How to Grow Osage Orange Trees
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- Опубликовано: 11 окт 2019
- Order your own seeds here: primitivepathways.com/index.p...
Learn how to grow your own Osage orange trees from seeds. Billy Berger describes how to collect the seeds, plant them, and care for the trees as they grow. Osage orange grows surprisingly fast for a hard, dense wood. That's to our advantage because now we can replace and renew the resources we collect as primitive archers. 
Развлечения
Had my seeds in the freezer for 4 months. Planted them in summer and the first sprout came up in 7 days!
Thank you for this. Best video I've found on growing osage specifically for staves. Going to plant a bunch. Someday when I'm too dead to harvest them anymore I hope a young bowyer or carpenter finds the gold I've left behind.
I'm a student over here in kentucky and im studying to be a archeologist and a primitive technologist, mainly on the paleoindian nomadic group that first entered here in Kentucky during the ice age (9000 bc-8000 bc) and I would love to see you recreate their most used weapon of choice (most abundant findings) the Clovis fluted foreshafted spear. Good representation is in the book "kentucky archeology by R. Barry Lewis" page 24 and 25. Honestly one of the best books I've read full detail and all . keep making vids and bless you sir
My great grandparents talked about taking the apples, quartering them, then putting in a bucket, outside for the winter (with some water). Once spring rolls around, you dig a trough and pour the slurry into it. This is how hedge rows were created on property lines for fences. We have hedge posts on our property that are 40+ years old. Good luck trying to cut dead ones.... best to use a sawzaw with a bimetal blade....
I am a simple man. I see Billy Berger, I like 💪🙏
Thanks buddy!
I've seen pictures of a set of leaf springs made of Bois d'Arc/Osage Orange during the steel shortage of WW II
Just bought some from your shop, I am excited to start my Osage journey
I know this isn’t your channel but you should make a video on throwing sticks @NORTH 02, I’m a really big fan!
Great video. Also, osage orange is in the mulberry family
I've been growing them in my country which has hardiness zone equivalent to US Zone 7a. During winter they usually lose top parts of the shoots that are still green. But apart from that they are surprisingly tough trees. I can prune them like crazy and they grow very fast. I water them once every 3 day during summer but I believe they would survive even without me watering them. Yearly growth is about 1,5 meters (about 5 feet), which was a pleasant surprise since I thought they will stay in the shrub form due to harsher climate.
That's interesting. I'm in Zone 3a, which is considerably more harsh as far as sub-zero temperatures go.
How cold of a winter do you think they can sirvive?
Growing in a drainage where winter averages 35 degrees. lows of 12 degrees sometimes.
That bow looks absolutely amazing
This will be my on my Christmas wish list 💪🏻
Awesome thanks I have been wanting a bow for awhile. I just bought an osage and didn't even know that about the wood!!! Thanks again!!
Billy, I'm an absolute fan of you, your video content and your lifestyle. Cheers!
Thanks Blackeagle!!
I don't know how easy it is to raise Osage Orange trees from cuttings, but we dug up root suckers from big old trees growing by a river. We made sure each sucker had plenty of roots on them. Of course, we dug up the suckers during their winter dormancy. These were good sized instant trees a couple of feet high. Much faster than growing from seeds. 🌳🌳🌳🌱🌳🌱🌱🌳
That's actually true! I had a pot of osage trees and the roots grew down through the bottom of the pot and into the dirt. I ended up having to rip the pot away and the roots that had grown down through the dirt started sprouting up small shoots a few weeks later.
@@primitivepathways
Wow! The more the merrier, I say. Our Osage Orange trees are big now, and leafy like Sherwood Forest! ;D
I started some using the rotting pod method, then when I was fossil hunting in the creek here in WeatherfordTx I noticed a ton of the pods were in the water in various stages of water retention and decomposition. I bagged up a couple really mushy ones that had lost there normal green through water and packed them out. I have them spread out and planted, leaving the pod material rotting as well for nutrients. Going to leave them on the porch over winter into spring and I think I'll have a bunch of sprouts. I'll keep the rotting method too and track their progress. I'm also going to do a few in your method although I will try to get the seeds in foil in freezer for the next few months then plant right before spring. Will report back. Thank you sir, hit me if your in Texas
@@davidcurry6422
It's good to try a range of methods to increase chances of propagation. I think freezing seeds to imitate winter's cold is called "stratification", isn't it? Not sure.
welkom backe man
Thanks! Glad to be back...
A very interesting video and old timers talk about fence posts made from osage orange and taking root . My first osage orange / hedge apple / Bois'drc bow was made 51 years ago .
