posted 2 hours ago
Hello. As the title says, I’m curious if anyone has actually attempted this and pulled it off (or failed) with results to share. I see tons of people all over the internet saying they are going to start it and then radio silence. I plan to start my own and will be documenting the process to fill this void and be able to share whatever results I get, and I want to know if anyone else has any results-based advice or tips before I get started.
One example of the frustration you get from tons of people having ideas but seemingly nobody actually doing it - the Mother Earth news article you constantly see everywhere is apparently wrong. It tells you to let the shoots grow up and then bend them back into the ground overlapping each other, then next year repeat the other direction, then you’re good. These drawings constantly get shared all over the internet when researching this topic.
Yet I happened to stumble across an obscure old historical treatise from the 1800’s by Caldwell, which says to plant very closely (4 inches apart), then cut the first year’s growth down to 4 inches and then 8 inches the next year, then let it grow up until reaching the desired height and width and then maintaining every year. This would be basically a solid wall of tree and a very different design than the popular drawings you see shared all over.
What makes it even worse though, is many historical sites (say, national park services) will give different advice from Caldwell, with different spacing or cutting heights. Very frustrating!
Osage Orange fencing used to the most popular way of fencing large acreage in the Midwest, so I’m really hopeful that 1) someone knows the ‘right’ way to do it or can explain the differing variations, and 2) someone else has actually done it and can share their success or failure!
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