Osage trees growing great.

[Tedd]

I planted a small row of osage trees a couple years ago. They have the woods keeping them from full sun all day but have managed to grow pretty good. To plant them, I let the balls in a bucket to freeze over the winter. In the spring I made a slush out of them, dug a shallow ditch and poured the slush evenly through the ditch. The row is about 10' long. They are  or soon will be as prescribed by the old farmers "horse high and hog tight".
  So for bow wood, should they be thinned? So they grow with less competition? I don't know if a tree would survive being transplanted? There are probably 50 saplings in there. It's a shame they aren't in full sunlight and in some better soil because the mother trees that produced the hedge ball are the biggest, straightest ones I ever saw or saw pictures of.
Tedd
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[Possum Head]

Boys on the bowyers bench might best serve you but it's been my experience that trees it such tight proximity typically grow crooked and have more low lying limbs which make less desirable staves. You don't think while dormant you could pull off a transplant? Wish I lived where they grew so perhaps I could help more.

[Crooked Stic]

My guess is if you dont thin them out they will be bushy.

[SELFBOW19953]

The osage trees I see in Delaware are planted in hedgerows and are very bushy.  Notice the trees in a woodlot, along the edges they are bushy, while on the interior they are tall with few limbs.   Most trees that are crowded reach for the sun-growing straight and tall.

[Bvas]

I agree with selfbow. Osage trees grow more like bushes if there is no competition for sunlight.
If you want straight trees, I would thin and stake the trees keep. Then you could transplant some to an area where they would have some competition. Pick spots with even competition. Field edges aren't the best choice, as trees tend to lean toward the open as they grow.

[Hud]

If you stake them, and plant them in an area with competition, would it be better among evergreens (firs, cedars), or deciduous trees (oak, maple etc) that drop their leaves?

[Bvas]

I don't think it would matter much since the Osage is deciduous and would be growing at relatively the same time as the others.

I would be more concerned with finding an area with trees the same height or slightly taller to force them to go straight up.

[kennym]

What  I've seen in MO is hedge row trees are crooked and bushy and osage in a timber is much straighter as they reach for the light.

All just my opinion!