honey locust trees

[Mack in N.C.]

hello, have grown severl types of oaks for planting, osage oranges, persimmons and chestnut trees.....anyone have any experiance with honey locust??...............my family land has several and the deer eat the pods down like a human slurping down a long piesce of pasta.......last doe i shot last week was with a bunch of others feeding on the fallen pods..have seen this for years.....i brought 2 pods home took the seeds out  and have planted then in beds the same way i do the osage oranges and others,  only i planted these shallower because the seeds are smaller........i read that when the seed passes through the digestive system of a deer it helps break down the hard seed coat for germination......hopefully some of mine will sprout........thanks for any replies....mack

[nodlenor]

Here in Missouri we try everything we can to get rid of them. They spread like wildfire and have thorns like daggers. I would reconsider if I were you. The only good use I have found is they make good firewood, that is if you can get past the thorns. There are a few of them that don't have thorns but the majority do (and lots of them).

[Mack in N.C.]

not that common here, at least the 3 places i hunt the most........the deer really do love them though this year they have eaten less or there is a bumper crop of pods because they usually eat the pods as fast as they fall but this year there  are always some on the ground ....yes they do have some thorns!!! would not want to climb one.......not worried about them being a pest as they are native and my deer love them......you can never have too much mast......mack,...... oh, the ones without out thorns maybe black locust which are posionous ......

[nodlenor]

The honey locust that grows here range from no thorns to having thorns all over the trunk and limbs. Some will have thorns as long as four and sometimes five inches long. Black locusts also have thorns but they are different (not as long). I don't doubt that deer will eat the pods but there are other more desirable trees, such as oak and apple, that will help feed the deer.

[Mack in N.C.]

i do agrre that oaks an other trees are more desirable......these pods just seem to take forever to fall and i think any mast can help them out......some of our trees right now are still slam  full of pods...our acorns are long gone......hopefully i wwill get some seeds to sprout.......the trees i would like to see more people plant is the chestnut.......they rarely ever have a failed crop.......good hunting mack...

[Graybeard]

I wish I could say that about my chestnut trees. I have two now of bearing age and size and have yet to get a chestnut from them. I have many more planted but only two of bearing age/size so far.

[mirage1988]

Im from minnesota and hunt Missouri (spring turkey and fall deer)
I swear- honey locusts are devils spawn-you think a porcupine is nasty?-ill pet a porky before ill go into a hallow ful of honey locust

[SDS-GEN]

I've heard that deer like the seed pods of honey locust but I've never seen a deer eat one, and I have a good stand near a honey locust that is full of pods every year.  The squirrels seem to love them and nibble at them when they fall.  I agree with others here who say they are a weed, be careful the thorns can ruin a tractor tire.

[Mack in N.C.]

my deer eat them whole....they pick them up put their head up high and slurp in the whole pod........i guess thaey could become pest but from my limited reading on them they(in the wild) usually grow where alot of trees will not grow and therefore actually do a forest good............

i actully brought home some chestnuts when my son and i hunted under(close to) several big ones and ate some of them.....they were actually really good.....i can see why the wildlife loves them.....i will not try that on the locust!!!.

gb, hopefully this next year your chestnut trees will produce....keep us informed.........mack

[clodbuster]

Don't under any circumstance plant those @#$%^ things.  They will take over you farm and the only way to kill them is to cut your way through the canopy to the trunk, cut off the limbs as high as you can reach, then saw the evil thing down and treat the stump with Tordon RTU.  You will need serious protection from the thorns, and medical leave from work to recover from the swelling you will have from thorn stabs.  You cannot believe how the thorny limbs can grab you and anything around them.  I am totally serious about how dangerous cut down thorn trees is.  The thorns can easily puncture a truck tire or a human eye.  This is all from extensive experience on a farm that was allowed to be taken over by "honey locust".  What a misnomer!!!

[Land_Owner]

I think I might listen to that "Voice of Experience".

[Graybeard]

There was one small grove of them near where I lived as a boy. They were on land adjacent to where my grand father once had a blacksmith shop. They sure never spread anywhere else in the area from there that I saw and I roamed the entire area as a boy hunting on a daily basis. If there had been more I'd have known it. I recall eating some of them myself but never really developed a taste for it.

There were also lots of persimmon trees up and down a stream that ran thru the area. Talk about something that will pucker your mouth try one of those before first frost has turned them to a sugary sweetness. You'll sure never make that mistake twice.

