Growing my own osage orange forest

[Bill Raymond]

Unusual to find osage orange trees here in the upper Sacramento river valley, but there are a couple down by the river in town. I picked up a few, put them in water over winter to ferment then planted the seeds. My grandchildren should have a ready supply of fretboards.

[David King]

Nicely done! There must be some cool weather Dalbergias you could try next but you might also want some faster growing stock like pawlonia for their solid body instruments.

[Bill Raymond]

Thanks David. I think the hot dry summers may be more of a challenge to growing plants than the mild winters, but there may be some suitable Dalbergias and pawlonia is a great suggestion.

[Bryan Bear]

I wonder if pruning and cultural practices can make a difference in how gnarly the wood ends up. Maybe you could raise the. Such that your great-grandchildren will have a ready supply of clear backs and sides.

[Clay Schaeffer]

Hedge Apple trees make great fence posts. If you are planting it you might want to only plant "male" trees to avoid the messy "apples" the "female" trees produce. I wonder if you would be better off planting Argentine osage orange. It appears to grow bigger and straighter than the north american variety and have more commercial value. Since it grows from Mexico to Argentina it might be fairly climate tolerant.

Paulownia trees grow like weeds and also are messy, shedding seed pods and small limbs. I have a few that I let get out of hand and now they are about 50 feet tall. They are close to buildings and power lines and of large diameter so hard to remove.

[Randy Roberts]

For a while many years ago I had the largest coffee plantation in the state of Nebraska...4 trees about 5 feet high in pots planted from green beans I brought back from Kona, and dragged in and out of the house each fall and winter. Dropped all their leaves every winter after being dragged inside, but always came back. First year they bloomed, I went to the art store, bought a soft brush, and went back and forth playing Mr. Bee for an entire day, and quit after the first two trees. They only produced a handful of beans, but the two trees I didn't touch cranked out about a pound. This was before the internet ( yes there actually was such a time) and I had no clue how to process the cherries into roasted coffee. Starbucks was just getting rolling, and I called and somehow ended up with their head roaster who spent about three hours on the phone walking me through the process, and suggesting make-do's like a hot air popcorn popper for a roaster. After about 5 or 6 years of hauling those pots in and out, I finally sat down to my first cup of my own coffee. It was the most God awful tasting thing I've ever tasted.

If you ever get to Kawai, there is a hike that starts out beside a little miniature golf place on the highway up to Lahaina that passes through a huge planting of trees maybe 20 years old?

All Honduran Mahogany seemingly stretching forever, planted by someone who could foresee the end of sugar cane.
Maybe some hope afterall...

[David King]

Hawaii also has some 100+ year old Cuban mahogany trees planted by enterprising pastors who had gone to spread the good word to the newish colony (and make fortunes in the process).