Poplar wood.

[mrcaptainbob]

Poplar wood is not so poplar with me! Never ran into this with any other 'cept willow wood: I have an outdoor wood burner heating our old farm house. It does a GREAT job. Have been burning oak, cherry, black walnut, a bit of hickory. Was going to rid the yard of some old downed willows, but found they don't burn too well. Last Monday we chunked up a downed poplar. About 20" or so at the base. Split the larger stuff, pretty light weight so didn't need to split it all. Three times since last Monday the stove's fire has almost gone out! This morning we awoke to another cold house. Wife was NOT happy! Anybody else have experience with poplar like this? Even fresh pine burns better! I can burn the poplar if I mix a lot of 'good' wood in. But this is like trying to light a wet carpet!

[Woodcarver]

i just came from stoking our basement furnace with four or five large chunks of poplar (aspen).  Not my first choice in fire wood.  We had a stack of rejects from cutting pulp, crooked pieces, short pieces, etc. that I bucked up for firewood.

It burns readily enough if it's dry. About like burning paper, though.  It won't hold a fire overnight.  Can't get enough heat out of it to warm the house in reallly cold weather.  Temperatures are a little milder right now so it works ok.  In fact, the house is a little too warm right now.  Normallly I would have fired with oak this time to hold the fire overnight, but I'm going to let it go out. 

[beenthere]

Let the aspen dry for a year after splitting, then there won't be so much of it's heat going to burning off the water. 

Pound for pound, it gives essentially the same heat, regardless the wood. But some woods have more water in them, unless split and dried.

[RSteiner]

I've burned popular before.  I found that I had to split it and let it dry at least from early spring to the wood burning season in the late fall or early winter.  It is a very light wood once dry and as beenthere said pound for pound is has the same heat output of any wood.  Popular does not produce nice coals that last a while it burns up to nothing pretty quick.

It was not my first choice in nice firewood but whenever I came across some that I had to take down I would work it up.  I did find it was good in the early fall and late spring for those times when I only needed a quick fire to take the chill off.

Randy

[Don K]

I have used it as starter in my fireplace. Burns hot and fast when dry but no value for coals.

Don

[SwampDonkey]

Yeah the pound for pound thing again. I'd like to throw volume into this, which is more important to me at least. When I throw 3 sticks of hard maple into the furnace I have 3 times the burn of 3 comparable sticks of aspen. Look at it another way, I don't have to have as much storage and handling of my firewood if it's nice hard maple compared to aspen to keep my buns warm.  ;D

[WH_Conley]

Hey, Donk, just burn all poplar and ya will have yer buns worked down til it won't take much to warm em :D.

As said before dried poplar is good for early and late season, also makes very good kindling to get the other wood going.

[thecfarm]

mrcaptainbob,you said down poplar?Did it soak up a bunch of water?but you said light too,did not need to split it all.
When I was clearing the old grown up pasture I cut a lot of it.Nice looking stuff,straight,6-8 inches through.If I still had it I would build a small log cabin out of it for a out building.I put 2-3 cords of it through my other wood furnace I had and did find it did not last as long as some good hardwood.But it kept the house nice and warm and I would burn it again.I never lost a fire with it.But I did let it season before I burned it.I would forget about that stuff.Right now in my ourdoor furnace I'm burning green wood.At times I cut it in the morning and burn in the evening.I did get some really wet old pieces of pine that been kicking around for years.They was soaked up with water and still burned and gave me plenty of heat.I always burned a bunch of junk.I can sell the good stuff and leave the junk wood for me to burn.

[Skip]

I use poplar (yellow) in the early fall and spring when I want to take the chill off ,not for all nighters. Furnace aint big enogh to hold wood for all night . I use tops from logging and usually 2-3 months dry.

[OneWithWood]

Well here we are again talking about two very different woods and calling it poplar.
mrcaptainbob, are you trying to burn tulip (yellow) poplar or aspen?

I burn a lot of tulip poplar.  It burns well and I get a nice bed of coals.

I don't waste my time with aspen.

[Greg]

I've probably burned every kind of "bad" firewood there is, but definitely not aspen.

Some will burn green/right of the stump, others must have proper seasoning time before even I'd consider putting it in the wood stove. Each species has a "window" when they burn best, miss that window and you will be unhappy.

(Tulip) Poplar burns OK, not great for me, even seasoned for just 6 months.

I've had good results with box elder too, burned green. Many people have told me it was garbage/not worth burning. Baloney. If you let it sit out for several years, sure, it will turn to mush similar to hardwoods like hackberry.

The worst of all woods in my book for firewood is pin oak, for several reasons.

Greg

[SwampDonkey]

Mom's uncle used to burn aspen in the fall, then birch and soft maple in the winter in the kitchen stove. Aspen is more like cedar kindling, although I don't know about sparking. White cedar sparks bad.

