Funny, this subject (osage oranges) came up on the wintersowing forum just recently. I never heard of an osage orange before that. But when I was a kid, growing up in Pittsburgh, these things were everywhere. We called them monkey balls (yeah, really) and had battles, throwing them at one another.

Anyway, apparently they contain a fungicide, might not be the best thing for the compost.

Karen

Here is a link that might be useful: Monkey balls

Hedge. The oranges are used for decorative knick knacks.
They wont readily degrade unless you bust them open. But then you better make sure the seeds fully decompose in your pile because they are a suckering tree that would be hard to get rid of organically...

the wood is very hard, burns real hot, sometimes too hot...

It was planted commonly as a natural fence line before barb wire became popular, so its not uncommon to find remnants of the old hedges along fields in ag areas.

the wood is very hard, burns real hot, sometimes too hot...

You are dead on about this! My husband told be that he had a coworker once who had a wood burning stove. The guy was telling him about how he had scored a bunch of hedge. I guess later his stove melted :-)

Val

The reason that they are abundant in the midwest is because the Osage Orange, or Hedge tree, will root from it's branches. You can cut a branch off the tree in spring, and plant it. If it is a normal spring, no drought, it will take root easily and produce another tree. Very quickly. My brother uses the wood for heating house AND smoking foods. TiMo

rootdoctor - does your brother really heat his house with hedge?

My story about the guys wood burning stove melting wasn't a joke even though I put a smiley in there (I thought it was funny because he had been warned by several people not to burn hedge in it). I'm a little warped that way though.

Hmmm....maybe he had a cheap wood burner. I'll have to ask hubby.

Val

Or he just left the air damper open too far. I burn hedge when I come across it, but always mixed with other woods. You can burn almost anything if you blend judiciously.

Yes, well, partially. He has a large steel building with his house inside of it. His woeking garage is roughly 60 x 40 with a ceiling of 15'. He has a woodburning stove that recycles heat through a series of vents, blowers and shutters that actually keeps the garage pleasant, and assists the houses hvac with heat. If it isn't below 30 outdoors, the stove provides enough to keep the house at 68 degrees. The stove is a thick sumgun that won't melt!

Yes, hedge can melt metal when burned.

Tox is right though, you can mitigate the heat by controlling the air and mixing it with other stuff.

Of course the wood is so hard it eats chainsaw blades for a snack.

Probably an old wives' tale, they are said to ward off spiders. . . . .so I picked a bucketful from a country road, chopped them in half with a meat cleaver and spread them around the yard. Within a week the squirrels had recycled them so guess they're all out there in a different decomposable form.

I have never in my life seen one of these. Wow, google is a wealth of information after all. I just read that horses like to eat them.. so if they contain a natural fungicide, maybe you could feed them to some horses, then hang around for the manure and compost that. :)