There used to be a lot of them around now there’s not many left, I see where they’re not native to northern Iowa and the DNR has declared them an invasive species, I was wondering what people here thought of them.

Can make decent fence posts but there is plenty of hedge around here. I spray/kill all of them on our farm. Spread and grow fast.

I use to hunt a spot that had a patch of young ones growing in it. By the time you bulled your way through, it just about ripped you naked.
Wasn't a big fan of that aspect.

Great fire wood and s fence post. I have a hill with a bunch of them im intentionally leaving for those reasons. They sprout off/up from roots. I bush hog that hill when they were 5 ' or so and didnt for a year or two( busy and away at work) bush hogging seems to have encouraged them to sprout more and multiply. I dont mind fence post get expensive and add up.

I have some on our farm, awesome post and firewood.

I have sawn some 6x6 out of them for building but they don’t grow very straight.

There's a cultivar out of europe that was selected for it's straightness for use as posts.

Makes great honey.

I cut 7 1/2 acres, of mostly black locust, for fence posts one Winter. They are great for that purpose. There's some selected varieties of black locusts called ship masts, that I would like to start growing to sell. They are straight with few branches. Black locust is easy to propagate with cuttings.

Black locust flowers make excellent honey. A friend of mine of mine pulls honey right after they are done flowering. It's a very light colored, sort of sweet floral, sort of vanilla flavored honey.

I do hate peeling posts.

Keith

I’ve been reading that they make great fence post, I can see where they’d make really good firewood, Kieth I looked for the ship mast type and no one has any.

an old farmer once told me that a black locust fence post would last
10 years longer than forever.

Hurts if you get one stuck in your foot! Had them end up in tires also.

Lots around here. Very invasive but great firewood. Osage orange (hedge" ) is king around here for fence posts.

I am pulling and burning every one I can find here

No use for them

Just cut and split up a pile of honey locust today. My favorite firewood. We have a plethora of honey locust, not so much black locust

Seems like every time ours bloom we get several hard rains that wash all the nectar out. So dont get black locust honey.

We cleared a lot once with a bunch of locust and bois d'arc (hedge or osage orange)...fixed flat tires for a month on the old tractor as well as our trucks. Both are junk trees mostly but that locust did split pretty and looked good. No idea what kind of posts either make but I know the hedge makes good bows.

One other thing...watch those locust thorns. They evidently have a bit of poison in them. I know guys who have had trouble with that. One guy lost his thumb because he had a little bitty tip of one in there and they couldn't get it out in time.

The thorns are mostly honey locust. They are vicious.
Very young black locust has thorns but they outgrow it.

Edible Acres and some of the other sites that sell ship mast black locusts are bad at updating their websites. If you call them, they often have stuff not listed for sale. They don't dig all their rooted beds at once. If they can send you cuttings, either branch or root, they root really well. After a few years growth, you can propagate a huge number from just a few.

https://www.edibleacres.org/purchase/shipmast-locust

Living Soil Tree Farms has black locust in stock, but doesn't say whether or not they are the ship mast variety.

https://livingsoiltreefarm.com/products/black-locust

Both of those companies have many excellent YouTube videos, that I've watched hours of, learning a lot.

Edible Acres works with a lot of other small growers and can probably recommend someone else, if they can't help you.

Keith