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Trees for fence posts?

J

Justin SE IOWA

Member
I am needing to build more fence and am looking into options for corner posts. I have used light poles before but I cant get anymore right now. I have used RR ties and don't like them. I am looking for hedge trees to cut on but not finding any. I need about 15 corner posts and at $30 bucks each I just cant afford that right now. Will Oak trees last along time? Or walnut? What trees would work good and last along time. I live in Iowa.
 
White oak is pretty rot resistant, red oak will rot fast in the ground.
I don't know what trees you have in your area but locust is always
good and I know that osage orange is supposed to be about the
best but I have never seen it since I live in NY and don't get around
a lot.
Zach
 
I do have a lot of locust trees. How do I tell if its a black locust though? Some have a lot of thorns and some do not. Some have very few thorns.
 
Like the other guys say, Locust is best.
Cedar is good also.
White (not red) oak will last fairly well if that"s all you have.
 
Black locust is darker in color and much heavier and harder than
honey locust. Black locust I have been around has thorns on it.
Zach
 
Hedge is the ONLY one you want to use. Oak or
walnut won't last long, Locust will rot before
your eyes (if the bugs don;t eat it first), and
Black Locust is hard to find, and SHOULD be
seasoned before it is used. Even Black Locust
won't last near as long as Hedge (Osage Orange).
Bite the bullet and do it right, or you will be
replacing them in a few years. My Amish neighbor
has been after my FIL to cut several off his place
(for free) for a couple years. I have lots of
hedge trees on my place, but little time to mess
with them.
 
If you can find them, use Bois D Arc (bo dark) trees for the corner posts.

They will last a lifetime, but you probably won't find staples strong enough to nail into them.
 
Black Locust has long thorns around the trunk of the tree in clusters. As with any locust tree after you cut them down you need to ring them, Whats ringing? Take a hammer and hit the cut off end and lisen to the sound it makes, If it makes a thud it is junk, However if it has a ring like steel its a good post. The locust has to come up from a seed to be a good post one that comes up from the root from another tree is no good except for fire wood. I hope this helps you out. Bandit
 
Cedar will last many years and I know you have cedars in your neck of the woods. I have taken out fences with cedar posts that were at least fifty years old and the posts were still standing. Below ground they were about half the diameter they were above ground but they were still solid. The part of the post that is below ground doesn't rot off, it just gets smaller till there is nothing left. I was told the posts came from Missouri. I gave the posts to a neighbor to burn in his wood stove. Boy did the smoke smell good! Jim
 
well around here it would be the tamarack, good for 50-60 years. still have some in the ground that were put in in the sixties.
 
This is another vote for Locust. I live in rainy Washington, and the treated post, I buy at the feed stores here, seem to rot off in 5 years. I have been putting green Locust in, on all corners and gate posts, since 2000, and they are not rotted even 1/8 ", when I tore down the garden fence, last week. However any staples need to be put in while they are still green. My Locust, are thorny, have a multitude of white flowers, and it looks like it snowed, when they fall. It is not the same tree that we had in Illinois, that they called black locust, but is much more long lasting, and way heavier than they should be, seasoned or green. The roots run way out past the trees and start new brush, that grows very fast
 
Another vote for Locust. Menards sells RR ties, $8-9. Don't use AC2, termites love it.

Years ago, I've seen farmers make concrete corner posts.
 

The black locust in KY as was said is a very long lasting post, heavy and the wood looks yellowish.
 
I did some white oak 6-7 years ago. The braces are rotten off, and the smaller posts have give up the ghost as well. Locust around here will go 30+ years, I know of some that are 60+.
 
Locust is king, in my book, mulberry and cedar sometimes work,
better in dry areas than treated pine. White oak, again, don't put it
in a bottom land area.
 
We've been using locust, not sure if it's black or white, for close to 40 years. They don't last forever but they sure last more than 5 years. I'd say at least 20 years.

I'm thinking the pH level of the soil has a lot to do with how long the posts last. Our pasture land is pretty much unimproved, so i's safe to assume the soil is quite acidic. We always wondered if dumping a small scoop of lime in the post hole before pounding the post in would make them last any longer.
 
There are locust corner posts that my FIL's
grandfather set on the ground we run cattle on that
are still holding their own. The ground is very
sandy so not a whole lot of moisture. Part of that
pasture area is covered in locust trees he planted
so he would always have a source for fence posts.

Kris A IN
 
I been using ceder in my part of NY and after 6 yrs I really need to replace with something better. The part in ground just rot away. My area is course sand.
 