I started seeing "whorls" in the grain while working and knew there might be some problems . Learned a lot about hedge wood with that first bow . 55 pounds with a 24" draw and after 10 shots , I felt and heard that minor cracking which sucks after many hours of work . Thanks for your video .
Very fascinating about the use for fence posts. Do you have to dry for a year before you can use them as posts?
@@scampos9881 From what I gather , when farmers were clearing trees for more farm land , they would take the branches from osage orange and put them in the ground "green" . In parts of Missouri , Kansas , Iowa and elsewhere , there are miles of this tree which is a border for farm properties . In many places no wire fencing is needed because these tree borders are impenetrable for cattle , livestock etc.
Osage orange bow staves have to be dried and seasoned for at least 2 years .
Thank you for making this!!!
You're so welcome!
Fantastic video they grow all over the place in the Montgomery area of Alabama where I’m from
Oh yes they do. I was there several years ago for an archaeology job and saw a lot of Osage orange trees. There were also a lot of really nice hickory trees and I made a fantastic bow from one of them.
Great looking bow ❤
Best channel
I'm in I'm in love with the black locust I've been making walking sticks all kinds of cool stuff really love the weight and the strength of it I wish somebody here that knows Black Locust as well as Orange Sage would let me know which they liked better and why
I'm a logger n that wood will have a new chain throwing sparks in minutes lol
Hope u start doing more videos again
I'm gonna try to keep more videos going. I'm really glad you enjoy my vids!
I have been working on growing these in my yard for a couple years. I think I will try your method of potting them first and feeding them. I have a lot of clay and I don't think they are taking root without help. Thanks for sharing the video.
HEy Jim, yeah we have a lot of clay here in Georgia so I blend a mix of potting soil with the local soil at about 50/50 rate. Keep an eye on the color of the leaves. If they start turning yellow or the growth seems to stop after transplanting, water them with root stimulator. I had that exact problem the first time I transplanted osage. The leaves turned yellow and started to fall off and it was because the soil I put them in was absolute garbage. After I watered them with root stimulator the leaves turned bright green and the growth exploded.
@@primitivepathways Thanks, I will be trying this in the spring. Thanks for sharing.
@@primitivepathways I live just South of you in Florida. Do you think I could get the tree to grow here ??
A lot of people collect the fruits after they fall off the tree in the fall/early winter and let them overwinter in a bucket outside so that the flesh rots. Osage seeds like to have a good frost before they sprout. You can do this in a fridge if you don't live in a state that has cold winters. Sometimes its hard to make them grow otherwise. Hope this helps
@@wolfy1987 Thanks y'all !! I have a fruit in the fridge right now. I'll try growing in the Spring. ✌🏻❤
I i’m germinated the whole fruit in my freezer for a year and planted it this summer and now they’re all sprouting. wish I knew of this vid
Four years ago I collected all of the fruits from a couple OO trees on my property and spread them all around the borders, along fence rows, creeks and at the edge of tree lines. Now, tomorrow I’m off to see if that worked. I had hoped to collect fruit again from the same trees but was disappointed to find no fruit on the ground. If I don’t find any small trees where I spread the fruit four years ago I will start over again from seed and use containers this time. I’m early 50’s so I’m planting for kids and grandkids in central Kentucky.
I'd love to see a follow up video on how these are doing and when the correct time to harvest would be.
Found one near my house and I germinated some💪
Awesome!
Do you pollard the branches in order to harvest crop of the wood? Great video. As a residential arborist this was still very helpful. To the point and informative 👍
If you soak the seeds in water for 48 hours first before planting, it can sometimes by-pass the seed dormancy (learned that from a Dirr book). 1 to 2 months of cold stratification is probably the best bet though.
Any tricks to getting seeds out? Do you let the fruit rot first? Or take out while still green?
@@keithcarnley1802 I've found in between fresh and rotten is the best time, however they stay fresh for many weeks even months (indoors) and tend to de-hydrate more than rot if left indoors. I soak the whole fruits in water for a few days, so you can pull them apart easier. Outdoors the tend to rot more with moisture. Seeds are a pain in the ass to get at, as they tend to stick to pulp and are very small. Use tight plastic gloves to protect your hands from the natural sappy material inside the fruit. I've also used tweezers and chop sticks to pull the seeds out. You'll see what I mean.
