Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: Badger on May 24, 2010, 08:02:09 pm
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I bought 200 osage seeds on line for $20.00 I planted the first 100 seeds and got 72 sprouts, he promised me 93% I only got 72% should I sue him for $1.90 LOL. I was very happy actually. last time I planted some I only got as few from a handful of seeds. Maybe my grandkids will get to make a bow or two out of these. Now I just have to get my son to make me a grandson, I got one in the basket but not usre if it is a boy or a girl. Steve
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Girls like bows, mostly in their hair !! :D
Bows from seed might be great grandkids,
p.s. they're all great.
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Thats great,I need to do that,I have just about any kind of tree you can think of on my farm
except Osage. :( Well I don't have any Yew either. ;) ;D
Pappy
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I actually plan to plant a grove of them near a stream for someome to discover many years from now. The rest of them I will use for my bonsai trees. Hard to find vacant land in Los Angeles that soon won't be built on. Concrete jungle here. Steve
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i've planted osage all over my farm. hoping one day in the years to come to make a bow out of at least one of them.
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I am probably to old for that Chris ,but who knows how my place will carry on after I am gone,someone might want to build a bow. :) I think I will try and find some seed somewhere.
Pappy
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i've started some osage, honey locust, black locust and kentucky coffee tree from seed this year, not exactly sure where i'll plant them but it is fun to watch them sprout and grow. i'm amazed at how fast the honey locust is growing.
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pappy, under the right conditions, i've seen an osage tree reach 6" in less than 10 years. might be something to think about.
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would they grow here in toronto ontario?
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Boot, I seldom here of them any further noth than southern wisconsin. Not sure if they would grow up there or not. Steve
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Yep. Like Mechlasher said, hedge can grow pretty fast if it is growing in good conditions. I've got a small hedge tree that came up by itself about 6 years ago, and it's already got a couple limbs that are over an inch in diameter. The thing that can take hedge a lot of time though, is growing long enough to produce straighter limbs that are long enough. Don't be surprised if you, the kids, AND the grandkids end up reeping the benefits of your seeds. Heck, who knows, could be such a thing that 3 generations or more could get a bow all from the same tree as family heirlooms.
CP
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You had pretty good percentages I think. I never had that good of odds when I planted osage seeds.
I have a couple of places in mind for planting trees, I would like to plant 50 - 100. When they are planted in sandy soil and watered frequently I have seen some get 5 inch diameter 5 foot tall trunks rather quickly. I figure I can at least start some osage sapling bows in a few years. If I harvest two per year and replant them, I will have a lifetime supply as will those who follow. The first couple of years it wont be many staves, but by the time they hit a 10 inch diameter it will offer at least 6-8 staves per year plus billets. I have seen some around here growing in yards where they had been groomed and you could have gotten a lot of straight staves from them.
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Good point about sandy soil and regular water plus fertilizer, easily will triple the growth or even better.
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I think I am gonna buy some seedlings from one of the online suppliers and grow a couple of bows in my new yard.. I should be able to make a bow by the time I am 70 :D (sneaking up on 63 now.) ::)
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I have planted nursery raised 2yr. old seedlings that are doing well , 100% survival rate. Early this spring I fertilized each tree individually with triple 17 about a month later, gave each tree a slow release fertilizer spike . Every tree is healthy with excellent growth. I started some seed collected from local osage last winter, most have sprouted and are doing well.
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Osage does grow in Southern Ontario. I bought some Osage a few years ago that had been harvested in the Hamilton area
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how far south will it grow anyone know?
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I get mine from Montgomery AL. I have a few growing in my yard in Birmingham, AL too. So at least that far south.. :)
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im about two hours south of montgomery
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It SHOULD grow around there.. Not sure though. :)
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Here is part of my new crop for this year. If you can get a dozen hedge apples in the fall and put them in a five gallon bucket of water, let that sit out and freeze and thaw all winter then about the first of April (depending on your location) take a stick and mash that all up to a nasty looking goop, scrape out a shallow trench, pour all that along in there and you will have more osage seedlings than you know what to do with. :o
Alan
(http://i259.photobucket.com/albums/hh286/AlanShook/100_1081.jpg)
(http://i259.photobucket.com/albums/hh286/AlanShook/100_1080.jpg)
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My farm was a cattle pasture when we bought it. There were a few trees in gulleys and along the fence row. Since I really wanted to live in a forrest, I 've let about 15 or 20 acres of the the 50 grow up. And I planted 500 trees the first year. The trees that were natural to the farm were a couple hickories, walnut, elm, ash. BL and Hedgeapple. In the 10 years we've had the farm, some of the new walnuts have produced nuts. I have cut maybe 10 osage sapplings for bows and some of the BL are 6" diameter. Oh, and there are a couple ash sapplings that are 3" dia. that may or may not be harvested this year.
These are pics of sappling I harvested last summer. Now some might have been in drainage areas that hadn't been mowed for a year or so prior to us buy the place. But, most grew up in the 10 year period.
So, you might be able to make a bow from osage sapplings before your grand kids can draw one back.
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