# Does Osage Orange grow near YOU?



## wood-fan-atic (Sep 16, 2011)

The Holy Grail of firewood. I have never seen any here on Long Island - it seems to be more prevalent in the mid-west. Does it grow anywhere else? 

At least there is no shortage of black locust here.


----------



## Jags (Sep 16, 2011)

Being from the Midwest - yeah, we gotz lotz of monkey brain trees.    Seems to grow in any fence line that is not cleared.


----------



## Constrictor (Sep 16, 2011)

grows all over the place here in missouri, great wood but usually has tons of limbs to deal with.


----------



## lukem (Sep 16, 2011)

Grows like a weed around here...mostly in fencelines.

My neighbor has 100 acres.  Years ago he girdled all the hedge that was/is deep in his woods.  Most is still standing...dead and hard as a rock...and I have permission to cut all I want.  Since they grew in the canopy most are pretty straight and have comparatively few branches compared to your fenceline variety.


----------



## wood-fan-atic (Sep 16, 2011)

lukem said:
			
		

> Grows like a weed around here...mostly in fencelines.
> 
> My neighbor has 100 acres.  Years ago he girdled all the hedge that was/is deep in his woods.  Most is still standing...dead and hard as a rock...and I have permission to cut all I want.  Since they grew in the canopy most are pretty straight and have comparatively few branches compared to your fenceline variety.



Wow...a blaze king KING, and all the osage you can cut....hmmmm. Nope...that does NOT suck. ;-P


----------



## lukem (Sep 16, 2011)

wood-fan-atic said:
			
		

> lukem said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Sure doesn't suck.


----------



## Jags (Sep 16, 2011)

lukem said:
			
		

> wood-fan-atic said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Not hardly at all.


----------



## TreePointer (Sep 16, 2011)

I'm in western PA, almost on the Ohio line, and I've never seen it here.


----------



## blujacket (Sep 16, 2011)

There are some here in Southwestern Ohio. I haven't had the pleasure of burning any though.


----------



## Nixon (Sep 16, 2011)

wood-fan-atic said:
			
		

> The Holy Grail of firewood. I have never seen any here on Long Island - it seems to be more prevalent in the mid-west. Does it grow anywhere else?



I've planted about  40 in the last few years ( still have another 10 to plant this year) It does well in My soil ,which is poor at best .It and the locust seem to be doing very well here .  I'm 63 ,so I won't reap the benefits of the planting , but hopefully someone will appreciate the effort on a cold January night !


----------



## smokinj (Sep 16, 2011)

Lots of it around here but the big thing it takes a lot of cutting to make a cord! (I will take black locust over hedge)


----------



## thewoodlands (Sep 16, 2011)

wood-fan-atic said:
			
		

> The Holy Grail of firewood. I have never seen any here on Long Island - it seems to be more prevalent in the mid-west. Does it grow anywhere else?
> 
> At least there is no shortage of black locust here.




I've never seen any up north in our area just that softwood called beech and sugar maple!  :cheese: 

Looks like we'll let the Liberty chew through a few splits tonight.


zap


----------



## CodyWayne718 (Sep 16, 2011)

Grows like weeds here too. Where about you at in IN lukem? Smokin made a good point, it is a PITA to get any amount out of it. Unless its the one growing in my FILs front yard, thing is massive.


----------



## Shadow&Flame (Sep 16, 2011)

We have it here, but I have never burned any of it. Don't know why really...just too many other types of wood to get. Will have to look around the property and see if there is a damaged one I could give a try. I try not to cut a healthy tree...


----------



## Adios Pantalones (Sep 16, 2011)

Only the few that I planted, and they are growing slooowwlly


----------



## jatoxico (Sep 16, 2011)

Happy Friday everyone! It's happy hour here.

Couple of words and phrases my east coast ears are not familiar with in this post.

What is meant by fencelines? Areas cut to put in fencing between properties that scrub grows back into? Otherwise why does osage grow there?

Girdling? Did I spell that right? What is that?

Anyone have a pic of osage (same as hedge?)?


----------



## wood-fan-atic (Sep 16, 2011)

Girdling is when you remove a band of bark around the tree so as to starve the roots (and kill the tree). Here is a pic of the fruit (monkey brain) and the tree.


----------



## jatoxico (Sep 16, 2011)

wood-fan-atic said:
			
		

> Girdling is when you remove a band of bark around the tree so as to starve the roots (and kill the tree).



OK, now that you say it I guess I've heard of that.


----------



## tfdchief (Sep 16, 2011)

Hedge, Osage Orange is found in much of North America.


----------



## krex1010 (Sep 16, 2011)

I live in southeast pa and I see hedge occasionally , but i wouldn't say it's common. Never come across any in my firewood collecting.


----------



## Backwoods Savage (Sep 17, 2011)

None around here.

Anyone have paw paw trees?


----------



## shawneyboy (Sep 17, 2011)

Not common in NE PA but, it is an occasional here and there type of thing.