Hey mate .I've been growing trees for a while now and by cutting all but the top growth you'll never get any trunk thickness I mean you will but you could've had it in a fraction of the time by leaving the sacrifice branches on they feed the trunk allowing it to thicken rapidly
Now I understand you want to reduce knots /keep it straight but by creating more wounds your creating more knots and you can keep it straight through training it to be straight
can you make another reed arrow making video? like with fletching thanks
Is there a way to determine early on which trees are male/female based on your observations? It would be nice to have the option of only growing the male tree in situations where the hedge apples are undesirable. There’s also the White Shield variety of Osage Orange that is a thornless male variety, but I haven’t been able to find a nursery that sells it other than wholesale nurseries. Maybe if I reach out to one of the wholesale nurseries, they can point me to a nursery that I can buy from. However, propagating from seed would be much more economical. The only other way I can think of would be to find an established male and propagate from a cutting, but that’s significantly more challenging than growing from seed.
I really don't know how you can tell which trees are male or female without seeing if they flower. There may be a way botanists could tell from a genetic sampling, but I don't know how expensive that would be.
Dude I live in Texas and as soon as saw the fruit I was like man I have Osage orange trees in my backyard
A lot of folks down south toss the fruit under a house to keep bugs and spiders away ... and I swear , It Works .
@@QuantumPyrite_88.9 really I need to try this
@@osbaldohernandez9174 When I was a young man , I bought an old farm house and wondered why I never saw insects or spiders in it . Had to do some plumbing work under that house and the crawl spaces had quite a few old osage orange fruit ... which has a kind of sick sweet smell , but not terrible and not noticeable inside the house . Never saw a spider , roach or any bug . The next summer , I tossed about 20 more under that house and in a barn . Have a great year Osbaldo .
@@QuantumPyrite_88.9 hey man Im going to that fruit for my house cause I see roaches when it rain but does it also get rid of ants or snakes and well hey if it works for you it should work for me
@@osbaldohernandez9174 Never saw any snakes under that house because the access was sealed tight and never saw ants under that house , around it or inside .
I used a machete to cut the fruit in half or maybe 3 pieces . After several months , it just turns black and dries up . Not a problem .
I've succeeded in growing osage orange from seed here in So. Minn. They partially die back every winter. Not sure if they'll ever produce fruit. Might be just a bit too cold here on the zone 4/5 line.
When I was a young boy, I would see so many osage orange trees everywhere. Today there are very few where I live. Many have been cut down. The fruit of the tree was called monkey ball by us young whipper snappers.
what was that weeping evergreen tree in the background?
Can you also make foreshafts from osage orange
The fire hardened bow video, either DVD or downloadable is now available at Shannonoutdoors.com
This is a very random question and not related to bow making. How big will they be in 10 years? Big enough to harvest for firewood? I have ideas :-)
It's been a month, man!! Where ya been!? lol
Can you coppice osage orange for staves?
How do you remove the seeds from the fruit? Is there a good way to do it?
Are the fruits of the osage trees edible?
At 3:22 or 3:23 there is a growl from the woods behind you. Something doesn't like you pruning those trees. YIKES!!!!
Haha...it might have been a loud car exhaust. I sped up that video so it sounded like a growl but there was no animal anywhere near me.
Any tricks to getting seeds out? Do you let the fruit rot first? Or take out while still green?
I'd like to know as well. I just picked up a few hedge apples on the side of the road today and this was the first video in my search🙂
APES, TOGETHER, STRONG!
Just kidding, that was informative. Frankly most people make garbage videos with poor editing and scripting, but you clearly have more than a couple brain cells to rub together so your delivery was excellent.
And for that, we salute you! 👍( ° ヮﾟ)👍
What's the Latin name of Osage orange??? Is it spread trough Europe?
I did exactly just this and have a plot of waist high, two year old, saplings. Rather than a bow, I’m looking for a living hedge along with yellow locust, and the more thorns the better.
Question, I have a dozen refrigerated ‘apppes’ that dried out harder than a hickory d’bleep’ on a hobby horse. Wonder if I soaked them I could get viable seeds?
Stay awesome.
Thanks Doug! Yes you should be able to get the seeds out of those fruits. Just soak them until they're soft enough to tear apart, then get the seeds out and plant them when you're ready. Seeds can remain viable almost forever if you keep them in your house or refrigerator. I read in National Geographic where they planted some Acacia seeds that were collected in the 1850's...and they sprouted and grew!!
How cold of a winter do you think they can sirvive - 40°(+)?
*Zone 2
By the book it can survive in Zone 4a and higher.
@@hankczinaski915 where I am it gets to -30F and there are some really large Osage Orange trees near me.
Are these trees in New York
Could I get Osage to grow in central Minnesota if I took very good care of them?
Absolutely! These trees survive some pretty harsh conditions.
You might. Minnosota isn't one of the states it's currently listed as being found, but it is found in your neighboring states. plants.usda.gov/core/profile?symbol=MAPO
Primitive Pathways that awesome I gotta try it when I get the chance
Can you grow the tree in Southern Oregon? We do get snow
absolutely! Osage orange can survive some very cold temps easily.
