I'm probably an idiot... Osage orange

Well, back in November, I found a hedge apple tree on the farm I hunt. I figured I'd like to start me a few Osage trees from seed as I'd had good success before with the 2 dozen seeds I planted.
Of course, back then I lived on an acre and a half and had some space...


Let's see how this goes. These all cold stratified over winter in a bucket full of leaves.

You're going to corner the market on Osage
Good luck!

Plant them so they will grow straight. In 80 years my grand kids will need fence post an wood for some bows.

How do you get that ball to look like seeds like that ?

Forestman3
You let the fruit sit over winter then pull it apart any take out seeds. Very messy job.

Does it turn you hands color like walnuts? I picked some of the seed balls up a few years ago for the 4 h forestry class. I red just grind them up into a past take a stick make a small furrow in the dirt about a half inch and xput the past in the crack and that's how the old timers made hedge rows. Then with some weaving and bending of branches as they grow you could make an effective fence to keep in live stock.

But that just something I read and have no idea if it's true or accurate.

I mashed them into water and then used a colander to strain them. I assume that the gel slows germination like with tomatoes, so I washed it all off.
What you described would likely work though. I'm planting individual trees and distributing seedlings to friends, hunting permission properties, and offering some to the regional scout campground.

Around here they rate right along with cedar trees, Russian olive, musk thistle..they will take over a pasture and ruin it if you don't keep after them.

“In 1855, 1, 000 bushels of seeds of Osage orange seeds were shipped from Texas and Arkansas to Illinois at as much as $50 per bushel.”

https://www.uaex.uada.edu/yard-garden/resource-library/plant-week/osage-orange.aspx

About the same as autum olives.

Plant them as a wind break, fence line and property boundaries.

They are a hardy tree that can spread quite well and I kill hundreds of them a year but I like them. Very strong dense wood that's great for burning.

Didn't know anyone planted those intentionally

Make good fence posts and bows

I have a friend that found some posts that were in a certain type of soil (don't remember) and the posts took up minerals and things from the soil/ They call it green hedge and it makes some good looking duck calls. Also pretty pricey when you can find it

How fast do they grow?

I grew a few and they were fast growing. Probably a foot a year. Like a mulberry

I cut a hedge row in 1980 and they're just about too big to cut now.
The north and south rows grow straighter posts than an east to west row.. out farm had 3/4 mile of them.
Great firewood but you have to have a solid stove. They get HOT

I may just have to plant some. Would be a fun experiment to try to build a natural animal enclosure. I would have thought they were slow growing since they make such good fence post but black locust is fast and also good fence post and fire wood.

They grow back very fast when they already have an established root system.

Someone found a good use or the a few years back

https://www.desmoinesregister.com/s...-alcone-cosmetics-walter-white/74272426/

My experience is it takes 25-30 years for a new hedge tree to produce posts. Cut trees may produce posts a bit sooner. They make the best wood posts...but are earned - best to cut when it's cold and you can wear a lot of clothes for protection. If you are wanting posts, it is a nice trait they grow back. If not wanted to grow back, better hit them with some herbicide or you will have a mess.

They burn really hot, but in a campfire will pop a lot (keeps the fellow campers hopping). Squirrels like to eat the seeds while deer and cattle eat the leaves.

Osage Orange are one of my favorite trees, but can get out of hand.

They burn hot but are explosive

I have a few trees. We bring the hedgeapple to the house to repel spiders etc.

In Canada?

would they grow here in Minnesota??

I’ve always wondered how the squirrels could eat those seeds with all that sap. You’d think it would glue their mouth shut. There ought to be a market for the sap to use as a coating to put on work clothes, that is some tough stuff. You get it on your bibs it wears like iron.

Pro tip, if you burn it for firewood make sure to season it and you have a stove/fireplace and chimney that can handle the heat. It has one of the highest or the highest BTU’s of all wood. It burns HOT. Green hedge will produce creosote in a chimney that’s unbelievable if left unchecked. Being in the masonry trade for 49 years l’ve seen first hand what green hedge is capable of. Seasoned hedge is all I burn in my shop, I love it.

Remember that I am in the southernmost area of Canada, so much of Minnesota is to the north of me. I actually need to travel south to cross in to Detroit MI.

I found some information (USDA) that suggests it is NOT hardy in MN, SD, ND, Northern IA and MT.

There are some osage in very SW Wisconsin. I would say extreme southern MN might be able to support them. But, one bad winter might do them in. It'd be a gamble.

You might be an idiot, but not from this. Have at it.

