Uses for Russian Olive wood?

We have very few types of trees around here -- only willows, poplars, Russian Olive, apples, apricots, and rarely other fruit. Black locust has been introduced. And seabuck thorn gets to a good size. What might the Russian olive wood be useful for, other than firewood? Eg we always need to replace tool handles... Carpenters here start everything from scratch but the one carpenter I know well has no idea what russian olive and seabuckthorn wood are like because he's never tried them.

According to this page, "good fuel and fair fence posts." The trees themselves sound pretty beneficial though.

I've heard that russian olive is a nice wood for carving. becomes very hard with heat treatment or curing. never tried it myself, though. I would guess that it might be a bit too brittle for long tool handles, but again, I've never tried it myself.

Even for firewood it is a poor choice in our experience. It *pops* with low heat and isn't very pleasant to split. Any other uses though?, anyone's guess is as good as mine. Any great woodworker can turn a branch into a gem...

Not the wood, but apparently you can make a useful flour from the fruit.

http://www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/jas/article/view/21959/15203

Cheryl and Roland Magyar wrote:Even for firewood it is a poor choice in our experience. It *pops* with low heat and isn't very pleasant to split.

my understanding is that a lot of popping in firewood is due to moisture. perhaps a longer curing time would prevent it.

Logan Simmering wrote:Not the wood, but apparently you can make a useful flour from the fruit.

In the linked study, cookies made with a small percentage of oleaster flour were rated not especially tasty. In my experience the berries are edible and slightly sweet but have an unpleasant astringency or something that makes your mouth feel dry and nasty.

Given their name,one would wonder how do they taste made into "olives", which would mean brining,I guess...

The fruits look like olives but are not at all similar. I don't think the fruit is likely to be useful. Kids eat the fruit here so I try a few every year, but they are slightly sweet and very unpleasant with an astringent effect in the mouth. Just the type of thing kids will eat for the fun of it, but not worth collecting as a fruit.

If they taste astringent, is it tannins? (I don't know, I've never had any) If so there are ways you can treat that, for example persimmons are tannic until they are slightly over-ripe, then they are nice. Or elderberries or sloe which are very tannic but you can make excellent wine out of them and with proper ageing the tannins mellow.

I just acquired a property with lots of Russian Olive trees. Most of them are only 5 years old or so with multiple trunks coming out of the ground. I think most of them will need to be cleared to make room for other things. I could use advice on how to deal with them.


I want to build a hedgerow across the frontage of my property for security and as a food hedge. I was thinking of using Russian Olive cuttings as the hugelculture base of my hedge.

Are they good goat feed? Next year I will have goats so maybe I should keep some...

I tried pulling some Russian Olive out with my truck and a chain. Sometimes it works, but if the ground is hard and the trunks of the trees are whippy it doesn't.

I cut a bunch of them with a machete, but I am told they will just grow back from the roots. Any suggestions on dealing with that?

Whenever I hear of a new material, invention or process, I go to Google Images and look around. It seldom disappoints.

A few minutes later --- http://www.woodweb.com/galleries/project/posts/497.html
http://www.dumonds.com/4s6table_accent_olive_large.htm

The astringent taste is oxalic acid which is toxic in high doses. They do have lots of lycopene, the antioxidant in tomatoes. I'm not partial to the fruits. You can make a passable sauce from them, and a fruit leather too but I'm saving that for when society collapses and I'm forced to be less picky.

The tree is considered an invasive species here. It leafs out earlier than native trees because it is Russian and shades out natives. It may be a nitrogen fixer but I would never plant it on purpose. It tends toward a bushy growth pattern here so there aren't many branches of substantial size. I'd throw the wood in a hugelbeet. Sorry I don't have any better ideas than that!

As I understand it the tree is a relative of the olive but the fruits do not cure like olives.

Yes, it tends towardsa bushy shape but I've done crown lifting on it to make one trunk thicker instead. We've got some about thrity feet tall with trunks at least 8 inches dia.

It is a very pretty wood especially if quarter sawn. But don't go for fine detail in it because it is extremely brittle. All corner should be rounded off and avoid molding or routing for sharp details. The biggest problem is lack of large pieces. Trunks are rarely straight for any distance and trunks over about 6 to 8 inches are almost always rotten in the middle. It is rare to cut a really big one down that isn't rotten in the middle. Young wood is lighter in color and darkens to an almost red in older trunks. Very inclined to split while drying. Really easy to work green but almost impossible to keep from splitting while drying. Between rotten cores, cracking and lack of straight trunks it will never be a popular large scale wood working wood. Be sure to use a good grain filler if you want a really smooth varnish finish on it as the pores are large and even after 6 or more coats of polyurethane varnish will still be popping up as holes in the finish if you don't properly fill.

Wow, thanks, that sounds like experienced info!

