Do you consider Honey Locust to be "weed trees"?

Learn about evergreen and deciduous trees here
Post Reply
john5246
Posts: 227
Joined: August 24th, 2018, 8:44 pm
Location: Chicago
Grass Type: KBG
Lawn Size: Not Specified
Level: Not Specified

Do you consider Honey Locust to be "weed trees"?

Post by john5246 » October 6th, 2018, 10:26 pm

I had a honey locust tree cut down and there is another one on the property. I was reading about them and they are supposed to have spikes. Our didn't, which means it's a hybrid right? If that's the case that means someone planted it? All this time I thought these trees were just here and the houses were built around them (cutting down the necessary ones)

Marinegrunt
Posts: 483
Joined: October 25th, 2016, 10:37 am
Location: Central IL
Grass Type: TTTF + 10% KBG
Lawn Size: 10000-20000
Level: Some Experience

Re: Do you consider Honey Locust to be "weed trees"?

Post by Marinegrunt » October 10th, 2018, 4:16 pm

john5246 wrote:
October 6th, 2018, 10:26 pm
I had a honey locust tree cut down and there is another one on the property. I was reading about them and they are supposed to have spikes. Our didn't, which means it's a hybrid right? If that's the case that means someone planted it? All this time I thought these trees were just here and the houses were built around them (cutting down the necessary ones)
I don't know for sure but I always thought black locust had spikes but honey did not.

jimmo
Posts: 30
Joined: August 30th, 2018, 10:03 am
Location: central Ohio
Grass Type: Northern Mix
Lawn Size: 10000-20000
Level: Not Specified

Re: Do you consider Honey Locust to be "weed trees"?

Post by jimmo » November 28th, 2018, 10:46 pm

My parents have a probably 60 year old Honey Locust in their front yard. It's also the hybrid thorn-less variety. I think it's a beautiful tree. It is messy in the fall when it drops the long flat seed pod things, but we always just buzzed them up with the lawn mower and by spring they had long decomposed. Makes for good mulch / soil amendment. And for that matter, never had to rake leaves under that tree, since they are so small they just compost right in.

Point being, I think they are far from a weed tree. All trees have their pros and cons. In fact, my current suburban neighborhood has some hybrid of the Honey Locust fairly commonly used as a street tree. It does not have the thorns or even the large seed pods.

For further reading... https://hvp.osu.edu/pocketgardener/sour ... nthos.html

Now a black locust, that's another story. I wouldn't hesitate to get rid of one of those if in my yard. They are aggressive spreading, invasive, and messy trees.

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 7 guests