I am about to start planting 3100 trees here on my farm and one of the species in the mix is 100 Washington Hawthorns. What can you all tell me about these? Are they invasive? Do they spread out of control? Miserable to deal with the thorns? If they are going to be a problem I'll just eliminate them.
I don't know about Washington Hawthorns but I dig up and burn every Hawthorn I find on my property the thorns are wicked. But my wife has me go pick Hawthorn berrys every yr. to may a tinture for heart or hight blood pressure or something?
I'm not familiar with Hawthorne, but I'm with Bill on thorns of any kind. They are in your mix of trees as a source of fruit for wildlife or Bill's wife, and with a mature hight of 30' wouldn't have much value as timber. If you have rough or steep ground where you won't be accessing it with a tractor or quad , might be a good spot to hide them. Bill, I went to photobucket and looked at all your pics. Your stacks of lumber are awesome and your mill set-up looks really efficient, and I'm envious of all the species of pine and the beautiful straight logs. Looks like level ground is in short supply. The winch on your compact tractor has obviously saved you lots of time and headaches ,and your life with all that steep terrain. I thought I was the only one lifting stuff with the loader that outweighs the tractor. My nickname is Wayno-insane-o from all the crazy stunts I've pulled over the years on my little 30hp Massey. My bucket has a 2" lip at the top that points down and I can wedge root -wads or the end of smaller logs in it and back up and drag them to the woodpile or brushpile with only the front-end on the ground. Not saying anyone should, but it saves time climbing on an off and fiddling with chains.
If you want to see some pics, go to my Facebook page. Busses' s fruit and vegetable farm.
TY Wayne I'll definately check it out. That little tractor I have is 19 HP and hauling logs around riding on the front 2 wheels I'm on my 3rd set of front wheel bearings. BTW the Hawthorn around here sends up suckers like crazy I've clear 2 and 3 acre patchs of them as well as a mile of right away with the backhoe for people.
Kidda what I thought Bill. Sounds like a good property boundary tree to keep the unwanteds out! This entire planting project is for wildlife enhancement. There are allot of oaks and hickory and white pine in the mix. I wont live long enough to benefit from the lumber value aspect but my kids will.
Mountaindog, I'm near you and had been an arborists much of My life. I had been assistant super of grounds at Laffayette in Easton and we planted allot of the new thornless varieties on campus 20 years ago. They create alot of brouse, beauty and habitat. They may get to 25 or 30' but they are wispy and transparent. The fact that they are thorn less takes the worry out of it making them great for accenting end-rows and rocky heads.
If you can determine that they are truly thornless and not thornless grafted onto natural stock then it is a great plant.
I'm not familiar with specific hawthorn species, but the ones I've cleaned out in my front yard had thorns close to an inch long. I would swear they were longer than an inch, but I didn't actually measure them. I do know they will pierce tennis shoe soles (from experience), and any gloves I can find. The only way to deal with the thorns is to knock the thorns sideways, so there is a bare area to grab. Otherwise, only handle them with tools.
mountiandog,
I have hawthorn trees on my property here I western Washington, they grow well in wet soils/hydric soils
so if you don't have that type of soil profile they probably wont survive anyway but the thorns are pretty wicked
and if you are not into hawthorn berries then I would say no to that. I have cut down many hawthorn trees but left a few as they provide some shade for the sheep, have lovely white blossoms in may and feed the bees.