Do you by any chance sell your Osage orange bows?
Yes I do! Available on my website: primitivepathways
Hey Billy, did you have to freeze/refrigerate/stratify the seeds or did you leave them outside to do so naturally? Or do they need this to sprout?
No I didn't and they seemed to sprout just fine with no problems!
@@primitivepathways thanks! I've got a few fruits I'm letting rot down to seeds that I'll try to start this spring!
Have you ever made osage arrows?
No but I've seen some that another guy made several years ago. They were really dense, stiff and heavy and would have been great for shooting big game due to the momentum them would have carried. I think osage would make great arrows provided you could get a good straight piece of it. The arrow I saw was made of a straight split of heartwood that was rounded and smoothed into the arrow shaft.
The year before last I soaked some hedge apples in water all winter and last year I got a bunch of seeds from the mush and planted them but none came up this year, I did something wrong.
I think soaking them for that long waterlogged the seeds and they rotted. Try it again but this time let the fruits rot a little bit, then dig out the seeds and plant them immediately. Or let them dry and keep them until next spring. OR...you can just order some from my website and I'll ship them to you....problem solved!
@@primitivepathways so put them in a flower bed or somewhere to decay a little?
Will it grow in the UK?
They grow quite nice here in Poland so I assume they will grow in UK with no problems since it's a higher hardiness zone.
www.gardenia.net/guide/european-hardiness-zones
Yes it will grow just fine!
How could i get some seeds from you?
You can order osage orange seeds from my website: primitivepathways.com
In 1984 I was offered a tree to harvest. An osage orange that had fallen over as it was undercut by an eroded river bank. The trunk fell across the stream and was beginning to block the flow. The landowner, a Texas rancher, discovered I was carving osage orange sculpture and told me it was all mine to keep and would help him to clear the stream bed. The trunk of the tree was easily 3-1/2 feet in diameter and I could easily walk on it to cross over the river. I managed to cut a few limbs, but never came close to tackling the main trunk. This was about 5 miles south of Commerce, Texas . . . the self-proclaimed bois d'arc capitol of the world.
Nice will they grow in Kentucky?
I've found plenty of osage orange down here in southern Kentucky, I've seen them up in Northern Ohio as well, They should grow.
@@YesirnGaming cool I want some now
Oh hell yeah they would. I know you have osage growing there already. Rich farmland like the type you have out there in the Midwest is very fertile and osage would grow like crazy!
@@ctford27 You can order the seeds from my website. HEre's the link to the page where u can get them: primitivepathways.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=59&product_id=257
This map from the USDA shows the current range where Osage Orange is found. From Florida to Ontario. plants.usda.gov/core/profile?symbol=MAPO
Wouldn’t these become invasive if they were planted in another country? I’m really interested but also unsure of what to do. I’m not even sure they can grow in my country.
I've never heard of osage becoming invasive. It's a tree that shouldn't be a problem anywhere it grows. But it doesn't reproduce at an unmanageable rate.
From what I've researched they will become invasive if the climate permits. Here in Poland it's too cold for them to become invasive but I've read that for example in Hungary they are becoming an invasive species. Also, Black Locust tree which is a cousin of Osage has been brought to Europe in 17th century and had become an invasive species all over the continent (Black Locust is more tolerant of colder climate).
Hank Czinaski I live in the tropics
Might be risky but you could try planting them in a controled area and every year pick and destroy any fruits they produce (before the fruits mature).
Osage Orange can grow as far south as Florida, but that isn't its ideal climate. I'm not sure how well it would perform in an actual tropical environment. You might be about to grow them, but they probably wouldn't become invasive as the seeds require to chill period to germinate. Osage is pioneer species that likes to reclaim pasture lands and other disrupted environments with lots of sun. Taller, slower growing trees that are more shade tolerant tend to replace Osage in lands that are being reforested. plants.usda.gov/factsheet/pdf/fs_mapo.pdf
Just realized you’re wearing a skivvy shirt
So now RUclips is throwing at least one osage orange video at me per day. I think RUclips's algorithm overcompensates sometimes. It's like, "We got him to watch an osage orange video! That must mean he wants to see one every day!" Like I don't want to see one about grapefruits, lemons, or even bergemot.
You should add that the fruit of the tree cures cancer 🙂
I’m allergic to these trees
Pretty sure, unfortunately, they won't grow well or at all in NW Montana.
I bet they would. Osage would probably grow on the moon if there was only water there...
@@primitivepathways going to have to give a try then.