Better have a good screen on your fireplace when burning. Looks like fireworks

Hedge Apple fence rows can be made by using green OA for fence post', as they will take root and sprout! Many AO Wind break/fence rows here in Mo were started like that. The seed balls are an important food source for Quail, Turkey, Squirrels, and many other animals.

Grilled some strips and filets with bacon on top over some Osage orange that as been seasoning for about a 100 years out on the range while keeping the cattle in. Reminded how much I like Osage orange.

Got some 2" ribeyes going to be cooked this weekend over seasoned Osage Orange on an outdoor firepit. Yum Yum.

All I need is an address.

you ks guys quit with all this Osage orange talk..it's hedge. or if your an okie its bodark

Lol I didn't want to confuse the youngens. Sorry

farmers for miles around will be danged proud of ya for getting em started

Those of us trying to sound just a little smarter than we are, use fancy terminology like "Osage Orange", when in reality we grew up calling them "hedge trees".

Kind of like - "It's time to plant corn when the leaves on the hedge trees are as big as a squirrel's ear".

Dang, I just pulled and piled a quarter mile of hedge posts. I probably should cut them up for grilling wood. Just need to prepare to sharpen the saw a time or two.

that last one still holds. have heard that one my whole life. them ol posts work on a chain even if you don't hit a staple but man the btu's is unreal. hard to burn any white wood after experiencing hedge heat

We had an apt complex go in behind us in 2008 and dealt with trespassers beginning with the construction workers and then the mostly college students who moved in. They ignored our fence and signs and tore down the electric wire I ran along the top of the fence. They came in at night and day, fishing in our ponds and occasionally wandering up to our barn to snoop.
In 2009 I drove around the county looking for horse apples from trees that had great thorns on them. Some don't. After finding one I gathered the fruit and kept them in a bucket of water thru winter then pulverized them to gather the seed. Lots of latex in those things. In March of 2010 I planted the seeds in a bed of sand and withiin a month had a stand of around 3,000 seedlings. We then planted them around 2 sides of our property, every 20". Most survived although rats and deer were our main problem. I had plenty to fill the voids over the next year.
After 2 years we wove the longest branches together, joining adjacent plants. In 5 years from planting, most were 10 feet tall and the spring/summer foliage shielded us from the view of the apartments. They are now 20+ feet tall and nothing but a bird or rat is going to get thru that mess. Our trespassing problem has almost completely disappeared and the trees have acted as a filter to stop bottles and cans that we used to pick up out of our pasture.
It will most likely take a bulldozer to remove it one day but someone else will make that call. A passive barrier that requires little maintenance.

I cut a lot of hedge trees for posts, but strategically leave some relatively straight ones for tree stands. I also find myself when bowhunting identifying which trees I am going to cut for posts, how many line and corner posts I can get out of them, as well as where to pile the tops for rabbitat and to encourage the deer to come near my tree stand.

I have not yet gotten to the point of planting a hedge row and weaving he branches like the old timers...but I have been thinking about it. They are a great habitat tree used correctly and until they get too big. Then they become monster corner posts. Cut them and they just grow back - renewable resource.

That's all I ever heard them called around here, hedge trees and hedge rows. Never heard a hedge ball called a horse apple either, that's what comes out of the rear end of a horse.
The old timers around here just planted straight rows for wind breaks around the fields and roads. I've never seen one here woven together in any way. The younger famers today can't push them out fast enough to suit them. They might get to experience the Dirty Thirties dust storms if they keep it up, the old timers planted them for a good reason.

I agree. one invasive species in this area I don't mind. yeah I've never heard of Osage orange tree rows...just hedge rows

They are native here but uncommon. I don't believe they ever saw widespread use as windrows here as cedars were more effective at keeping the wind from whipping up topsoil. They are a novelty and most people here have never seen one. In fact, the property owner where I picked up the fruits had no idea that such a tree existed let alone was on the property. He is eagerly awaiting seedlings.
I am running germination tests now, if rates are good, I'll try to distribute a few hundred.


One tray of peat pellets and one good old moist paper towel in a ziplock.

Tons of hedge rows around here.

Hedge - the living fence.

My technique is to gather hedge apples in the fall, place in plastic garbage cans and let sit open over the winter. They essentially breakdown / rot with the freeze and the thaw, in the spring they will become a mushy slurry. Create a furrow, pour slurry down furrow, cover lightly. In a couple of weeks hundreds of sprouts. My understanding is this is close to how hedge rows / living fences were made prior to barbed wire. Cut the new growth at the height you desire, they will branch out sideways and entangle.

And...we have germination! About 70% so far. I bought enough cell trays to get 120 trees going.

Lookin good.

I boiled some of the wood once and got a beautiful dye for my buckskin.