For Ben Harpo,
I've used a LOT of Russian olive in wood cored hugel beds. After two seasons I've seen no problems. A few sprouted but those were easy to remove. To kill them permanently, I drilled holes into the stumps cut near as possible flush to the ground. Then I cleaned my paintbrushes on top of them when I lacquered some doors in the house and poured the lacquer thinner into the holes. I used a wood borer bit 3/4 inch (about 2cm). Absolutely no resprout from the "treated" stumps. If you want, cut the main stems (I had some over 30 feet /10m tall) and then manage the resprouts for a few years to make any gain you can from their nitrogen fixing. Cut the sucker sprouts every year so they don't run away from you. It's not the nicest wood to have to work with as I feel as if it fights you from cutting it down, bucking, and chipping. Gnarly and spiny. However, the chips begin rotting pretty quickly.

I second most others here. It's hard to get anything approaching a straight piece of wood of any length and rot in the trunks is common. I do know the birds use the berries heavily in the fall just before migration and when they return in late winter/early spring as the berries are persistent. It is somewhat aggressive in the dry western US but using it as a pioneer and managing it would likely help this species develop a better reputation. I've seen photos of the North Platte River west of Casper, WY where there was no gallery forest back in the 1920s whereas there are hundreds of acres of Russian olive today. The same is true in parts of the Yellowstone River valley west of Billings, MT. Tons of Russian olives but at least some cottonwoods in places. No one seems to know it they will pioneer for native cottonwoods so the tree is cursed and put on the Noxious Weed List both in Wyoming and Montana. If you have them, manage them, select what to keep, what to cut, and you may well find it helps more than hinders in your development plans.

easiest way to make a hedgerow from your russian olives is to set posts and wire where you want the hedgerow..and the birds will plant them from the berries of your existing russian olive bushes..they grow here under every elec or telephone wire..

I'm not sure how to provide a link but found an interesting paper of the growing and use of Russian olive for fuelwood. If you Google Fuelwood production Aral Sea Basin you should find it. Perhaps someone smarter than me could find it and post the link.

Russian olive is a difficult species for me given its reputation as an invasive in many areas. I live in cold dry (zone 3) climate on the Canadian prairies and find Russian olive is the easiest species to establish on dry infertile sites. Deer are not an issue with it and it grows extremely well on sandy infertile soils. I want to plant a lot of it but I do not want it to spread and be an issue elsewhere. Not sure what to do.

Well, it will be impossible to contain if you feel containment is important. It will propagate itself very handily by root shoots, especially if disturbed, and by seeds as mentioned above.

If you want to propagate it, hardwood cuttings in later winter are very successful in my experience (like willow and poplar but needs less water).

I have been making furniture with Russian Olive wood for several years and have found it to be very hard, beautiful, and nice to work with. The biggest problem is finding trees that are large enough to have cut into dimensional lumber. It is important to cure it in a dry place for at least a year. When green it tends to warp a bit. I find that it has a beautiful grain and looks similar to oak. I have used it to make tables, chairs, picture frames, vanities, mirror frames, etc. A really neat look is to leave the bright yellow wood just under the bark intact on the outside of tables. The bright yellow wood really makes the rich chocolate color of the heart-wood pop. Kent.

I use thin, green branches from my Russian olive trees to make baskets as one might otherwise use willow.

Woodturners like to use Russian olive -- it's a beautiful wood once finished.

They'd started to clear out the Russian olive and saltcedar in MT but found that was doing more harm than good because wildlife had adapted to depending on the trees. Last I heard the program was on hold.

In this post, C. Letellier said:

For firewood it burns good and hot, moderate amount of ash and isn't bad about creosote. The bark is extremely hard on chain saw chains making cutting a bit of a pain. Best guess is that it collects a lot of dirt in its layers. Splits decently if good wood and dry. Miserable stuff to harvest for firewood because nothing is even mildly straight and because of all the thorns. Best answer to help with harvest that I am aware of is goats followed by some cribbing horses. Goats wipe out the under story and the horses get rid of the rest up to more than head high. Normally the branch thicket around the base of the tree means cutting to even clear a place to work to fell the tree. Giant Mechanical shears or cutting blades help here so humans don't have to get close to cut them down. The thorns are rough to work around.

For construction wood the answer is unlikely. The trees tend to spiral crack with changing moisture levels and getting straight pieces even 4 to 6 feet long for wood working is difficult. The other problem is that if the trunk is over about 8 inches in diameter the odds are the heart wood will be rotten. Lots of years spent looking for cabinet size pieces taught me that. For every about 15 or 20 trees cut down with large trunk size I find one tree with good heart wood in the big part of the trunk. Now it might make artificial timber. The process that uses scrub wood and crushes it and adds glue to make an engineered wood might work with these.(I have wondered about this one for 25 years since I saw the original article on it.) It is a beautiful wood working wood especially quarter sawed. Really bad for fine detail work because places in the grain tend to be really fragile. For good durability avoid sharp square profiles along with fragile profiles and round all edges over.

There's a guy in our local woodturning club who makes tables out of Russian olive -- he's cut some huge trees (6 foot diameter), had them milled, and got a bunch of big slabs out of them. These were trees along the river, getting a lot of water which might make a difference. The ones in my uncle's tree patch, which haven't seen water in 50 years, rarely grow two feet in the same direction.