[Mack in N.C.]

not worried about them taking over.....they are native and if they were like kudzu i think the few trees i may plnat will not matter as far as them all of the sudden taking over...... heck i have not even got one to sprout yet as this is my first time trying....i may if i am lucky get only 5 -10 to sprout this spring  out of the 20 or so seeds i planted.......if they were that agressive i think they would of already taken over my moms farmland and the other 2 places i hunt often......all 3 places  have these trees but they are probaly the least common tree there besides the few osage oranges...guessing, but we have more(in order) sweetgums, ashe, oaks, hickories, , popular, loblolly, walnut and then problay locust and osage oranges...........they havent taken over anywhere i have hunted in nc .....gb mentions a small grove.....thats kinda  the way most are here ...pockets of a few trees.......those thorns are probaly a natural defense to keep climbing animals out......so maybe when they fall the deer have a better chance at them.......

talk about a tree that has taken over my moms farmland and we can talk about the sweetgum tree.........there are thousands growing on my moms old farmland....cant stand them........the only animal i know that targets a sweetgum tree is a wild hog........they will in the winter root, root and root  and eat the roots..........anyway,  locust will be the tree i plant the least as they dont rank above oaks, chestnuts and even osage oranges to me ......they are just another piece to the puzzle.......love the locust, dont hate the locust..........good hunting mack.......

[Graybeard]

Sweetgum has to be about the most useless tree ever. They do make fair shade but the danged prickly balls get all over under them so they are not good in the yard. They do make a fairly good tree to climb with a climbing treestand tho. And yeah they spread those seeds far and wide and like elm trees will take over in no time if left alone.

[kiddekop]

Here in Missouri we try everything we can to get rid of them. They spread like wildfire and have thorns like daggers. I would reconsider if I were you. The only good use I have found is they make good firewood, that is if you can get past the thorns. There are a few of them that don't have thorns but the majority do (and lots of them).

According to a NY farmer I met they make excellent fence posts & will outlast all other fence post material.

[nodlenor]

kiddekop;   That is Black Locust you are referring to, not Honey Locust. I live in a rural area and have never seen or heard of Honey locust being used for fence posts. However, Black Locust makes very good fence posts because they last a long time without rotting and generally grow very straight.

[Mack in N.C.]

hello, this probaly will be my last post on this as this is getting long but i did some research on locust and i found some good info in one of my own books......

it is tittled Managing Wildlife...then under the title it says "Managing wildlife on private lands in Alabama and the southeast"

the alabama wildlife federation put out this book...really good book

page 511... this is Appendix F:  Native and Naturalized Trees and Plants Important to Wildlife in Alabama

on page 515 ....Locust...(this is all of it excatly)

"two species of locust are important to wildlife in alabama, honeylocust(g. triacanthos) and black locust(r. pseudoaccacia) . Locust are trees that avg 20 - 30 ft tall with fruits that are a flattened linear pods. Fruits of honeylocust are eaten more redily than black locust. Honeylocust fruits are eaten by rabitts, squirrels, quail, ruffed grouse and deer. Foliage of young plants are eaten by rabbits. The seeds are high in crude protein. honeylocust is found on alluvial flood plains while black locust is commonly found on deep well drained, fertile loams. Locust can be grown by seeds or from root cuttings. Seeds should be pretreated(scarifed) before planting by soaking in water for a short period at 185 to 195 deg  or by soaking in concentrated sulfuric acid at 60 -80 deg for 1 - 2 hours."

they have the animals  highlighted in bold...that wasnt me i was just coping it excatly..

it says nothing about them being a "bad tree" so hopefuly i will get some to sprout....


good info....this is a very good book on managing wildlife......i broke my neck and had neck surgery in 1999 and again in  2000...this was a gift from my mother so i would have something to read while i was healing........seems like she pd 80 dollars or so for it but its worth every penny......problay can find it on amazon for a lot less now..............wish i had read about how to treat the seeds before i put them in planters.........mack
 

[SDS-GEN]

Black locusts flowers poduce the best honey according to some bee keepers.  Also black locust is good for firewood, fence posts, and making self-bows.

[kiddekop]

kiddekop;   That is Black Locust you are referring to, not Honey Locust. I live in a rural area and have never seen or heard of Honey locust being used for fence posts. However, Black Locust makes very good fence posts because they last a long time without rotting and generally grow very straight.

  thanks for setting me straight it's been years since I've been in the area where they grow moved from nys to ca in 1968.

[hunt-m-up]

I have a couple of these trees in my yard. If they germinate like they do here you shouldn't have any problems. This spring I should have a couple hundred growing all over where I don't want them. I would say acorns and even wild plums first,but deer do eat the pods.

[kiddekop]

hello, have grown severl types of oaks for planting, osage oranges, persimmons and chestnut trees.....anyone have any experiance with honey locust??...............my family land has several and the deer eat the pods down like a human slurping down a long piesce of pasta.......last doe i shot last week was with a bunch of others feeding on the fallen pods..have seen this for years.....i brought 2 pods home took the seeds out  and have planted then in beds the same way i do the osage oranges and others,  only i planted these shallower because the seeds are smaller........i read that when the seed passes through the digestive system of a deer it helps break down the hard seed coat for germination......hopefully some of mine will sprout........thanks for any replies....mack

It' a member of the bean family. In Arizona there are lots of spine covered bean family shrubs and trees that I became instantly acquainted with on wildlife class field trips:mesquite,palo verde,acacia,etc.