Seasoning White Poplar

[InterlakeMan.]

Hey everybody I've been reading the forums a lot lately and figured
that I would join because I have so many questions that are never quite answered. I hope to get straight answers. Now and in future topics.

So this topic is about seasoning White Poplar. Last summer I cut 15 cords of green White Poplar. I cut them into 4 foot lengths, sat them up off the ground and left the wood in the forest. The wood has been there through the fall, winter, spring and this summer. I have a Firewood customer that wants some of that wood. Is there anyone who thinks that the wood will be dry enough to burn by fall?

[PA_Walnut]

It will probably still be wet in the middle. Cut and split it and it'll dry rather quickly.
Poplar dries readily.

[InterlakeMan.]

Thanks for the reply. I was thinking the same thing. Do you think that if I cut the wood now it will be ready for burning by fall?

[barbender]

If you get it bucked to firewood lengths and split, it should dry decent.

[GeneWengert-WoodDoc]

The wood can be used for burning right now.  That is, it will burn well and release a lot of heat.  If, on the average, today a piece is 25% MC, with the core wetter and the outside drier, drying it to 12% MC throughout will add only several percent of extra heat.

Splitting it will allow it to dry in the core, as you will have more than triple the surface area for the wood volume.  The water has to move a shorter distance too.

Splitting also means it will burn faster...much faster if there is enough oxygen.  Often with white poplar, which is often called aspen in the U.S., we do not want faster burning as it means more heat and more addition of wood to the fire more often.  Any splitting should be splitting into large pieces...maybe just halves...with this species, unless a half will not easily fit into your furnace or stove.  The risk is that with such fast burning with small pieces, we throttle the air supply to slow burning and end up with creosote production.

For what it is worth, when people used wood in kitchen stoves, they liked white poplar and related species for summer kitchens, as the wood burned fast and left less residual heat than we would get out of oak, hickory and similar dense woods, which burn with more heat per stick (denser wood) and burn more slowly.

For the record, one pound of firewood for any species (except high resin pieces) releases the same amount of heat.  So, weight of the wood gives us a better feel for the amount of heaT than a volume measurement.

[barbender]

A lot of folks around here that have outdoor boilers burn green aspen by choice. Tops can be had for the taking on most logging jobs, the green aspen burns not too fast not too slow in an OWB, not much ash either. If you try to burn dry stuff in an OWB, you can't fill the stove fast enough. You wouldn't want the green stuff in an indoor woodstove, but just adding to Gene's point that a little variation in the moisture content can be a benefit.

[thecfarm]

barbender,what brand of OWB is that?
I burn dead standing cedar in mine. Dead fir too. My Heatmor wail smother the fire out when it comes up to temp. Than when it drops down 2 fans drive oxygen into the fire box to get it going.