have been running tractors for 40 years now, brush-hogging honey locust. Depending on the thickness and quality of the tires, most of the time they just break off and never cause a problem. When you DO get a flat from them, you really need to be meticulous to get all the thorn tips out of the inside tire liner, which can be rather tedious.

If you ruined that tire, it was probably from running it flat. You gotta fix 'em when they come un-pumped, not when you get back to the air compressor.

 

[zogger]

Update...gonna lose it

Told my boss about finding that sapling. He tells me a story about years ago, he had a guy mowing a field here that had a lot of locust in it, FOUR flats within 15 minutes. He bulldozed that whole field up and burned it. So I am just going to dig it up and burn it. Much as I like biodiversity and the thought of having primo wood..screw it.

 

[tuneshop]

no better time than now.... go to your favorite home and garden center, buy some Remedy RTU.Squirt a circle around the stem. Go have a beer safe in the knowledge that you have killed a honey locust.

 

[pdqdl]

T... Much as I like biodiversity and the thought of having primo wood..screw it.

It is good wood, and they make fine shade trees. They also propagate themselves all over. Each pod contains a bunch of seeds, and they seem to germinate quite well. They are nitrogen fixing, so they can grow where other trees starve to death.

Keeping that little honeylocust would be like keeping that giant waterbug you found on the back porch. An interesting specimen, but you really don't want more than one.

 

[slinger]

Not really :msp_wink: that mad. They are nice specimen trees and excellent firewood. Just not something I want growing up in pastures or my fencerows. I do Tordon what I can't get with the D5. I always enjoy checking off the different locust species in cities like Chicago. Always amazes me how well they tolerate the concrete jungle.

 

[pdqdl]

One of my favorite trees is black locust.

They are horribly invasive, and they have savage short thorns all over them. They are harder to work with than honeylocust, and they are harder to kill, too. Like the mythical hydra, cut them off with a chainsaw and you just get twice as many!

That being said, they produce giant clouds of flowers in the late spring, and they are as fragrant as lilacs. When the black locust are out in bloom, the spring has sprung, summertime is beginning, and the weather is perfect.

They are good firewood, too. Better even than honeylocust.

 

[turnkey4099]

Told my boss about finding that sapling. He tells me a story about years ago, he had a guy mowing a field here that had a lot of locust in it, FOUR flats within 15 minutes. He bulldozed that whole field up and burned it. So I am just going to dig it up and burn it. Much as I like biodiversity and the thought of having primo wood..screw it.

Don't give up on locust. Plant some thonless honey locust or Black Locust - they aren't that expensive and in 20 years or less you will have firewood. Black has the copsing habit though.

I heard that the locust beans are bad for cattle, any truth to that?

Harry K

 

[pdqdl]

...Plant some thonless honey locust or Black Locust - they aren't that expensive and in 20 years or less you will have firewood. Black has the copsing habit though.
...
Harry K

Thornless locust is a nursery variety; I don't know if the seeds produce thornless plants. They are most likely grown from cuttings. That info is out of my expertise. Planting anything and waiting for it to turn into firewood is a rather ambitious plan.

Copsing habit? What would that be?

 

[turnkey4099]

Thornless locust is a nursery variety; I don't know if the seeds produce thornless plants. They are most likely grown from cuttings. That info is out of my expertise. Planting anything and waiting for it to turn into firewood is a rather ambitious plan.

Copsing habit? What would that be?

Sprout new starts from the roots, Black Locust does not have a tap root but rather a mass ball of roots from big to fine that seem to spread forever. Left alone they will develope into a grove of little trees. Cut down a live one, and every root will try to send up a new sprout. That is why it is such an invasive species back east.

I cut one down in my backyard - chased sprouts with a spray bottle of roundup for the next 3 years. Even found one sprout coming up through a crack in the concrete inside my 3-season porch 20' from the stump!...and it wasn't a very big tree.

Harry K

 

[pdqdl]

...
Copsing habit? What would that be?

I found my own definition, but it apparently is a rather obscure word.

Noun: copse (plural copses)

A thicket of small trees or shrubs.

Black locust is notorious for growing from the roots, as you mentioned. So "copsing" seems to be an excellent word for that application. It's been a looong time since I heard "copse", and I don't think anyone ever hit me with "copsing"

 

[turnkey4099]

I found my own definition, but it apparently is a rather obscure word.

Noun: copse (plural copses)

A thicket of small trees or shrubs.

Black locust is notorious for growing from the roots, as you mentioned. So "copsing" seems to be an excellent word for that application. It's been a looong time since I heard "copse", and I don't think anyone ever hit me with "copsing"

I think Aspen is also a species that does that. Isn't that the one that every tree in the group that can cover 10s of acres is connected through roots - basically all the same tree?

Harry K