Locust for shade?

Not sure if this is the proper place for this, so the mods can move it if need be.

my buddy had a bunch of locust trees sprout out of the pods that were in his compost pile. Asked me if I wanted any of them, I said sure.
Do they make good shade trees? How fast do they grow. I’m 52 now so I have no illusions of ever being able to harvest them for firewood. Just wanting to get some trees going around my RV lot

 

Locust is new to me so no good answer.
I think they are fairly thorny as young saplings and new branches etc. but I don’t know.
If I’m right you should know about that.
If I’m wrong I should know about that
We can get educated together.

 

I personally wouldn't consider locusts a good shade tree from my experience, but that's just my .02. They seem to grow to a certain height and than just break off at the top. I've always considered them kind of dirty. And yes the saplings are thorny.

 

They do grow fast though.

 

i've had family that had em in there yards and they were so so for shade trees and kept them trimed in some sections and from what i seen in my area they grow pretty darn fast

 

They are considered a weed tree and also invasive so be careful about introducing them to an area.

 

They typically are considered as being "filtered shade", meaning they allow some light through. The leaves are quite small and dont block out the light like a large leafed tree.
They grow fairly fast and are a common choice in cities and around concrete and roads because they are hardy and dont need a lot open ground for water, etc. Planting nursery stock that is thornless would be the way to go. If a guy is going to plant regular pasture/wild trees, that would be a mistake, in my opinion. They grow like weeds in our pastures and are thorny, nasty trees. This post and my experience here is referring to the Honey Locust, not Black Locust.

 

I just planted 2 black locust on a clay knob that won’t grow grass in my yard. I wouldn’t consider planting honey locust unless I was 100% sure it was the hybrid thornless type. Honey locust grows some mid evil thorns that flattens tires. Black locust has some small thorns in the tops after the tree matures but nothing major. BL provides shade but not so much that it blocks out vegetation. They grow fast as others have said.

 

One problem with black locust is they sprout from underground runners, and can become a major invasive tree rather quickly. The honey locust has already been talked about. The wild ones can form some amazing thorns, but the thornless varieties do look nice.