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FREE: Osage Orange/Hedge Apple Seeds (10 seeds)

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Description

The listing, Osage Orange/Hedge Apple Seeds (10 seeds) has ended.

Osage orange, aka Monkey Balls, Horse Apples, Mock Oranges, bodark, bois d'arc, and bowwood
(Maclura pomifera).

http://www.ipm.iastate.edu/ipm/hortnews/1997/10-10-1997/hedgeapple.html
The Osage-orange is a small- to medium-sized tree. It commonly grows 30 to 40 feet tall, occasionally as tall as 50 to 60 feet. It typically has a short trunk and a rounded or irregular crown. The leaves of the Osage-orange are a shiny medium to dark green. They turn yellow in the fall. The twigs are buff to orange-brown and are armed with 1/2-inch long spines. The stems exude a milky sap when cut. The Osage-orange is dioecious. Male and female flowers are produced on separate trees. The small, green flowers appear in May or June. The female trees produce 3- to 5- inch-diameter fruit which ripen in September or October and fall to the ground. The "hedge apple" is an aggregate fruit composed of numerous one-seeded druplets. The Osage-orange is a member of the Mulberry or Moraceae Family. Other cultivated members of this family include the mulberry and fig.

Planted generations ago as an impenetrable hedge row, the osage orange still makes not only a nice hedge row but a very nice ornamental shade tree. Fruits are not edible. The wood makes a very beautiful yellow dye and has been used to make traditional bows.
I ship only to Listia approved addresses and I do provide delivery confirmation. I ship via USPS first class only within the U.S. If you want international, please message me as I do not ship internationally for free.

Questions & Comments

"Before the invention of barbed wire in the 1880's, many thousands of miles of hedge were constructed by planting young Osage Orange trees closely together in a line. The saplings were aggressively pruned to promote bushy growth. "Horse high, bull strong and hog tight." Those were the criteria for a good hedge made with Osage Orange. Tall enough that a horse would not jump it, stout enough that a bull would not push through it and woven so tightly that even a hog could not find its way through! After barbed wire made hedge fences obsolete, the trees still found use as a source of unbeatable fence posts. The wood is strong and so dense that it will neither rot nor succumb to the attacks of termites or other insects for decades. The trees also found use as an effective component of windbreaks and shelterbelts." http://www.gpnc.org/osage.htm
The use of the hedge apples for insect control is one of the most enduring pest management home remedies. Placement of hedge apples around the foundation or inside the basement is claimed to provide relief from cockroaches, spiders, boxelder bugs, crickets and other pests.
The use of hedge apples as a pest solution is communicated as a folk tale complete with testimonials about apparent success. However, there is an absence of scientific research and therefore no valid evidence to confirm the claims of effectiveness.

Dec 28th, 2012 at 7:52:17 AM PST by

http://www.eattheweeds.com/maclura-pomifera-the-edible-inedible-2/
I love Green Dean. His videos are super too. Out of curiosity I ate one of the seeds I had drying on a plate. It was ok but not as good as a sunflower seed kernel. I have a whole bunch of the fruit setting in a bucket of water on the porch so I can extract more seeds. Might be worth the effort to give them another try at nibbles, but I think my chicken Henrietta might get dibs on most of them. She'll eat anything...

Dec 28th, 2012 at 7:36:07 PM PST by

Growing instructions:

Step 1 (Skip this step as I have done this one)
Place the fruit of the Osage orange tree into a bucket of water and allow it to remain there until it begins to feel mushy. Open the fruit and remove as many seeds as you wish to plant.
Step 2
Put the seeds into a container of distilled or spring water and place in a warm location. Allow the seeds to soak between six and eight days, changing the water every other day to keep it from fermenting.
Step 3
Drain off the water and mix in enough sand to touch all of the seeds, but not cover them completely. Keep the container in a warm location and stir once each day. Add enough water to keep the sand damp. Examine the seeds regularly for signs of sprouting.
Step 4
Fill small planting containers with a mixture of two parts potting soil and one part sand. Plant the sprouted seeds and cover with 1/2 inch of soil. Add enough water to moisten the potting mixture and place the containers in a sunny location. Continue to water whenever the soil no longer sticks to your finger.
Step 5
Transplant the seedlings to the yard or garden when they have several sets of leaves.
Step 6
Plant the seedlings at the same depth as they were growing in the planting containers. If the soil in the area you have chosen appears to cake when moist, amend it with 2 to 3 inches of sand per planting hole. Water whenever the top inch of soil feels dry.
Step 7
Weed the new plantings often, as they will struggle if forced to compete for nutrients .

Dec 28th, 2012 at 7:52:55 AM PST by

Aka hedge apple

Dec 28th, 2012 at 7:59:33 AM PST by

F&W&B

Dec 29th, 2012 at 9:57:06 AM PST by

wow---LOVE all the info you have posted up here! really appreciate it! I list tree seeds too from time to time---and I also love Green Dean on youtube--you wildcrafters are goddess's!

Dec 29th, 2012 at 10:47:00 AM PST by

Marie can't stand to pass up a hedge apple tree. ( or a paw paw tree, or a honey locust tree, or a sassafras tree, or a walnut tree, or a tree with mushrooms growing on it tree, or a tree .........)

Dec 29th, 2012 at 10:02:17 PM PST by

My "hobby" has cost me three marriages, a car accident once where I backed up and hit a car that was being driven by a car insurance employee, a badly sprained foot, skinned knees, loss of hair snagged in a catbriar, numerous cuts and bruises doing things a 66 year old woman or any woman of any age shouldn't do, swinging on a grape vine on a cliff on Starr Mountain, trying to paddle down a river in the dark in January.....the list goes on and on and on. I'll probably quit when they heave the first shovel full of dirt on my coffin, maybe.

Dec 29th, 2012 at 10:44:07 PM PST by

I got a mason jar with some chopped up floating in some 95% alcohol to extract the chemical stuff in it that is supposed to repel insects. I'm going to Guinea-pig myself and see it the stuff works. Might make a nice mosquito repellant???

Jan 1st, 2013 at 7:32:47 PM PST by

Hey Bonnie, it's Angel, Lathern's wife! It's good to see you on Listia! I've been looking for some hedge apple seeds for a while. New fan, and I'll be watching and bidding!

Jan 2nd, 2013 at 12:36:22 AM PST by

Angel, hey. How you folks doing? You know I got a spare bedroom here with ya'll's name on it anytime you want to come down this way to visit. You get any deer this season? Holler back at me anytime at mariemorris65atearthlink.net. You know what to sub the at for so you can email me. Or call anytime. I think Lathern has my phone number but if not holler back at me and will send it. Also, ask him how much he'd charge to make me a hunting bow with a 20-25# pull on it. I know where there's an osage orange tree we can "twig" on to get the bow material.

Jan 2nd, 2013 at 4:50:57 AM PST by

Osage Orange/Hedge Apple Seeds (10 seeds) is in the Home & Garden | Gardening | Gardening Seeds & Bulbs category