User avatar
Ozark Lady
Greener Thumb
Posts: 1862
Joined: Tue Jan 05, 2010 5:28 pm
Location: NW Arkansas, USA zone 7A elevation 1561 feet

Black Locusts

While milking this morning, I was contemplating the trees in and around my existing garden.

Milking is a great time to organize your thoughts, your hands are busy, and your ears tell ya, you are hitting the milking bucket, but your mind can wander, everyone should milk twice a day... great therapy.

Anyhow, back on subject. Teach me about Black Locust, please.
I have alot, and I mean alot of baby ones, that pop up here and there.
It was sprinkling rain when I took these photos a few minutes ago, but I want you to get a great perspective of what I am talking about. Please forgive the raindrops on the lens, I kept drying it, but.... ya know how it goes.

Here is the thickest locust, it is just off the path to the new forest garden:
[img]https://i728.photobucket.com/albums/ww281/Ozark_Lady/000_0188_phixr.jpg[/img]
Here is another view of the same one, to give you a perspective of the height of it, that shed, has lots of storage, and a loft in it.
[img]https://i728.photobucket.com/albums/ww281/Ozark_Lady/000_0190_phixr.jpg[/img]
Here is another large locust, you have to kind of look closely, it is part of the natural forest that I use for a privacy fence, and not really close to any of the gardens.
[img]https://i728.photobucket.com/albums/ww281/Ozark_Lady/000_0189_phixr.jpg[/img]
Okay, that gives you an idea of the big boys. I don't intend to remove these, and they are not the question. They are just for your information.
Here comes the questionable ones:
[img]https://i728.photobucket.com/albums/ww281/Ozark_Lady/000_0192_phixr.jpg[/img]
This is the eastern fence, see the two growing so large, and see my beds right there?
[img]https://i728.photobucket.com/albums/ww281/Ozark_Lady/000_0193_phixr.jpg[/img]
This one is inside the fence, in the black berry and raspberry patch.
Okay, I know you said that hacking them up leads to nitrogen in the soil.
Well, how large should I let them get, before I start hacking for nitrogen?
Are they too close to my beds? Is it any wonder that I get alot of locusts where I don't want them?
I thought this was a baby black locust, until it bloomed with purple blossoms, it looks legume to me. Can anyone tell me, is that a good guy or should I get it out of my Egyptian Onions? It sure looks happy there.
[img]https://i728.photobucket.com/albums/ww281/Ozark_Lady/000_0191_phixr.jpg[/img]


Please excuse my weeds! I am far from a clean gardener, I only remove weeds as necessary for plants, and for my walking! Terrible aren't I?

Would you take out the three locusts too close to the beds? What about the plant in my onions? Should these guys stay or go?
I posted photos of the others, there is another one in the northern fencerow of the garden, it is small about 5-6 feet tall, so should I remove it too?

Please educate me, on how to use these to my advantage.

User avatar
Alan in Vermont
Senior Member
Posts: 105
Joined: Sun Feb 21, 2010 5:20 pm
Location: Northwest Vermont, Champlain Valley

Black locust propagate both by seed and by sending up new stems off the roots of existing trees. Locust roots spread far and wide, I've been pulling up roots that were out almost as far as the trees are tall. Until those remote "suckers" get quite large they aren't really a seperate entity, I have dug some up that were over an inch in diameter and they had no root structure of their own, they were totally dependant on the roots of the parent for sustenance.

Your mystery plant is some variety of Vetch. It is, as you guessed, a legume. It is also notorious for growing into a tangled mass of small but tough vines. I think it spreads by runners as well as seeds, the flowers will produce a small pod. Fairly hard to get rid of as it seems to re-grow from whatever root is left in the ground.

User avatar
applestar
Mod
Posts: 30514
Joined: Thu May 01, 2008 7:21 pm
Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

Remember that I DON'T have acreage and I don't have the trees to manage, so this is all theory. :wink:

I THINK that in the vegetable garden area, I wouldn't let the locusts grow any thicker than you can easily use your loppers to chop down. So we're talking about 1" caliper or less. It's a different story when you're talking N-fixing for other TREES you understand. Then, you want them to grow bigger and the roots to dig deeper so they can feed other TREES.

I pile 1" or less branches in my compost pile. Hand-stripping the leaves to use as mulch seems like a good idea too. But I imagine you give them to your goats for pre-processing 8)

Like Alan said, those among the onions are vetch. I let them flower, then cut before they form seeds if I don't want to renew them, or let them go to seed and shatter or collect seeds to sow elsewhere. Vetch is pretty well-behaved and can easily be pulled out or broken by hand when overgrown. I keep/leave a few growing in the strawberry beds at all times. Vetch "hay" makes excellent mulch.

paul wheaton
Full Member
Posts: 53
Joined: Thu Apr 09, 2009 4:32 pm

Black locust is one of the best permaculture plants.

It fixes nitrogen.

It is one of the last deciduous trees to leaf out in the spring, giving the soil more time to warm up.

When it drops its leaves, they are tiny so they make a good mulch without smothering the plants below.

The leaves and pods make good animal feed (popular for goats).

The wood, when used as fence posts, is called by some old time farmers "stone wood: because it lasts longer than stones". This is due to the wood being 4% fungicide. It lasts much longer than cedar.

The blossoms make some of the very best honey.



Return to “Permaculture Forum”