Growing Osage for bow wood

[Kidder]

As the title suggests, I’m wondering about growing Osage to eventually harvest for bows. I’ve got a few acres and have lots of fruit trees, Hazel, and black locust but like every aspiring bowyer I’d like to have some Osage to stare at and eventually harvest. That said, how long would one expect to wait to have bow worthy Osage? I’m in eastern Washington - plant hardiness zone 6. Winters have a lot of time spent between 25 and 40 degrees with rain/snow fluctuations and summers are hot and dry. Thanks!

[bownarra]

I don't know how they would grow where you live but mine is still quite a measly specimen 6 years from germination. I don't think osage like northern English weather....mind not many things do haha!
I knew a chap who was growing a load in the Scottish borders but lost contact with him. Keef if you are still on here give me a message

[GlisGlis]

when would be the best time of the year to seed?

[Allyn T]

Most plants the spring or fall is best for planting

[Eric Krewson]

It is best to buy bare rood seedlings to get a head start. The Missouri forestry division will sell you some and ship all over the country. This year with covid it appears they don't have any osage seedlings to sell right now although it looks like they may later from their website. It could be the wrong time of the year to ship, they usually ship i early spring.

https://mdc.mo.gov/trees-plants/tree-seedlings/order-seedlings

[ssrhythm]

I hope it works for you.  I’ve thought the same about Wyoming...Russian olive here seems to be similar to Osage in the Midwest, but the wind here would have any Osage here a twisty grain mess, and I’m 53, so any planting now would be for the next Gen of boyers or their children.  Are you doing this “just because,” or because you need Osage and think you can not get it?  If it’s the latter, plan a 10 day vacation and drive two days to the Midwest with a chainsaw for three or four years in a row with trailer and chainsaw, and by year 5, you will have more staves than you will want to whittle on for years and years to come.  I think you could get bow worthy trees in 15-20 years if you lived in the southernmost reaches of where they like to grow, but up there, I see it taking a lifetime if they take and thrive.

[Kidder]

I’m 39 so I’ve (hopefully) got a few years left. I don’t have any access to Osage locally which is one reason I’d like to grow my own. But also because I have unused land and enjoy dinking around with things like that. I have family in Iowa but getting any significant time off to go on little cross country jaunts is more difficult than it should be....

[Hamish]

 Its hard to know what to believe. I talk to one guy and he says, they don't like to be babied with fertilizer or water, it makes them grow too fast and weak. Another guy says the best osage is along the creeks, plenty of water, grows quick.

I think the seed stock is just as important as the growing conditions. There won't really be a way of telling how good the trees will be for bows until you grow and harvest it, and make a bow.

I have one osage in my yard, planted from a seedling that was given to me at an archery shoot. I planted it around 2008-9, staked it to help it grow straight.  Its about 3 &1/2"- 4" in dia at the  base, around 2&1/2" 6-7ft up the trunk. Never watered, except for the rain. Rocky, sandy soil, good drainage. Not in any hurry to want to get bows out of this one, thin rings no doubt, but hopefully they will be solid, dense ones.

I harvested some billets last year from a 40 year old  black locust growing, about 10ft away. The wood from it looks excellent, large to medium rings. Dark, solid earlywood, not pithy. Looks like it should make nice bows.

I'd say my osage is quite slowly grown, you could probably get one one the same size in half the time.

[PatM]

Growing trees is one of those things that you should just do if you're wondering how long they will take and if it's worth it.

   The time always seems such a big deal but it just flies by.

 Years ago there was an article  in the mag on growing Osage.   Those trees are probably big enough now if they grow anything like typical thicker ringed trees.

  I cut down an Elm a number of years ago that was a good  eight inches in diameter and it was only 16 years old.

[Eric Krewson]

I got on an osage growing kick about 20 years ago, I started a lot of seedlings in a trench behind my yard and transplanted them to gallon pots as soon as the seed sprouted. They grew in the pots for about a year or until the taproot started out of the bottom of the pots, if the tap root grows into the soil below the pot and breaks off when you lift the pot the seedling will not grow well.

At the year stage I culled all the seedlings that showed trunk anomalies like dogleg or twist. I planted a few in my woods and sold the rest to a guy who wanted to start some osage on his place.

The seedlings I planted were in a small opening but mostly in the shade, they did poorly, growing to about two feet tall and no taller, they eventually died. Overall it was a failed experiment although the seedlings I sold did well for the guy I sold them to. I had a limited area to plant them in which wasn't suitable for them to thrive.

[PatM]

   The actual establishment of many tree species is incredibly low.   Where I live Bitternut Hickory grows but it is remarkably scattered and low in population density.  Usually it's one big tree with a small group of smaller trees around it.   Occasionally I'll find a  small single specimen  completely isolated and it makes  me wonder  how that  nut travelled there and the chances of it germinating and growing at all.

 It's hard to tell how many even get that false start that plagues people trying to grow bow wood.