[Engineer]

I've burned a wide variety of wood in my outdoor boiler, even though it's only been running consistently, daily, since September last year.  Species like poplar (aspen), willow, box elder and any softwoods need to spend some time drying.  If I am careful with my stacks, I can get good firewood out of poor species.  The biggest disappointment for me so far has been silver (soft) maple.  It rots so fast that it seems like I could cut the tree down one day and mix the wood fibers into the compost pile the next.   I have been getting some good hot coals and long burns with box elder, even though it's very similar to soft maple. 

My favorites for the boiler so far have been cherry, ash and black locust.

[Weekend_Sawyer]

I burn yellow poplar slabwood but mainly just to use it up. I prefer oak, red splits good, white is harder and burns longer. I start my fires with pine and then throw in the oak.

[slowzuki]

Poplar/Aspen is what I consider my good wood for the winter because we've been burning our slab pile for two years now and we only saw fir/spruce.  I was given about 5 cords of poplar so I can chunk it into big pieces so it lasts a bit.  Split it is no better than the slab wood.

[Lanier_Lurker]

As stated by several people so far, seasoned yellow/tulip poplar is good starter or early burn wood to get things going before putting the oak and hickory into the fire box.  I also keep some sticks close by to quickly re-awaken a slow fire that has gone unattended for too long.

However, yellow poplar has to be kept out of the rain and especially out of contact with the ground.  It will rot and/or get chewed up by beetles and grubs in no time flat.  Interestingly enough though, I have never found any termites in downed or deadfall yellow poplar - and termites are thick in my area.  Don't know if there is something about yellow poplar that repels the little buggers or not.

Don't know nothing about "aspen" poplar.  I don't think we have that tree in Georgia.

[WH_Conley]

I always heard that termites won't chew on yellow poplar heart wood. ???

[mrcaptainbob]

Well, not being much of an expert on trees, I don't know if it's yellow, tulip or an aspen. My neighbor called it poplar, so I went with that. It was a standing dead tree knocked down by a high wind. Was laying off the ground and across some oak logs for less than six months. Some of it, as it turns out was REALLY punked! Didn't notice since it was frozen. Once thawed, though...it was truly mush. I have burned fresh cut oak and cherry and had no problem with it burning. Also once tossed in the wood from some very old chicken coop walls that were covered with snow mush and water. Was really surprised how hot the soggy chicken coop wood burned! Another part of my education on this wood burner was trying to use up some old willows laying down by the road. Storm damaged trees that were a good 30" diameter. Another fiasco. But at least that would burn when mixed with oak or cherry. This poplar (the solid, none-punked part), or what ever it is, is a waste of energy and time. I'll not be culling any of that anymore!

[Dale Hatfield]

I'm wondering if wasn't a hybrid poplar Lombardy is one that come to mind. It is more of a vertical growing tree .Branches grow up and are small .. Bigtooth or Quaking aspen  makes poor firewood. Yellow or Tulip Poplar is better wood but far from the best. We mix it in and use it to start a cold fire in the morning.   

[SwampDonkey]

Aspen is ok for kindling wood, to get the fire going, if it's dry. No one around here uses it unless they are desparate for wood. Some people are who can't afford to buy wood and they cut some along the edge of their property or farm fence lines. Had one guy just wanting to cut firewood from the fence, then all the sudden spruce and fir logs were walking down the road :

[Don P]

I had posted this a week or two ago on another forum, it kind of applies here so;

Wood contains approximately 6% hydrogen, 49% carbon and 44% oxygen. The heating value of non resinous wood is about 8000-8500 btu/dry lb. The bark of those woods 7400-9800. Resinous wood runs about 8600-9700 btu/dry lb with its bark in the 8800-10,800 btu/lb range.

But, moisture content is really the biggest variable. The dry heating value differs from the actual heating value mainly due to the loss in vaporizing the moisture in the wood. Other losses include the energy to heat excess air in the combustion process and water formed during combustion. The as-fired heat value can vary from about 80% for dry wood to about 60% for wet fuel. Water takes 1100-1200 btu/lb water to vaporize.

For the geek in us all;
As-fired heat = higher heating value x [1-%MC(wet basis)/100]

Wet basis is a bit different than the way we usually describe MC
%MC (wet basis)=[%MC(dry basis)/100+%MC(dry basis)] x 100

An example;
75%MC (dry basis)= [75/(100+75)]x100= 43% MC(wet basis)

Assume 8800 Btu/lb dry heat value

8800btu(1-.43)=8800 X .57 = 5016 Btu for the green wood

lets go a step further and say we have a 70% efficiency stove

5016 Btu X .70= 3511 Btu/lb

[jackpine]

Don

Good information. Next question is, what is the factor for frozen green wood with snow and ice still attached ;D Just threw some pine slabs like that into my boiler, takes a while for the mass to heat up and drive off the moisture but they do provide heat and it's a way to get rid of them.
On the question of aspen I have a customer that swears by green aspen for his boiler. My experience with aspen has not been good, the pine slabs seem to burn better, last longer and produce less ash. Dry aspen goes from a solid to ash with no heat output :D

Bill