I'm interested! If there is nothing on my list, I will pay postage :)

Hey, Chris! I've been growing them for two years, and I've had great luck. I collect the fruit September - November: I choose big, healthy-looking fruit that has fallen from the tree. Then I leave it on my deck in a plastic tray or box, letting the freeze-thaw cycles do the work for me. Eventually, the fruit becomes soft enough to be separated easily. Pull good seeds from the middle of the fruit. I planted my seeds about a half-inch under the soil in various containers. All of them came up. However, I remember that I planted them early, and they didn't sprout for what I thought was a long time. I also planted far too many seeds - which meant that I had to select the best seedlings and scrap or transplant the rest. I tried separating, but my transplanted seedlings all wilted. My best plants, interestingly, came from a chunk of fruit that I tossed into a pot of old soil and oak leaves (the pot had a chainfern in it originally). Anyhow, two really vigorous volunteers sprouted up late, grew about a foot and a half, and held their leaves well into fall. One plant has thorns, one doesn't. This winter, I carefully separated the plants (one for my sister, one for me), unbound their bright orange roots, and re-potted them. Now, they are both putting out new leaves! I have an experimental runt osage, too, that is sprouting. If it stays compact, it'll become a bonsai. So, my advice: give them plenty of room to grow (one gallon or better), and watch them for sunburn. You should have a lot of success. I'll check back with photos of mine in a few days. I want the leaves to open further. Josh

Oh yes, I've heard it many times. I know a gal who had a pretty bad infestation of wolf spiders in her basement and applied the fruits liberally. All it accomplished was having to remove old monkey balls a few months later. Spiders live where there is food. Spider food consists of insects. You remove reasons for insects to be in your house, then you remove the spiders who eat them, for the most part. That's about as organic as it gets, no? I love those old trees, and in fact germinated some and planted them around my property, mostly because it reminds me of my childhood when hedges of them were used as livestock barriers. Now they just erect electric fence.

The leaves look right. This is the time of year for the fruits, but immature or male trees wouldn't have them. Thorns are a good clue, and if it is Osage orange, the leaf stalks should also ooze a milky white sap when broken.