What to do with Honey Locust trees/branches? - Page 1

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - What to do with Honey Locust trees/branches?

Posted: 3/27/2020 10:05:09 AM EDT

I have multiple small Black Locust trees/saplings that I've already hinge cut or completely cut down and branches on larger trees that will be coming down on the border areas where I mow. The question I have is what to do with these smaller trees and branches as I've heard that the large thorns will remain even after the wood was burned in the burn pile?

I've thought about bundling up groups of the branches and throwing them into various areas of either pond for fish structure/habitat away from areas frequented by people potentially swimming. Another idea is to throw them into the drain pipe ravines coming from the road to help slow down erosion and also create habitat protection for other small animals.

Any body else have this problem or have dealt with this before and had a solution?

ETA: Changed the thread title to correctly read Honey Locust and not Black Locust. Wherever I reference "Black" in this thread it should be "Honey".

Posted: 3/27/2020 10:24:31 AM EDT

[#1]

I have several and the thorns are no joke, they can get almost 2inches long.
I have gassed, burned and salted. I even cut em up with birdshot. They are very resilient plants.

IN for answers

Posted: 3/27/2020 10:48:03 AM EDT

[#2]

I'm also treating the stumps with Tordon, that are not hinge cut, to prevent any future regrowth.

Posted: 3/27/2020 11:28:21 AM EDT

[#3]

Black locust makes a nice self-bow.

Posted: 3/27/2020 11:49:33 AM EDT

[#4]

You're more than welcome to come over here and have as much as you want.

Posted: 3/27/2020 12:25:41 PM EDT

[#5]

I battled black locust for years. Pretty sure they can't be eradicated. I would even pull up their roots. They deserve their own horror movie with their ability to come back from the dead. I sold the property and moved to AK

Posted: 3/27/2020 1:41:57 PM EDT

[#6]

I know what you mean but Tordon is real good at getting down to the roots and killing stuff from the inside...it's the only stuff that I've seen that will work on Multiflora Rose. I'm only getting rid of the trees that are along where I mow as I'm not going to do anything with those out in the woods as it's good habitat for the wildlife and bad for those who don't have permission to be in the woods.

Posted: 3/27/2020 2:13:08 PM EDT

[#7]

For anything cut put it in a burn barrel with some forced air entering the bottom of the barrel. Will incinerate virtually anything.

Ive had good luck with burning out stumps by putting a burn barrel, with both ends cut off, on top and letting it burn down into the ground. Downside is it kills off all of the microorganisms in the soild there and it takes a little while for nature to reclaim the spot. Mixing in transplanted toposoil speeds things up.

Posted: 3/27/2020 3:29:20 PM EDT

[#8]

Make crowns out of them and sell to local churches at Easter. Profit.

Posted: 3/27/2020 3:31:10 PM EDT

[#9]

Quote History

Quoted:
I battled black locust for years. Pretty sure they can't be eradicated. I would even pull up their roots. They deserve their own horror movie with their ability to come back from the dead. I sold the property and moved to AK

View Quote

You can drill and drive several copper rods into their trunks near the base. It will poison the tree and their extensive root networks.

Posted: 3/27/2020 11:45:33 PM EDT

[#10]

Quote History

Quoted:
I know what you mean but Tordon is real good at getting down to the roots and killing stuff from the inside...it's the only stuff that I've seen that will work on Multiflora Rose. I'm only getting rid of the trees that are along where I mow as I'm not going to do anything with those out in the woods as it's good habitat for the wildlife and bad for those who don't have permission to be in the woods.

View Quote

It's wonderful honey, too, if you decide to take up beekeeping in the future.

Posted: 3/30/2020 2:01:15 PM EDT

[#11]

Locust makes great fence posts

Posted: 3/30/2020 2:16:45 PM EDT

[#12]

Quote History

Quoted:
Locust makes great fence posts

View Quote

Was going to say this.

When I was a kid we even had a farmer across the road tell my parents how lucky they were to have locust growing on their place for that reason.

Posted: 3/30/2020 3:51:51 PM EDT

[#13]

Quote History

Quoted:

Was going to say this.

When I was a kid we even had a farmer across the road tell my parents how lucky they were to have locust growing on their place for that reason.

View Quote

That's for sure! My place has no locust but I'm blessed with lots of hard maple, ash and cherry. My girlfriend's place is an old farm from the 1800s and locust crept in on the edges of her pastures. They are all fence post size trees. It really is a blessing when locust posts are going for $6 a piece and you want to fence in pastures tho! For example. My front field would cost about $1000 in posts alone and its not really that big!

The only down side is if you don't use them green you pretty much have to pre drill every darn hole for insulators because they get so hard once they are seasoned. It doesn't rot tho.

