Pacific Northwest, growing osage?

[ionicmuffin]

that sounds worth it to me!

[Weylin]

Alan (avcase) was telling me that he is growing osage in his yard in oregon and says that it only takes 4-5 years to have bow worthy wood if I remember him correctly. He said he just harvested his first tree a while ago. Try sending him a pm and ask if he has any advice.

[ionicmuffin]

thanks weylin

[Marks]

Its funny. Until I started looking at making a bow I had never heard much good about "hedgeappple" trees. The 'apples' just seem to get in the way but as kids they were fun to throw in the creek and made good .22 targets as they floated away. . We have always had a bunch of it scattered around in groves on dads farm. Dad says it makes good corner posts for fences but thats about it. I get on here and people are considering driving across country to find some and everyone calls it "King". One mans trash is another mans treasure.

[Sidewinder]

I have never TRIED to grow osage but we have butt loads of it around here. Most of it is only fit for firewood but occasionally I find some that is straight and bow worthy. In my search for good osage I have made some observations that may prove to be helpful.
 It does no good to grow it on purpose unless you can also grow it straight. So that means that you will need to stake it and prune it as it grows. Also keeping it a little bit in the shade of larger trees will make it fight for light and want to grow straight. the other thing is to make sure that it is somewhat protected from prevailing winds so that it doesn't develop twist.
 Thick rings are produced by an abundance of moisture and nutrients so keeping it faithfully watered and fertilized should help it put on mass quicker. I have no doubt that it would grow well in Wash or Oregon doesn't everything? It is gonna want to put on alot of thorny branches early as a protection against things that might want to destroy it so it will take some tending to but I think it can be done.
 I can say this though, I'm glad I don't have to worry about it. I just need to find some creek bottoms near pasture that has hedge rows and then find out who owns it to gain permission to cut some if i find any thats worthy to be made into a bow.   Danny

[vinemaplebows]

Yes, it grows well here...kinda slow, but I have a few 8 foot trees that are due to be pruned this spring.

[Marks]

Oddly enough on our farm I tend to find it on hill tops. The 2 places I think of off the top of my head are near old house places.  Everyone else seems to say creek bottoms.

[ionicmuffin]

Thanks so much Yosemite ben!

[Marc St Louis]

Instead of investing and waiting 20+ years take a two week vacation and go for a road trip and go cut all the hedge you can....

Do both.  I have planted many trees to replace the ones I have cut.