Looking for Osage Orange Seeds

[mstacy]

I’m interested in planting osage orange for hedges / live-fence. Does anyone have any seed that they might be willing to sell?

Regards,

Matt Stacy
Vermont

[drafthorsey]

Matt,

http://www.coldstreamfarm.net/p-141-osage-orange-maclura-pomifera.aspx

http://www.musserforests.com/prod.asp?p=OSO

Musser Forests out of Indiana County Pennsyvania has bare root that 6-12 inch they sell for 5 for $11.95. Coldstream Farm is up in Michigan sells sprigs that are bareroot. Here’s a sample of their pricing.

Quantity Discount
1-3 $4.28
4-24 $3.21
25-99 $1.61
100-499 $0.81
500+ $0.61

[Oxhill]

If you can find some most people will give you the fruit. When I lived in Pittsburgh I didn’t think any Osage grew in the area. After I learned what to look for I found a lot of it along the road in what used to be fence lines. Now peoples yards and even a golf course. I collected about 30 gallons of fruit and left it out to freeze and thaw over winter. The next spring I started separating the seeds but the problem is it is a messy pain separating them from the fruit. When I grew tired of separating the seeds I mashed the rest of the fruit and added water to create a slurry. I dug a trench and filled it with the slurry and covered it over. From the looks of it I had little to no luck with the slurry. the seeds that I did separate seemed to do quite well started in flats and then transplanted to pop bottles and Finlay planted.

Someplace on the net is a site all about them with a tutorial of how to plant a hedge. I cant find it now but it went something like: Plow a furrow, fertilize with manure, plant slurry, mow them off a couple of times and weave them together as they come up. I think it said it would be horse hight bull strong and hog tight in seven years.

I would be sure you want them before you plant them. They have large sharp painful thorns that make multiflora rose look good!

Andrew

[Jay]

Those thorns are lethal in tires too as they break off inside and re-punture the tube…- Great tough wood for single trees and eveners as I understand though. Jay

[mstacy]

Thanks for the links and information everyone. Any idea how many years it takes to produce seed starting from seed or seedling?

[Oxhill]

They should fruit by age ten from what I read. Also only the females produce fruit and there is no way to sex them till then. It also sounds like cattle frequently choke on the fruit.

[Oxhill]

This is a excerpt from Blakelee’s industrial Ecyclopedia:

Planting the Osage Hedge A hedge grower of extensive experience says that for planting if your land is in turf plow deep and subsoil a strip six feet in width and plant with potatoes the spring previous Just before planting the hedge plow again and harrow fine then stake off the ground by setting a requisite number of sight stakes in line where you want the outside row then prepare a line say fifty or more feet in length by tying on it bits of colored yarn twice the distance apart you want your plants tie each end of the line to sharpened stakes two feet in length stretch the line in row with your sight stakes and you are ready for operations Two years old plants are preferable unless the yearlings are very vigorous trim to eight or nine inches long cutting off the tops within one inch of the yellow Set two rows and the plants eighteen inches apart in each row the rows nine inches apart Dig the first hole by the mark on the line set in the plant and fill around it with earth taken from where the next plant will stand which will be half way between the plant just set and the next mark on the line but nine inches from the line This being set fill around it with earth taken from where the next plant will stand at the second mark on the line and so continue until the line is set Take up the stake where you commenced letting the one stand where you left off and place as at the first then tread the earth firmly about the plants by slowly walking the length of one row the plants being between your feet and if you see a plant that does not stand square now is the time to right it up into proper position After you have trod both rows in this manner take your spade and finish the planting by filling around the plants till the tops only are seen This dressing should be left without treading Your hedge is now well planted and a quick workman will plant sixty rods in a day the plants being furnished and distributed on the ground To Trim Osage Hedge The next spring cut down to within three inches of the ground and in June if the hedge has made good growth cut to within four inches of the previous trimming and so continue until the hedge is completed A hedge planted and trimmed after the plan given instead of being open at the bottom will be very dense and Will turn swine or other small animals at a very early age

[Author]

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