Best wood fence post treatment?

[Timmer]

We use green treat landscaping timbers for fence posts. This is in part because we got a couple of hundred of them for free from a farmer when we first put in our pasture, and because we like the look of wood posts as you can see our pasture from the road and coming up the driveway. We are only getting a few years out of each post before they rot. We are replacing numerous posts per year. Does anyone have a recommendation for additional treatment? Copper-green? CreoCote? Other?

 

[GoWyo]

Square timbers always twist and rot off. Worthless for fence posts. Railroad ties for braces and corners or oilfield pipe is even better and treated round posts for line posts. Our soil is sandy, so no steel because tumbleweeds blow against the fence and the steel posts just blow over.

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

Best thing I've found to make wood last is replace with steel pipe.

 

[M.Magis]

Landscape timbers aren’t fence posts. They aren’t treated for ground contact, so they’re going to rot off quickly. I doubt there’s anything reasonable you can do to prevent it. The right wood post will last a lifetime, but it won’t be made of pine.

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

Guess it depends on your definition of lifetime? Haha

 

[M.Magis]

I have posts that have been in the ground for well over 75 years, and they aren’t going anywhere.

 

[SBMF 2015]

Hedge posts. ( Osage Orange) will last a lifetime or two. I know of some that were put in in the ‘50s or early that are still solid.
That or oil pipe. Everything else rots off here.

 

[4hfarms]

Have cedar from 30-50years old. Steel t posts rusted but 8in cedar posts held the fence up when we purchased this property. Been adding to them as the years go on. Been cutting them from the property and storing them until needed, when they are big enough.

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

I have cedar posts that were put in 100 years ago and still fairly solid. I also have cedar put in 10 years ago and they rotted off 5 years ago.

Old tight grain posts of yesteryear last much better than open grown trees of today.

Around here in our wet/saturated clay soils anything more that 15 years on a wood post is borrowed time. Sure some make it to 75+ years but for everyone one of them 25 didn't make it to 15 years.

 

[Brute 23]

Landscape timbers are not made to be fence posts. Find some good treated, round posts and you with be way ahead of the timbers.