Ozbow

So Traditional Bowhunter Magazine has a great piece in the upcoming jan/feb edition by Billy Berger. Apparently osage is a really fast growth tree, he planted seeds in 2001 that he's harvested this year.

Here's an excerpt from the article:

To start a tree, you must first collect the seeds. Osage
orange produces a light green, inedible grapefruit-sized fruit
that contains hundreds of seeds. When the fruits drop off the
tree in the fall they can be collected, and the seeds can be
extracted. I prefer to let the fruits partially rot because fresh
fruits contain a milky, sticky sap that’s almost impossible to
remove once it dries. After letting the fruit rot, I pull it apart
and extract the plumpest, fattest seeds. I then fill a small pot
with potting soil and bury each seed half an inch deep. Keep
the soil moist and watered, and usually within two weeks
tiny seedlings will pierce the top. Seeds from other hardwood
trees can be extracted and planted as well.
From there the seedlings need sun and regular watering,
but don’t over-water them. About once a month I’ll give
them a nutritious drink of light fertilizer like Miracle-Gro. I
mix it rather weak however, because a strong fertilizer can
burn the leaves and kill the seedlings.
As the seedlings get taller I move them to progressively
larger pots to accommodate more expansive root growth. I
keep the seedlings in pots for a year, and then transplant
them outdoors the following spring after the danger of frost
has passed. Dig a large hole and mix a ratio of one-half potting
soil to one-half local soil and water it well. Carefully
separate the roots of each seedling and plant each one in its
own hole, spacing them at least six to eight feet apart.

The full article has tips on pruning as well to get the straightest wood. It finishes with his idea that most of the trees he plants he'll let grow and never harvest, just so one day some kid who's read a book can come along, find them and make a bow. What a great idea!

Pretty cool hey?

Jim wrote:The full article has tips on pruning as well to get the straightest wood. It finishes with his idea that most of the trees he plants he'll let grow and never harvest, just so one day some kid who's read a book can come along, find them and make a bow. What a great idea!

I often wonder if this was going through the mind of the guy who planted the Osage trees that I visited to collect seeds, which also show signs of being responsibly trimmed & managed by bowyers for a few decades/century.

I'm amazed at how quickly my Osage seedlings have popped up (about two weeks after planting) and how hardy they are. I've got 8 in at the moment and they're doing great, I'm hoping to harvest about half of them in a decade or so - my kids will appreciate it, I hope. I tore a small part of the seed ball off (about 8 seeds or so) and planted them complete with the protective stuff around them. They were fine and I separated them as they came up.

Compared to Yew (referring only to Taxus Baccata, ie, English Yew), which is being a real pain in the to germinate (you need to keep them in the fridge for up to a couple of years for them to even sprout!), Osage is both easy to grow from seed & quick to grow. Yew will take a long time for the seed to germinate, then a much, much slower growth cycle, to the point where it will take a lifetime or more for a tree to grow to an appropriate size for staves. Here in Australia the trees won't grow to full size due to the heat, but the heartwood can be used for lams, although I wouldn't know how its performance would change as a result of the different growing pattern it exhibits in Australia. Saplings are available from select nurseries but aren't cheap and still require a significant growing period prior to being suitable for harvesting.

I've got Yew seeds on the go too but they really are only for planting for future generations. Like Billy Berger said, maybe for a kid to cut down one day, or collect seeds from and get a whole forest of Yew going somewhere in future Australia...

I brought back a few seed balls from my in laws place near Inverell. I planted a few just to see what happens. But it is easier to go up there and help myself. She hates the things and they are all along her river bank

Good resource Jim. I have a batch of seeds I bought a couple of years ago and my plan is to strike them in 2" forestry tubes, packed close together so they stretch up competing for sunlight right from day one. My problem is that I am pretty sure we are going to migrate south in a couple of years after the young'ns finish uni and leave the nest, so I haven't yet planted them.

Cheers... Rod

I planted a seedling that Graham Lomas(sp?) gave me. Its been in the ground at least 5yrs, and its not looking like a bow anytime soon. Lucky to be about 1" dia. The soil is sandy, pretty poor.
It also wanted to bend over and weep, but that has been counteracted with lines that pull the trunk straight, and any branches on the trunk get removed. Think large bonsai.
I fear that it will be very thin ringed, but it might make a bow in about 20years.
Better luck for guys with decent soil.

Hamish wrote:I planted a seedling that Graham Lomas(sp?) gave me. Its been in the ground at least 5yrs, and its not looking like a bow anytime soon. Lucky to be about 1" dia. The soil is sandy, pretty poor.
It also wanted to bend over and weep, but that has been counteracted with lines that pull the trunk straight, and any branches on the trunk get removed. Think large bonsai.
I fear that it will be very thin ringed, but it might make a bow in about 20years.
Better luck for guys with decent soil.

Hamish, I'm no expert but I have been getting a lot of advice from experts in the last 8-12 months. I've been told that trees grow outward, or thicker, when they face more wind & disturbance. A tree that has little wind or disturbance will grow tall & thin. Similarly, a tree that's searching for light will grow tall & thin.

This guy - http://www.agroforestry.net.au/main.asp ... %20Sleeves - mentions something called "thigmomorphogenesis", which I don't think I could ever pronounce. More info here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thigmomorphogenesis. The Agroforestry website is a good one for general tips on planting & growing trees.

I'm planting large numbers of 4" - 6" seedlings in fairly rocky, clay-ish soil but only time will tell how well they go. I've got a dozen or so seedlings I'm keeping in pots until they mature to head height for comparison and/or security, in case the main plantation fails for whatever reason.