Posted: 3/30/2020 10:10:32 PM EDT

[#14]

Black locust

Honey locust

You sure you have black locust? Their thorns are a non-issue. Honey locust, I'm sure a nice hot fire will get rid of the thorns.

Posted: 3/30/2020 11:19:22 PM EDT

[#15]

I bought a truck load of black locust(I was told) more than once for fire wood. If I don’t cut it up and split the wood right away it gets so freaking hard! An old timer told me you can see sparks if cut at night lol.
Used a few small diameter ones for legs on kiddos tree house. No joke you can barely drill them when they seasoned!
But man do they burn long and hot in the outdoor burner.

Posted: 3/30/2020 11:28:10 PM EDT

[#16]

Quote History

Quoted:
Black locust
http://identifythatplant.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Black-locust4.jpg

Honey locust
http://identifythatplant.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Honey-locust3.jpg

You sure you have black locust? Their thorns are a non-issue. Honey locust, I'm sure a nice hot fire will get rid of the thorns.

View Quote

This is what I was wondering. Never saw thorns that long on actual black locust.

Posted: 3/30/2020 11:39:06 PM EDT

[#17]

Hedgeapple?
Orange Osage?

When I lived in TN, we had a number of names for that bastard.

Posted: 3/31/2020 5:56:32 PM EDT

[#18]

Quote History

Quoted:
Hedgeapple?
Orange Osage?

When I lived in TN, we had a number of names for that bastard.

View Quote

Nope. Different species.

Posted: 3/31/2020 6:51:05 PM EDT

[#19]

I plant Honey Locust, but the thornless type. Black Locust is often used to stabilize river banks and areas of very poor soil, both add nitrogen to the soil.

Osage Orange is a whole nutha mess, one of the few trees I refuse to plant.

I'm battling Autumn Olive on my place, brush hog, brush cutter, Crossbow herbicide, etc. The only good thing is that the cut bushes can be burned almost right away for some reason.

Posted: 3/31/2020 11:38:05 PM EDT

[#20]

Locust is awesome for a wood stove. It burns like coal if it’s old and seasoned.
Don’t wait to split it once seasoned it’s like iron

Posted: 4/6/2020 2:53:26 AM EDT

[#21]

I took a "paul bunyan" swing at a hedge (osage orange) log with a brand new splitting maul once.

I might as well have swung on a steel I-beam.

I laugh every time I read about world war 2 tanks "crashing through hedgerows..." I don't think an F15 at full afterburner would "crash through hedgerows"!

I wonder if you can cut them with a flowjet or plasma cutter?

Posted: 4/7/2020 9:53:28 AM EDT

[#22]

Cut up about a dozen Honey Locust trees and two Osage Orange on Sunday that I’d dropped a few weeks ago. I have quite a few various trees that I need to hinge cut on the back side of the dams at our ponds. I really like my Osage Orange trees and will not cut them down if at all possible.

Posted: 4/7/2020 10:34:35 AM EDT

[#23]

Quote History

Quoted:
I took a "paul bunyan" swing at a hedge (osage orange) log with a brand new splitting maul once.

I might as well have swung on a steel I-beam.

I laugh every time I read about world war 2 tanks "crashing through hedgerows..." I don't think an F15 at full afterburner would "crash through hedgerows"!

I wonder if you can cut them with a flowjet or plasma cutter?

View Quote

Not many stories about WW2 tanks crashing thru hedgeroaws, pretty much everything I've ever read or watched said they were a PITA and unless you had a cutter/plow in front, it wasn't happening. Even with the cutter/plow it wasn't easy.

Posted: 4/7/2020 12:00:27 PM EDT

[#24]

Black locust posts are a decent side gig money maker if you're out in the country.

If you can find them on CL around here, you're looking at 5-8 dollars a piece for an 8ft post.

Posted: 4/7/2020 12:19:05 PM EDT

[#25]

Quote History

Quoted:
Locust makes great fence posts

View Quote

Cut them for fence posts in the fall/winter after the sap is down in the roots. There's some posts along the garden at home that dad put in before he went in the AF in 1953. Most have been replaced, but there's still a few of the old ones hanging on up there.

Makes good stove wood, too. Doesn't seem to burn quite as hot as oak, some other hardwoods, but it doesn't make much in the way of ashes either. Dad said he could go several weeks (fires in the stove every day and most nights) before he'd get a bucket of ashes from that big old (50 gal. drum sized) wood stove.

Posted: 4/7/2020 2:07:04 PM EDT

[#26]

Quote History

Quoted:

Cut them for fence posts in the fall/winter after the sap is down in the roots. There's some posts along the garden at home that dad put in before he went in the AF in 1953. Most have been replaced, but there's still a few of the old ones hanging on up there.

