Black Locust Seedlings (Robinia pseudoacacia)

Yes. Our black locust seedlings cost less than our larger trees, at about $1.50 each, so you can plant an eroding slope or a full windbreak without stretching your budget.

Black locust is a legume. Bacteria in nodules on its roots fix nitrogen from the air, so a planting builds fertility in worn-out or disturbed ground and helps other plants follow. Its spreading roots bind slopes and banks, which is why it is widely used for erosion control and mine reclamation. The flowers give honeybees a heavy nectar flow, and the heartwood is dense and naturally rot-resistant, prized for fence posts and firewood.

Black locust adapts to almost any soil type or pH. It grows in sand, gravel, clay loam, and rocky ground, in acidic or alkaline conditions, and it is drought-tolerant once its roots are established. It thrives on well-drained ground, so a slope or a rise is ideal on heavy clay.

Plant while the seedlings are dormant, from November to April when the ground is workable, and as soon as you can after they arrive. Soak the roots in water for an hour or two. Clear weeds from where each seedling will be planted. Dig a hole wide and deep enough to spread the roots without bending them, and set the seedling at the depth it grew in the nursery, with the root collar at soil level. Backfill with the soil you dug out, firm it with your hands to remove air pockets, and water well.

Water once a week through the first growing season when rain is short. After that, water it only in a long drought. It thrives without fertilizer. Keep grass and weeds cleared in a circle around each seedling for the first two summers so the seedlings get all the water. Prune in late winter to remove crossing branches or to train a single trunk.

Black locust is one of the native trees we grow in the largest numbers, more than 200,000 at our Tennessee nursery, so every seedling pack comes fresh-dug from our own stock. Each pack is one height grade, so a whole row starts even, and one order can cover a windbreak, a woodlot, or an eroding slope. Want a bigger tree that grows taller? See our larger black locust trees.

Large plantings are familiar work for us: TN Nursery has supplied plants to NASA, the US Air Force, and the Discovery Channel, and our black locust seedlings are grown with the same care.