North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[hector black <hblack@twlakes.net>]

Interesting thread on honeylocust.  We have been growing them for 24 years
or so.  Ours are mostly Millwood and Calhoun, varieties developed by TVA
back in the 40s as potential animal and human food.  They are thornless -
unlike the wild ones in our area, and the Calhoun is quite regular producer
of large pods.  Millwood has somewhat smaller pods and is not quite so
reliable in our experience. We also have a cultivar from Michigan - seed
grown, which is much more upright growing and reputedly a lot hardier than
Millwood and Calhoun which came from Georgia.  These Mich. seedlings are
thornless, but not very good bearers.  Trees appear to be male and female
with some ability to change sex.  The Milwood and Calhoun are grafted trees
and all female.
    I did read something in some horticultural journal, stating that a
nitrogen fixing bacteria had been found on honeylocust.  It is  a more
primitive form of symbiosis with no nodule formation, but still quite
capable of fixing N.  I remember meeting an old tree farmer in KY 20 some
years ago, who had a Milwood from the original Russell Smith Nursery.  He
swore that they had to fix N. because the grass under his tree was greener
than elsewhere.
    I've been very disappointed in black locust on several counts.  As has
been noted, they come up everywhere from root sprouts.  Many of them don't
seem to be well anchored and flop over in storms, and carpenter ants can
tunnel them out completely till the snap off.

    Hector Black, zone 6 middle TN
----- Original Message -----
From: <robscott@sdf.lonestar.org>
To: <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Sunday, July 06, 2003 9:58 AM
Subject: [NAFEX] Re: Honey Locust


>
> Like all members of Gleditsia, Honey Locust stores water in the soil
> through unique root structure. Thus the tree has some value in extremely
> dry, degraded, eroding soil by simply stopping soils and keeping them wet.
> It will not grow in shade so if you're planting an overstory it will not
> last. Honey Locust won't sucker (unlike Black Locust) so you can
> accelerate this succession by chopping the trees down and laying them on
> the ground of the maturing system.
>
> Also unlike Black Locust, Honey Locust doesn't have a rhizobial
> association, so it is a legume for fixing water and soil, not for fixing
> nitrogen.
>
> In central Illinois I am planting an orchard of native Malus and Prunus
> for future use as rootstock, and I'm Planting Honey Locust as an
> interplant because it stops erosion, increases the water holding potential
> of the soil, penetrates hard pans, and *doesn't* add nitrogen which is
> *desirable* if you're establishing a system with native plant stock in
> East Central Illinois.
>
> Rob Scott
> Urbana, Illinois
> Zone 5b
>
>
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