Honey Locust and Thorns

Arborist Forum

Help Support Arborist Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
My property is almost all Black Locust. No thorns at all. Great firewood, and three treestands.
My brother is 12 miles away and has honey locust with no thorns. Again, great firewood.
My cousin is 25 miles away on my grandfather's old farm and has BL that is full of thorns and poison ivy, and he'd love to have me cut them. I wrestled with them yearly as a kid trying to help my granddad keep the place clean, and I don't have any desire to do that again.
Must be different sub-species or something.
BTW, welcome to AS James.
 
My co worker says to take a pump sprayer and fill it with diesel fuel. Spray the honey locust with it until it's dripping wet. Set fire. Come back next day and cut.

What does the diesel bath do?

NM - just saw the "set fire"
 
Last edited:
Tordon is too expensive. I mix 1 part Remedy with 3 parts diesel to kill stumps.
 
I just knock em down,,and with a small hatchet,,and a 5 gal pail, with leather gloves, walk along the tree, clip em off,,and throw in pail. then throw those, on top of brush pile, and light..
 
If you have the time,,

Cut a ring around them a couple inches deep, down near the ground and come back next year. Most of the thorns and bark will have fallen off or just brush the thorns off with a gloved hand. The thorns are full of vengeance and will still try to poke you. I have 6 or 8 of them in the woods I "ringed" last year. I have used this technique in the past with success.
 
Cut a ring around them a couple inches deep, down near the ground and come back next year. Most of the thorns and bark will have fallen off or just brush the thorns off with a gloved hand. The thorns are full of vengeance and will still try to poke you. I have 6 or 8 of them in the woods I "ringed" last year. I have used this technique in the past with success.

How long does it take those vicious thorns to rot after they are on the ground? I had a "Thornless H.L" revert to type and cut it down many years ago. Just had another flat on my trailer the other day. Not sure it was due to a thorn but I went for over 30 years with very few flats. Since I cut that down the rate has been at least 1/yr with "thorn" as the diagnosis.

Harry K
 
well it like this Harry I know of fence poles of locust that my great great grandad put in, son of a guns are still there. That was in the late 1800's
 
Cut a ring around them a couple inches deep, down near the ground and come back next year. Most of the thorns and bark will have fallen off or just brush the thorns off with a gloved hand. The thorns are full of vengeance and will still try to poke you. I have 6 or 8 of them in the woods I "ringed" last year. I have used this technique in the past with success.

the ones I took down last winter,,,i didnt have that option..found out about them one week,,three weeks later,,the dozer moved in.......:msp_w00t:
 
We do close to the same thing. Girdle twice and spray cuts with Glyphosate and water 50/50. I also have several dead ones on my list this for this year.


Cut a ring around them a couple inches deep, down near the ground and come back next year. Most of the thorns and bark will have fallen off or just brush the thorns off with a gloved hand. The thorns are full of vengeance and will still try to poke you. I have 6 or 8 of them in the woods I "ringed" last year. I have used this technique in the past with success.
 
Be careful if you girdle and do not spray. We have girdled several that sproutd many new trees from the roots. They shure are bad news.
 
Be careful if you girdle and do not spray. We have girdled several that sproutd many new trees from the roots. They shure are bad news.

I have tried to do the girdling or ringing trick , too, and ended up with the tree just sprouting up a bunch of new suckers from the root. They certainly are weeds!
Now we always incorporate some kind of herbicide after the cut. Tordon works quite well.:msp_wink:

Ron
 
I have tried to do the girdling or ringing trick , too, and ended up with the tree just sprouting up a bunch of new suckers from the root. They certainly are weeds!
Now we always incorporate some kind of herbicide after the cut. Tordon works quite well.:msp_wink:

Ron

Yeah, I agree after giving it a little more thought. Put the herbicide to it. That thorny stuff reminds me of buckthorn that I fight with every time I start doing chores.

Put dye in the mixture so you know you've hit the stump, especially if you're cutting on a scale.
 
Back
Top