Black locust for RMH?

Does anyone have any experience with using black locust or any other locust in a RMH?  I'm planning on putting one in our new house, and am looking into growing the fuel for it.  From what little I've read, it burns hot already, but also copices (not sure of the spelling), well and the saplings are fairly cheap.  I've got a lot of expenses setting up our new farm, so the cheap price would be a blessing if it would work.  I have no wish to burn out the RMH as it would be a heck of a rebuild.

Thanks ahead of time for any information!

Indeed, yes you can burn black locusts in any RMH.
It is one of the best woods available!

I attempted growing it on my land but could not get them to survive.
I  was told that transplanting them is not easy.
They grow here in NW Montana just not near enough to my house.

I have been tempted to buy a large BL tree from a nursery, and I would hope for a better survival rate from them.

Thank you for the quick answer!  I'm down South a ways so I should be able to grow them.  At 10 bucks a tree, they're a good investment for me.

Black locust is a fairly hard wood. It seems to dull chain saw chains faster than most woods. Don't know why that is, it just is. ~~Maybe it pulls up more minerals than most trees and is more gritty than other trees. One other problem is that they spread faster than most trees, often sending up "new" trees from their spreading roots. You'll have to keep a close watch on them, or you may have a forest where you didn't want it. If you don't care about which locust you grow, I find honey locust to be a much nicer tree, and better-looking tree, than black locust. Smaller leaves, few or no thorns, less gritty, easier to cut, fewer sucker starts.

I cut trees for a side job, in winter months and summer months. I tend to have 30-40 tree/jobs on my waiting list.  Where is your location? Almost everywhere there is an excess of something (trees I mean) with many towns now setting back logs that used to be just piled and burned.  I fully understand this is not everywhere, but certainly worth a look.  Around Iowa (north east) if you were to post that you could/would cut dead ash, just for the fire wood, your list would quickly grow to large.

As for Black Locust, or any of that family,  it is fairly a dirty tree ( i.e., when cut and it hits the ground, you can get a explosion of branch pieces)  The honey locust for sure in north east Iowa, loose branches all the time when growing.

I am sure calculations have been done on some of the best trees for "renewable fuel plans" for planting I would be surprised if Black Locust would be on that list. Again, this might be a regional thing.  The RMH's open up the possibilities greatly for many trees.  In north east Iowa, if it has thorns, (and most Blacks do) I will cut 100 other trees, to avoid those thorns. Just saying. If your objective is to grow this "onsite"  you have to have a back up plan until the trees are large enough. I would never suggest to any of my customers to plant just one kind of tree, just to many total wipe outs of a particular types of trees (Elm, ash, some pines, and now maybe hard maples in the next 20 years) your forester will have a best guess.

Best of success!

I'm down in Missouri and honestly I was hoping for a tree/s to do multiple things.  Locusts are a bee forage plant and my daughter is starting a bee business beginning with getting plants to support her future hives.  I figured a few trees, along with coppicing, would also provide wood for our RMH.  

Thanks for the advice!  I'm not a huge fan of thorns, but I plan on cutting the saplings in the 1 to 2 inch sizes for the RMH.  I don't plan on letting the trees get too big at all.  If I did, well that would be far too much work for a couple of older people and a half gimpy daughter.  

My daughter broke her leg in a scooter accident, ( the old couple didn't bother to look and pulled into a parking spot as she was coming down the lane, GRH!) and it was in a bad place so it didn't really heal.  It will always give her trouble.  I'm doing my best to make good decisions about making things easier for all of us as we get older.  With coppicing, I'll only have to use a branch cutter to harvest our fire wood.

Willow was another tree that I'm looking into.

Black locust is an excellent firewood and coppices well. If you can dedicate an area to it, it will sucker from the roots and fill the area with easy to harvest trunks. Keeping it away from lawns or places you absolutely do not want trees is a good idea.
It does grow short fat thorns on small branches; these fall off as the trunks get bigger. Honey locust gets huge complex thorn clusters on larger trunks, such that it is a danger to tractor tires.

Willow would coppice fine and is easy to harvest, but is very light and has little fuel value for the volume.

Ash coppices beautifully and is easy to split, but unfortunately the emerald ash borer is or will be killing it off everywhere before long.

Considering bark thickness, I think you would best cut saplings in the 2 to 4 inch range for RMH fuel. This will still give plenty of small stuff for kindling, and larger logs up to 3-4" burn great and last longer than tiny sticks, and do not build up thick coal beds since they keep their shape without collapsing longer than smaller wood.

Your idea of using Black Locust is admirable. However, just know this species is now on the same  list as the Ash, Elm and others that have contracted a foreign bug of doom. Here in upstate  NY it has been evidenced all summer where the leaves of these trees started turning brown in early June, ...much earlier than the typical fall season. Best of luck..

Thank you for the information!  