Rez, I'd love to see photos!

I'll have to ask him if he has a website, or if I can take some pics (assuming I can remember to bring the camera to a meeting!) His pieces are absolutely beautiful.

If you let the fruit fully mature it does not dry your mouth out, and has a tomatoish back flavor.

I bought my place in Wyoming and it has russian olives and I've been picking eating making jelly, cider, juice, lemonade and I roast seeds in cast iron skillet til very dark and put in coffee grinder and use as coffee. Noticed I'd healed from the inside out. Amazing how the good Lord pushed these at us for years. The only trees I have with no bugs or disease. I trim like an apple tree in cold fall so they ripen in September again. I was seeing changes and healing and hair growing in bald on my ex and his hemroids he said are gone to as well as huge scars disappear and looked up all the vitamins in these but biblical passages kept popping up..wow!! Felt like an idiot..God's been basically shoving these trees at us for us to use and love and heal and cleanse.. Russian olive oleaster and Russian olive L. angusfo something. Natural Labratory and pharmasudical reports on like making it perfect clear to all of us...glad I'm noticing now. No wonder it cannot be killed lol. It is touches by the good Lord above

I think it might be a gift of a higher power to let us see that which is right in front of us. Or it might be something more mundane.

Personally, I think it's a travesty to talk about poisoning these trees. If you don't want them there, fine. Chop and drop them forever. Coppice them down to ankle level, and chop the shoots every time they take off. Or do it seasonally, and make use of the seasonal leaf drop. But don't just kill a nitrogen-fixing bacteria host that is so hardy the only poison that works leaves a dead zone around it. I try to keep religious judgements out of things, but if that's not sacriledge, I don't know what is.

-CK

I have to agree with Chris above. This tree seems pretty awesome, and like so many cool plants, it has been completely misunderstood and labeled an "invasive". Just in this thread, the beneficial claims about this tree have been: good hedge, nitrogen fixer, bird feeder, edible fruit that is very nutritious and quite good once it's ripe, remedy for hair loss and scars, very beautiful for woodworking, fast growing if planted by water, livestock forage, easy coppice/carbon farming tree, potential firewood, fast rotting/good for hugelkultur. I probably missed one or two things there. I'm planning to use this in a wet area of my food forest.

Point being, this is a classic example of a plant getting a bad rap because it does it's job well. Thanks for sharing all this info. Will be super useful.

If you have a lot of them, I find that Russian and Autumn Olives are great for chipping up into mulch to feed my mushrooms and to generate mushroom compost.

Both olives coppice very well and given half a chance will spring right back out of the ground even after being cut flush to the ground.

Eric

Russian olive I understand is Eleagnus angustifolia.  The fruits on Eleagnus ebbingei are quite pleasant to eat.  Maybe if the one grows well, the other would be worth trying to introduce.

I’m glad I came across this thread. We have probably a dozen autumn olives on our new homestead. I’ve been a bit torn about which to leave in place vs which to cut out.

Ive been planning to choose some plants for coppicing so I will definitely use a couple for that.

As for the fruit... I have a small obsession with wild edibles. When autumn olive was first introduced to me I was so excited, until I tried them. The astringency was rough. I did find that cooking them seemed to do away with that, making them much more palatable. I made a jelly from them that had a tart flavor like cranberries. It was enjoyable. I have also continued to try at least one small handful every year. I suppose I’m a diehard optimist. Amazingly the flavor has grown on me. I seem to enjoy them a bit more each year.

Jackie,

Around me, Autumn Olive is generally considered to be an invasive weed bush/tree.  People go to great lengths to get rid of it.  I decided long ago to treat this particular problem as its own solution.  I practice coppicing with Autumn Olive.  I let mine grow 1-2 years before cutting it down where it gets fed to the chipper to become mushroom food and ultimately garden bedding.  If you want to try coppicing, this is an easy "tree" to start with.  It is actually hard to kill and even after repeated cuttings down to ground level, it keeps sprouting right back up.

Good luck with yours,

Eric

Jackie Frobese wrote:As for the fruit... I have a small obsession with wild edibles. When autumn olive was first introduced to me I was so excited, until I tried them. The astringency was rough. I did find that cooking them seemed to do away with that, making them much more palatable. I made a jelly from them that had a tart flavor like cranberries. It was enjoyable. I have also continued to try at least one small handful every year. I suppose I’m a diehard optimist. Amazingly the flavor has grown on me. I seem to enjoy them a bit more each year.

Autumn olive is astringent until it's dead ripe, then it becomes quite nice.  When they first turn red they are not there yet.  Saying that just in case you haven't already tried waiting it out and tasting them until they fall off to see if they ever get nice for you.  Could also just be that you're sensitive to lower levels of astringency than me, but just wanted to mention that in case.  I love picking mine by the gallon and turning them into fruit leathers and jams, but I also love gobbling down hand fulls of fresh berries.  I have a thing for wild edibles too.