Makes good stove wood, too. Doesn't seem to burn quite as hot as oak, some other hardwoods, but it doesn't make much in the way of ashes either. Dad said he could go several weeks (fires in the stove every day and most nights) before he'd get a bucket of ashes from that big old (50 gal. drum sized) wood stove.

View Quote

This.

Its a middle ground kind of wood for BTUs, but it does burn up very well. Makes fantastic posts.

I'm blessed with lots of honey locusts on my place. aka Nope Trees. You gonna cut that down? Nope. You gonna walk over there? Nope. You gonna drive a vehicle within 20 feet of it? Nope.

Posted: 4/10/2020 8:30:03 PM EDT

[#27]

Quote History

Quoted:

Not many stories about WW2 tanks crashing thru hedgeroaws, pretty much everything I've ever read or watched said they were a PITA and unless you had a cutter/plow in front, it wasn't happening. Even with the cutter/plow it wasn't easy.

View Quote

I figure there are a lot of badly researched stories in commercial fiction that include exactly such scenarios. Betting that's what the poster was referring to.

Posted: 4/10/2020 8:34:53 PM EDT

[#28]

Quote History

Quoted:

This.

Its a middle ground kind of wood for BTUs, but it does burn up very well. Makes fantastic posts.

I'm blessed with lots of honey locusts on my place. aka Nope Trees. You gonna cut that down? Nope. You gonna walk over there? Nope. You gonna drive a vehicle within 20 feet of it? Nope.

View Quote

This.

We have baby ones coming up all over, plus the sports from the scourge of the Earth--the offspring of f***ing Bradford and Cleveland pears. Their offspring are the thorn bushes in pastures everywhere around here. Thorns that rival honeylocust.

If I had my way, some plant-based death angel would pass over the earth TONIGHT (Passover, right?) and all Pyrus calleryana 'Bradford/Cleveland' and their offspring would die like the victims did in the Ten Commandents.

Black locust trees were the shade in my grandmother's yard. I grew up around them. Never had any trouble with the thorns other than "bare feet" trouble.

@Booger-hooker will you take pics of your trees, and let us see the leaves? We can tell in about two seconds whether they are actually black locust, or whether they are honeylocust.

Posted: 4/11/2020 1:35:31 AM EDT

[#29]

Please excuse my ignorance as I got the two types of Locust trees switched backwards.

. Honey Locust is what I have to deal with and the Black Locust is what I have been cutting up.

Posted: 4/11/2020 11:46:52 PM EDT

[#30]

Quote History

Quoted:
Please excuse my ignorance as I got the two types of Locust trees switched backwards.

. Honey Locust is what I have to deal with and the Black Locust is what I have been cutting up.

View Quote

That makes sense!

Black Locust is very useful, and makes wonderful honey.

Honeylocust..not so much.

Posted: 4/24/2020 11:09:46 AM EDT

[#31]

Update: The last two times down to the property I've been hauling the small Honey Locust trees and branches to the drainage ditches, that go under the gravel road and feed into my ponds, and tossing them down there. I figure it'll provide cover for some small game and also help any erosion and slow down the flow of any sediment/soil from getting to the ponds. I have nothing to lose if it doesn't work and in the meantime they're out of sight and out of the way.

Posted: 4/24/2020 3:42:24 PM EDT

[#32]

There’s a YouTube channel called Townsends. He is a living history buff for 18th century Americana. In a multipart episode about building log cabins he is using honey locust thorns for door frame nails.

Posted: 4/25/2020 2:45:55 AM EDT

[#33]

Quote History

Quoted:
Please excuse my ignorance as I got the two types of Locust trees switched backwards.

. Honey Locust is what I have to deal with and the Black Locust is what I have been cutting up.

View Quote

No worries, I used to get them mixed up too.

Black locust: excellent rot resistance, great firewood*, not so thorny

Honey locust: ok rot resistance, ok firewood, HUGE thorns.

*Black locust has a unique burn characteristic that I really like and I take advantage of. It doesn't really burn well. It's hard, dry, and has good BTUs, but it just doesn't like to be burned. As a matter of fact, when you get it going it burns with a low, blue flame, it's neat. If you recognize this characteristic you can use it to your advantage if you heat with wood. You know in the heart of winter when your stove doesn't really get a chance for the coals to burn down before you have to reload to keep the house warm? That's when you dig out the black locust. When other woods, even oak, will burn up quickly bc the coal-bed is so hot, Black Locust will burn more slowly, wasting less BTUs up the chimney and giving a more consistent heat output. Don't try a cold start with it though, it's a pain to get started. It really works best on a bed of hot coals.

Posted: 4/26/2020 8:39:15 PM EDT

[#34]

I usually just push that stuff up into brush piles. It's the easiest, cheapest wildlife habitat improvement you can do.

Side note: a forester told me that nectar from black locusts blossoms produces some of the best honey and that it is clear as water.