Hopefully the bugs will take a while for it to reach my part of the US.  Do you know of any alternatives that make sprouts from roots like the locust?  Or good coppicing trees for firewood that don't cost an arm and a leg?  I might be able to give an arm, but not the leg, lol.

Annette Henry wrote:I'm down in Missouri and honestly I was hoping for a tree/s to do multiple things.  Locusts are a bee forage plant and my daughter is starting a bee business beginning with getting plants to support her future hives.  I figured a few trees, along with coppicing, would also provide wood for our RMH.  

Thanks for the advice!  I'm not a huge fan of thorns, but I plan on cutting the saplings in the 1 to 2 inch sizes for the RMH.  I don't plan on letting the trees get too big at all.  If I did, well that would be far too much work for a couple of older people and a half gimpy daughter.  

My daughter broke her leg in a scooter accident, ( the old couple didn't bother to look and pulled into a parking spot as she was coming down the lane, GRH!) and it was in a bad place so it didn't really heal.  It will always give her trouble.  I'm doing my best to make good decisions about making things easier for all of us as we get older.  With coppicing, I'll only have to use a branch cutter to harvest our fire wood.
o.

Being that your estimating (or thinking about this project) what are you estimating the amount of wood your gonna have to cut with a branch cutter to harvest your fire wood? Some call these loppers.

Your down in Osage Orange  (tree) country,  One of the most dense woods there is.  All of those super crooked fence post, that have survived in the ground for 10's of years are that.

While admirable, to grow your own, in the time being, if you plan on lopping enough for your heater, that amount would be almost free in road ditches.

Try looking into the various types of Aspen. They grow in clusters because their roots also create shoots, etc., etc... Eventually you'll have a rather large grove of trees...   There are some other types, hybrids, that grow over 5 feet each year. . .as another option...

Aspen is a very light wood with lesser heat value for the volume, but it will spread by roots, grow fast, and coppice very well. It really likes moist ground.

growing trees for wood stove fuel sure seems like a long term investment. my experience heating with wood is to use dead or dying trees and try to leave the living trees to grow and prosper.
I had a black locust that I cut a few years ago and it was mostly dead with black locust fungus growing out of it up to 40' off the ground. nothing has grown back out of the roots or stump that is left.
it was ok firewood about the same as oak.

Well as this is our last house, I am planning for the long term, plus for the next generation, which was why I was looking into the locusts.  I haven't looked into Osage Orange, thanks for the tip.  I don't know if they grow in our area specifically, but I'll be on the look out.  I don't have damp ground for Aspen, so that counts that one out, perhaps.  I'll still look into them though.  As for how I'm planning  on cutting - I have a small electric saw and my husband has a gas one.  Yes, the coppicing shoots will be small, but I'm not above using tools to make my life easier!  I'm already cleaning up after an old elm and sugar maple with it.  They've lost lots of branches over the last couple of years and I'm planning on using the smallest parts as kindling.  

Osage orange isn't native to upstate New York and I have never seen it (out of sight, out of mind), but I understand it is a prime firewood where it does grow.

BRAINS!! BRAINS!!!  AHAH HA HA HA HA!


Or as my kids like to call them, apple brains.  Others call them Osage Oranges.  As I was told by you wonderful people, I found them on the side of the road, or rather, in the hedge that separates my old community garden from the road!  I now have enough 'apples' that I can probably get at least 100 trees for free!  *happy dance*  Free is always better, and the fact that these trees/bushes are top notch firewood trees has me cackling with glee.  Thanks so much!

Annette Henry wrote:BRAINS!! BRAINS!!!  AHAH HA HA HA HA!


  Others call them Osage Oranges.  As I was told by you wonderful people, I found them on the side of the road, or rather, in the hedge that separates my old community garden from the road!  I now have enough 'apples' that I can probably get at least 100 trees for free!  *happy dance*  Free is always better, and the fact that these trees/bushes are top notch firewood trees has me cackling with glee.  Thanks so much!

Many of the older fence dudes (I might be one of them) just called the post "hedge"   with seldom a strait post in the mix, but last a darn long time in the ground. Generally larger ones, simply used as end post, but took some hard worker getting them "set for a H brace"  But that is a whole different story line.

Remember what is often called "top notch fire wood" is wood that for its VOLUME produces the most heat. Very often this simply means it is one of the most dense woods for its volume.   Your oaks, Osage orange (hedge),  black locust and other similar woods are often considered top notch firewood, but there are many woods, that for a given amount of time cutting, you will get far more BTU's harvested, simply because of how much easier they are to cut. The ASH trees that are basically dying faster than folks can cut are one of these.  NOT to many limbs to contend with, very easy trunks to cut and the list goes on.

Of course there is a point in here that doesn't make sense,  such as the willows, cotton woods and such, where you might get a lot of volume easily but not many BTU's gathered.  

You can confirm this by simply going on a google search and find this page  https://worldforestindustries.com/forest-biofuel/firewood/firewood-btu-ratings/

Just about every type of tree is listed here somewhere.
Best of success.