Shawn


----------



## chvymn99 (Sep 17, 2011)

jatoxico said:
			
		

> Happy Friday everyone! It's happy hour here.
> 
> Couple of words and phrases my east coast ears are not familiar with in this post.
> 
> What is meant by fencelines? Areas cut to put in fencing between properties that scrub grows back into? Otherwise why does osage grow there?



Well, Hedge rows grow very thick and dense, most of the times they are impassible. Farmers used these trees commonly as divisional lines on the property border.


----------



## weatherguy (Sep 17, 2011)

Any of you guys ever eat the fruit?


----------



## tfdchief (Sep 17, 2011)

chvymn99 said:
			
		

> jatoxico said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Yes, so thick and dense that they could keep livestock in.  No fence needed.


----------



## tfdchief (Sep 17, 2011)

weatherguy said:
			
		

> Any of you guys ever eat the fruit?


 You can http://www.gpnc.org/osage.htm#Edible


----------



## Wood Duck (Sep 17, 2011)

Here in central PA you can find a few fencelines with old Osage Orange growing on them. It doesn't seem to spread very much, not even in the brushy field across the road from the neighbor's stand where all the 'monkey balls' roll each fall. It seems to grow fine when planted, just doesn't sprout well in the wild. There are some 60 footers with 2 ft diameter trunks near here, but I have never had the chance to burn any.


----------



## jatoxico (Sep 17, 2011)

[/quote]

Well, Hedge rows grow very thick and dense, most of the times they are impassible. Farmers used these trees commonly as divisional lines on the property border.[/quote]

Ah....Gotcha.


----------



## lukem (Sep 17, 2011)

wood-fan-atic said:
			
		

> Girdling is when you remove a band of bark around the tree so as to starve the roots (and kill the tree).



Yup, but in this case he cut a ring all the way around the trunk about 2 inches deep with a chainsaw to kill the tree and make room for more desirable lumber species.


----------



## weatherguy (Sep 17, 2011)

tfdchief said:
			
		

> weatherguy said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



I read somewhere a while back they were edible, or at least parts of it, I was wondering if you ever tried it and what it tastes like.


----------



## krex1010 (Sep 17, 2011)

weatherguy said:
			
		

> tfdchief said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


----------



## Woody Stover (Sep 17, 2011)

I saw some storm-downed Hedge and talked to the guy about getting some, but he sounded like he wanted to have an insured pro handle the job. I was hoping he'd call me to take some of the wood but he didn't. Oh well, I'll probably get to burn some sooner or later. Seems like you'd have to be careful with it; I've heard that it burns like coal, and I think you could over-fire your stove if you didn't stay on top of it. If I never get any to try, I'll just have to make due with Oak, Hickory, Black Locust and Dogwood.                                              :smirk:


----------



## tfdchief (Sep 17, 2011)

weatherguy said:
			
		

> tfdchief said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Sorry, no i haven't.  When I was a kid the old timers said they were poisonous.  That was always good enough for me  :ahhh:


----------



## CountryBoy19 (Sep 17, 2011)

smokinjay said:
			
		

> Lots of it around here but the big thing it takes a lot of cutting to make a cord! (I will take black locust over hedge)



I'm with Jay, Hedge is nice dense, good, long burning wood, but it takes so much work to get a cord of it. The trees grow so bushy and branched out that you are constantly cutting and dragging the brush out.

I would much rather cut BL because it's typically straight and tall with very few branches.

Just to give you an example, I cut hedge and BL on the same property in the same place. Hedge was growing amongst the BL. It took me 2 weeks of working after work and on the weekends to cut 4 cords of hedge. It only took me one weekend to cut 4 cords of BL. The difference? The landowner wanted the brush semi-piled so he could push it with his backhoe. I spent 20 minutes piling the brush from 7 different BL trees, and I spent several hours working on a single hedge tree because it had so much brush, and the brush gets all tangled. But I wanted that tree because it was the largest hedge tree there; it was about 16" DBH and had a straight trunk about 10 feet long before it split off into 2 smaller trunks. It honestly looked like there wouldn't be much work to do to get that wood, but I was wrong.

Am I glad I did the work and got the hedge? Heck yes, would I do it again?

Well, I'll let you know if a few years when my hedge is gone and I am dying to have more.


----------



## firefighterjake (Sep 19, 2011)

Never heard of this stuff until I started hanging out here . . . we do have black locust, sugar maple and beech though.


----------



## ChrisNJ (Sep 19, 2011)

Not so common here in Central Jersey but they are around, they are dropping the balls now so along the roads they are easy to find.


----------



## onion (Sep 19, 2011)

Place I used to hunt has some nice big ones but looking at them they would be such a bear to deal with I would think twice if the old man said I could cut it.

I would think twice and then go do it


----------



## lukem (Sep 19, 2011)

Backwoods Savage said:
			
		

> None around here.
> 
> Anyone have paw paw trees?



There are some on my dad's place.  Never seen them produce any fruit though.  They are real slow growing, but the wood is balsa-wood light when dry.  Weird stuff.


----------

