Cutting Down Locust Trees
Daniel Cowell
Hi, Does anyone have any tips on cutting down those nasty, thorny locust
trees without getting yourself hurt? We have about five on our property
that we need to get rid of. I have heard of burning the thorns off before
cutting, but it's too dry here to do that. Any other suggestions???
Dan
--
DanC...@worldnet.att.net
http://home.att.net/~DanCowell/
http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Vines/5078/index.html
Gin
Sounds like you're wanting to cut right away, and I can't help with that,
but if you aren't, you can spray the trunks with a basal bark treatment of
Bushwhacker <tm>(or its equivalent) and wait a year for the bark to fall
off. I've killed honey locusts I couldn't reach around with that stuff.
--
Gin
ky.gin(at)REMOVE.TO.REPLYworldnet.att.net
Daniel Cowell <DanC...@worldnet.att.net> wrote in article
<01bccaf3$7eb0a220$2cd292cf@bird>...
JBL
In article <01bccaf3$7eb0a220$2cd292cf@bird>,
"Daniel Cowell" <DanC...@worldnet.att.net> wrote:
>Hi, Does anyone have any tips on cutting down those nasty, thorny locust
>trees without getting yourself hurt? We have about five on our property
>that we need to get rid of. I have heard of burning the thorns off before
>cutting, but it's too dry here to do that. Any other suggestions???
>
>Dan
>
Short of a 'dozer, there's no easy way. We trimmed the low
branches with a loper first, then hacked away with the chain
saw a-la-Toby Hopper before getting down to the business of
felling the thing.
Helps to have backup. Someone to pull the branches out of the
way as you cut them. The sap gunks up the saw, too.
Nick Hull
In article
<55D9091604D0238F.6A6A3612...@library-proxy.airnews.ne
It's worse than that, it's really hard to KILL the locusts and they keep
sending up new shoots. If you spray all the new shoots with brush killer
you can kill the tree within 3 years.
--
Free men own guns - slaves don't <http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/5357/>
gloc...@aol.com nh...@mindspring.com
Gin
Nick Hull <nh...@mindspring.nojunkmail.com> wrote in article
<nhull-ya02408000...@news.mindspring.com>...
> <snip>
> It's worse than that, it's really hard to KILL the locusts and they keep
> sending up new shoots. If you spray all the new shoots with brush killer
> you can kill the tree within 3 years.
>
I've found that it's best to kill the tree before cutting, though some may
feel it's equally effective to spray the stump immediately after cutting.
If you use the basal bark treatment, it kills the tree from top to roots,
so you don't have those new shoots coming up fifteen feet away from the
locust.
The black locusts seem worse about sending up sprouts from roots, but the
honey locusts (the one with MAJOR thorns) will, too. Both respond to bark
treatment.
--
Gin
ky.gin(at)REMOVE.TO.REPLYworldnet.att.net
Dan Cowell
Thanks for the tips! I'm really not sure how we are going to handle them,
but it looks like it will be a team effort. I really wish we could use a
dozer to push them over, but we would damage the trees around that we want
to keep and make a mess of the new property. Do locust trees (with the
thorns cut off of course) make good fence posts like hedge or do they rot?
Ken Meinken
"Dan Cowell" <DanC...@worldnet.att.netnospammers> wrote:
>Thanks for the tips! I'm really not sure how we are going to handle them,
>but it looks like it will be a team effort. I really wish we could use a
>dozer to push them over, but we would damage the trees around that we want
>to keep and make a mess of the new property. Do locust trees (with the
>thorns cut off of course) make good fence posts like hedge or do they rot?
Dan,
BLACK locusts are very rot resistant. They have **small** thorns
(quarter inch). The big thorn trees are honey locusts, the wood is
not decay resistant.
Ken
Len Rugen
This type of locust rots. It makes OK firewood if you catch it
between green and bug-eaten.
The other locust (Honey?) with a few short thorns and lots of flowers
in the spring makes OK posts...
--
Len Rugen
Ken Meinken
Len,
short thorns are black locust trees which make good fence posts. Big
thorns are honey locust which is not rot resistant. I also think
honey locust can be dangerous as fireplace wood since it tends to pop
and throw out hot embers. (It's okay in closed airtight wood stoves.)
Ken
ec Roberts
On 27 Sep 1997 10:33:30 GMT, "Gin"
<ky....@REMOVE.TO.REPLYworldnet.att.net> wrote:
{snip}
>> trees without getting yourself hurt? We have about five on our property
>> that we need to get rid of. I have heard of burning the thorns off
>before
>> cutting, but it's too dry here to do that. Any other suggestions???
>>
>>
>> --
>> DanC...@worldnet.att.net
>> http://home.att.net/~DanCowell/
>> http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Vines/5078/index.html
>>
Washington State, I used to go to the local
ceramic kitchen and kiln once or twice a week,
thus getting to know the owner and her husband
quite well. The kitchen was in the detached
garage, and always filled with delicate ceramics
in various stages of unfinished.
Husband was Chief of Security at the
neighboring Atomic Energy facility and we also
became friends. One night, he asked advice on
removing three locust stumps from his "tree-row"
the narrow strip of grass between the sidewalk and
the street. He had tried to dig them out, but gave
up when he discovered the size of the tap root.
I advised him to dig down about a foot, drill
a 1/2" hole into the taproot and pour about
1/4lbs, divided among the three stumps, of black
powder into each hole (1/12th lbs each.) He was to
then insert a length of Jetex fuse into the
powder, tamp the holes firmly with cloth, backfill
the holes and light the fuses.
The next Monday, the news paper reported a
mysterious explosion in that neighborhood, which
broke windows for several blocks around. When I
asked the Chief about it later, he said, "I
thought that can had only about3/4 pound of
powder, so I just divided it among the stumps!"
AEC was on alert status for quite some time
after the "attempt" on their Security Chief. :-)
Bob
There are too many dots in my address.
Remove them to reply via email.
**** Armed and Safe(tm) ****
**** www.ivic.net/~ecr ****
"By US Code Title 47, Sec.227(a)(2)(B),
a computer/modem/printer meets the definition
of a telephone fax machine.
By Sec.227(b)(1)(C), it is unlawful
to send any unsolicited advertisement
to such equipment.
By Sec.227(b)(3)(C), a violation of
the aforementioned Section is punishable
by action to recover actual monetary loss,
or $500, whichever is greater, for each violation."