Last fall my wife convinced me to stop so she could pick up a bunch of osage balls. We sat some around to keep spiders away. Then put a bunch in an old garbage can and let them get wet and freeze and thaw all winter. In the spring we mashed them up and added some water. I dug a pretty poor looking trench by dragging the backhoe on my little kubota. We poured in the mashed osage slop and covered the trench. We made two 10' trenches like that.
Considering I had tried this the year prior and none sprouted. I really put the slop in thick this time. Immediately after planting them we had a really dry spell for about 6 weeks. (Uncommon for this area). Well, the trees sprouted like crazy. It's been raining and they look strong and healthy but they are way too thick. I could transplant a few. And I guess when they get a little stronger they could be carefully dug out and mailed if anyone is interested.
The interesting part is that the parent trees that these seedlings came from are without a doubt the biggest tallest straightest osage trees I have ever heard of or saw pictures of. The trunks are so straight there is almost no bad stave among them. Most you could not reach around.  A lot of the branches would make staves if someone was wanted to try that. I have searched the internet trying to find a photo of osage trees of this caliber and none come close. Some have trunks tall enough to get 3 logs for long staves. maybe 4!  40' to the first branch. It's neon yellow when cut. About 10 years ago I managed to find the owner and convinced him to let me have a tree. I was by myself and cut one I could handle and clean up in one evening.  It yielded two 8' logs +. Loading them took a block and tackle and a come-a-long. While I don't pretend to be any kind of expert, those staves were as perfect as any I ever heard of. I had previously made about a dozens self bows of all types wood. From this osage I made and sold 4-5 self bows in addition to some staves to pay for a hunting trip. I have one perfect stave left. The grain is so straight, I really need to have some time and the right mindset to work on it. A true expert would make two bows out of it. It's pretty wide.
The old row of osage trees is 1/2 - 3/4 mile long. I really think a person could darn near retire if he was to harvest and split and sell all that for bow wood.
Anyone have any idea on how I could mail some of you some seedlings without killing them?
Tedd

Sounds like a cool project! Teddy osage seed!

Tedd,

You need to keep them thick, that way they will grow straight and limbless.  If you thin them too much they will have lots of limbs and be crocked as heck.  Hedgerow osage seldom has a straight trunk that is more 4 or 5 feet long.  The best staves come from osage that grows where it's in thick woods and has to reach for the sky.

Selfbow, I didn't know that. I would have thought the opposite and thinned them out. Good to know.

I've never heard of Osage growing so large or straight.  Are you sure it wasn't black locust?

I have sprouted a bunch of osage seedlings in the past using seeds from the straightest osage I could find. Bottom line, the seeds will not grow as true as the parent.

I would transplant seedlings to gallon pots and let them grow for a year before selling them, giving them away or planting them. I found that only about a third would grow straight, the rest would quickly growing like typical osage, doglegged, bowed and twisted. I always culled the inferior seedlings.

Thinning a seedling patch won't make any difference, leaving them thick won't make them magically grow straight. If you transplant them to thick woods you might get a few straight trees but my findings are that they won't grow well in shade.

The thick straight patches of osage trees were planted or seeded at the same time and made their own thick grouping.

I suspect osage seeds are like apple seeds, you can't plant a red delicious seed and expect a red delicious apple tree. I understand there are 13 possible variants in the seeds from one apple tree. I have found osage seeds to be very inconsistent in their progeny as well.

I wonder if staking the seedlings to rods or sticks would help in keeping them straight as they grow...? You can train other types of trees, why not osage?

I made this from the tree I was referring to

And I made this from a black locust cut on my own property  

Another bow I    made from the big straight osage tree

Another one.  

Currently I don't have any selfbows that I like. Just clunkers and a locust bow not quite complete. Sure wish that one in the last photo.

Good luck with them Tedd. Those sound like the osage trees from a lot of folks' dreams!

QuoteOriginally posted by Tedd:
Another one.  

Great looking bow    Did the cat put up much of a fight??