using green maple for wattle building

I have a pile of large maple branches that i want to use as posts in a rustic wattle fence around my garden.  I know maple propagates easily... the last thing I want is my fence posts rooting and sucking up water that my veg could use to grow.  Has anyone used Maple for this purpose?  I'm wondering how long I need to leave the branches to minimize the chance they'll root.  

I was just reading a thread in the Trees forum, where several people stated maples are difficult to root as cuttings, and are generally best propagated by seed or air layer (with the exception of vine maples). This leads me to believe you should be okay with using them. Personally, I've never been successful getting a cutting to root, but I have limited experience, and only with Japanese maples.

If you want to be sure, it wouldn't hurt to leave them out in the sun to dry a few days before using them. After 3-5 days, they should be too dehydrated to muster th energy to produce new roots & leaves.
Another thought would be to put them in the ground upside down. I don't know if it is applicable to the Acers, but I know my roses and several other things I propagate will not be successful if I put the wrong end in the soil.

[quote=Kc Simmons]If you want to be sure, it wouldn't hurt to leave them out in the sun to dry a few days before using them. After 3-5 days, they should be too dehydrated to muster th energy to produce new roots & leaves.
Another thought would be to put them in the ground upside down. I don't know if it is applicable to the Acers, but I know my roses and several other things I propagate will not be successful if I put the wrong end in the soil. [/quote]

This is helpful, I was planning to put the skinny end in the ground anyway!  I'll wait a few days.  Thanks for responding

I have driven fresh maple fence posts for a wattle fence, and had some of them sprout; but they didn't actually root and continue to grow. The sprouts died off after a season.

Funnily,  I recently stumbled across some box elder (a kind of maple) branches that I had tried to root in a raised bed last fall.
They too have buds but no roots.
I stuck them in a bucket  of wood chip compost to give them another chance.
It's not that they are fabulous trees or hard to come by,  but I like to give life a chance.
Besides I was just snacking on the helicopter seeds of the very tree the cuttings came from.
They were fiddly to eat but delicious.