FYI: hedge, osage orange, Bois d' arc, do dark or bodark all names for the same tree, Maclura pomifera. Its wood, wet or dry, is near indestructible and fasteners of any kind need pilot holes. Black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia), AKA locust, yellow locust, white locust, green locust, post locust and false acacia has rose-like thorns on its branches and a compound leaf on a single central stem. Its seed pods are relativley small. Its wood is streaked red or yellow. Honey locust (Gleditsia triacanthos),AKA common locust, has thorns that may be branched. They can be several inches long and can occur in conspicuous bunches on the trunk. The honey locust leaf can be a large frond-like structure (bipinnately compound). Its seed pods are 7 to 18 inches long. The wood is uniform cream color. Black locust makes a great fence post. In the past, its rot and bug resistance made it a good choice for the wood studs on utility-pole cross-arms that glass insulators were screwed on to.
 
I think our power poles are cedar. I bought a split rail fence from Menards. It was suppose to be cedar, termites eat it in 6 years. May not have been what they said.
 
Finally pulled out the osage orange corner post for the barn yard gate that Pop and us boys put in about 1960. No rot, none. Thought I"d drive in a 16, just see now tough that old boy was; no go, could not even dent it.
 
When I was a kid we put in those locust posts from GLF before it was Agway. I used an electric drill to make holes so we could put in the damn nails for the insulators! Galv. nails would just bend over no matter how you hit them!
 
The old gentleman that my father bought this property from in the late 60's told me that a good mountain locust post would wear out two or three holes. I fenced our pasture in 1970 and the locust posts are still holding up the hog & barbed wire just fine. I reckon the old man knew what he was talking about.
 
locust is good but dont cut when the sap is up. cedar is good but not as good as locust .the redder the cedar the better
 
Given the cost and the effort involved I wouldn't even look at cedar posts unless you just have to have nice even peeled posts that you can paint. Buried in the ground they might last 20 years - as long as they are not tested.

Hedge posts will out last the wire.
 
(quoted from post at 14:03:40 05/05/14) Given the cost and the effort involved I wouldn't even look at cedar posts unless you just have to have nice even peeled posts that you can paint. Buried in the ground they might last 20 years - as long as they are not tested.

Hedge posts will out last the wire.
Click to expand...
An old man told me that if you put in hedge fence posts, they will still be good for your grandchildren.
 
tip for putting staples in locust or hedge: Make sure to use the
shortest staple you can find (3/4"-7/8"). And take your fence pliers,
and bend both legs parallel. Also, dull the tips, with a couple light
hammer blows.
 
We have hedge posts in use on this place that were put in by my wife's grandfather, and our grandson is 26 years old. Five generations have had their hands on at least one of those old posts.
 
(quoted from post at 19:15:30 05/04/14) Hedge is the ONLY one you want to use. Oak or
walnut won't last long, Locust will rot before
your eyes (if the bugs don;t eat it first), and
Black Locust is hard to find, and SHOULD be
seasoned before it is used. Even Black Locust
won't last near as long as Hedge (Osage Orange).
Bite the bullet and do it right, or you will be
replacing them in a few years. My Amish neighbor
has been after my FIL to cut several off his place
(for free) for a couple years. I have lots of
hedge trees on my place, but little time to mess
with them.
Click to expand...

Have the Amish cut posts on shares. 50/50 say, then he can buy the FIL's half, or FIL can sell or use his shares.

Gene
 
Justin, you're in a situation where you have more time than money. Use whatever is available, but plan on replacing them in a few short years.

There was an old man in our neighborhood who used white oak for posts, and he never removed one when it rotted off - just set another one close by. He had posts 2 feet apart along the road past his place. The money guys laughed at him, but the old man was a worker, and there wasn't a store bought post on the farm. He had my greatest respect!

Don't forget about the phone company. My son is a phone tech, and they get a lot of broken poles in their yard that they have to dispose of periodically. Be aware that the top of the pole is not treated as well as the end that contacts the soil (and is often destroyed in the wreck).
 
We have clay soil around me that holds moisture so the only thing that lasts is ground contact rated pressure treated posts. Anything else ends up being replaced quickly (relatively that is). I think best when driven in. It can get pricey for sure but once done it's there for life.
 
Black locust is best around here anyway (Ky), but you need to season them for a yr or 2. I cut some and used in same year and they rotted after 10 yrs or less. The seasoned ones last lots longer. Mark
 
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