Anyone have experience with Osage Orange as a hedge?

  • Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.

    We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.

    We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil.
Status
Not open for further replies.
SolarAndWood

SolarAndWood

Minister of Fire
Feb 3, 2008
6,788
Syracuse NY
My corner lot is on a steep grade and on one side has a 12-15 ft steep bank up to the guard rail and road. I have filled in this area about 40 ft wide at the grade of the road and should be ready to plant trees in the spring with the primary goal of reducing headlights and noise. I have been thinking Blue Spruce because of the resistance to salt damage as the road is a steep grade that the town applies significant salt and plowing resources to. But, there are also power lines that run along the road and I don't love the look of topped mature Blue Spruce.

In my search for alternatives, I came across Osage Orange. Grows fast, no pests, animals don't like the fruit, good windbreak, used as erosion control and there is a rumor it makes good firewood? Anyone have any experience with it?
 
Osage Orange is called 'hedge' in some of the middle parts of the country. It will make a hedge - not a neat boxwood type of hedge but more of a wide, untrimmed hedge. The old way of starting a Hedge hedge is to make a shallow trench, fill it with rotten hedge apples, and you get a livestock-proof hedge in a couple of years. This is the time of year to find the 'oranges' laying around on the ground. You will probably have to search around to find an Osage Orage hedge, since they aren't common in the east, but the large green fruit should be easy to see on the trees or on the ground this time of the year. I suspect EVERY person who owns an Osage Orange or two will give you all the fruit they have.
 
Is it thick enough that one row is enough? Right now, the road is pretty quiet but I am sure all the open fields will have subdivisions within my lifetime.
 
SolarAndWood said:
Is it thick enough that one row is enough? Right now, the road is pretty quiet but I am sure all the open fields will have subdivisions within my lifetime.
Click to expand...


yep one row will do it.
 
How wide/dense does it get? Can I prune it to be 4-8' deep and super dense? Is it still pretty thick after it drops its foliage?
 
SolarAndWood said:
How wide/dense does it get? Can I prune it to be 4-8' deep and super dense? Is it still pretty thick after it drops its foliage?
Click to expand...

the one I see around here are 25ft tall and bushy and dense
 
We have Osage orange hedges all over. We use the incredibly hard straight pieces as fence post. They will not rot for over 50 years. We use them to fence in cattle lots, etc where the manure would normally rot all other wood withing 20 years. They will grow very larg if you let them. I've cut some that were greater than 16" in diameter. What we do to start a hedge is collect the hedgeballs in the fall. Spread them out and dry them in your basement all winter (also helps keep the bugs, and especially spiders out). They will get hard and shrink a little but will be very lightweight in the spring when dry. They sort of fel like heavy paper mache balls. then put 3-5 in a bucket and add water. They will mush up to make a slurry of 1000's of seeds. Scrape a line in the dirt and pour in a dlightly cover up. Then watch it grow.
 
Osage Orange will also start from shoots in the spring. I have cut some trees that are 26-30" in diameter and found that they were fence posts once upon a time. The post had wire and staples still inside these large trunks. Our largest trees will grow to 35'-40' tall and have a spread of the same. Remember in your landscaping that these also have some nasty thorns.
 
Are you going to be around when these trees are mature enough to be a 'problem' ?

Salt resistance is probably a good idea, though.
 
schwaggly said:
https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/45888/
Click to expand...

If this hedge produces that quality of firewood at some point in the future, I will be ecstatic. Unfortunately, it is only going to be 150 ft long.
 
smokinjay said:
SolarAndWood said:
How wide/dense does it get? Can I prune it to be 4-8' deep and super dense? Is it still pretty thick after it drops its foliage?
Click to expand...

the one I see around here are 25ft tall and bushy and dense
Click to expand...

That is what I am shopping for.
 
SE Iowa said:
We have Osage orange hedges all over. We use the incredibly hard straight pieces as fence post. They will not rot for over 50 years. We use them to fence in cattle lots, etc where the manure would normally rot all other wood withing 20 years. They will grow very larg if you let them. I've cut some that were greater than 16" in diameter. What we do to start a hedge is collect the hedgeballs in the fall. Spread them out and dry them in your basement all winter (also helps keep the bugs, and especially spiders out). They will get hard and shrink a little but will be very lightweight in the spring when dry. They sort of fel like heavy paper mache balls. then put 3-5 in a bucket and add water. They will mush up to make a slurry of 1000's of seeds. Scrape a line in the dirt and pour in a dlightly cover up. Then watch it grow.
Click to expand...

Its too bad Iowa isn't a little closer, I'd trade you a load of firewood for a load of hedgeballs. How far off the guard rail of the road should this line be?
 
Cutter said:
Our largest trees will grow to 35'-40' tall and have a spread of the same.
Click to expand...

How long does that take?
 
billb3 said:
Are you going to be around when these trees are mature enough to be a 'problem' ?

Salt resistance is probably a good idea, though.
Click to expand...

Not sure how long that is, but I have a few good years left in me and they will be taking me out of my house feet first. If problem includes btus for the stove, I am OK with it.
 
Thorns?

Is this the bush/hedge whatever that people use for security fencing. There is some kind of bush with nasty thorns that grows thick and is good for security fencing and I am wondering if this is it?

Is there another name for this plant or is Osage Orange the common name?
 
Some other names for Osage Orange are Horse apple, Bois D'Arc & Bodark. As far as age vs. size. I counted rings on a 28" dia. stump and found that it was 85 years old.
 
d.n.f. said:
Thorns?

Is this the bush/hedge whatever that people use for security fencing. There is some kind of bush with nasty thorns that grows thick and is good for security fencing and I am wondering if this is it?

Is there another name for this plant or is Osage Orange the common name?
Click to expand...

This is what I am looking at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osage_orange

Seems the thorns are rough enough to control cattle.
 
Cutter said:
As far as age vs. size. I counted rings on a 28" dia. stump and found that it was 85 years old.
Click to expand...

How tall was it? From the 3' per year I have read, I would have thought it would be bigger in diameter if that old?
 
Sounds like interesting stuff... I know I'd love to have something growing in the yard that was more suitable for firewood production than the trees we have now... Oak is great stuff, but it takes a LONG time to grow, and we don't have anything else to really brag about...

A few questions about the stuff from a practical standpoint...

Does it grow in Mass - if so how fast, and how long from seeds to a size suitable for firewood? How long before it will start making it's own seed balls?

How bad are the thorns if one wants to cut it - is it like tackling a porcupine, or are they OK if one wears gloves and uses reasonable caution? How many thorns end up on the wood that one actually is using for firewood?

Would someone that has the stuff growing near by be willing to mail me a few of the seed balls?

Gooserider
 
Big question.

Will I have to fence it for deer? (when it is seedling/small).

We have so many deer around here that the great plains buffalo of old would be jealous.
 
there is no better firewood than hedge ,when seasoned there is pretty much no hardwood close in density and btu rating
 
As far as growth rates. Young saplings do grow pretty fast but girth comes slowly. I have two 1/2 mile fence rows. Both are about the same height (35-40 feet max). One row is eighty years plus with trunks running up to 30
inches. The second row if about forty years old and the trunks my go 12" Unless your a real young person, I wouldn't plant hedge for firewood. As far as protecting young growth from critters, I wouldn't worry. Hedge has a very milky sticky sap that nothing seams to bother. As the trees mature, the thorns only grow on the new growth. So you only have to mess with them when your bucking the brush. I process all wood down to about two inches. By pruning young hedges, you can in a very few years create an impenitrable fence. One more detail is that our old dog finds the apples to be the best toy there is.
 
The squirrels tear the "hedge apples" (that is what they are called around here) to shreds. I don't know what if any of it they eat, but they all disappear by spring. I had one drop out of a tree from about 20 feet up and land about 3 feet from me. I bet I would still be lying there if it had beaned me. Kind of scary.
 
I am in zone 5 so I could plant it. Says it grows in 5 to 9A.

Now I just need to find it.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

Big Donnie Brasco
  • Locked
Cutting Osage orange / Hedge in the summer
Replies
55
Views
13K
The Wood Shed
Jags
Jags
J
  • Locked
anyone burn osage orange or hedge
Replies
6
Views
8K
The Hearth Room - Wood Stoves and Fireplaces
mike1234
mike1234
Top Bottom
Back