Growing Trees for Firewood

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KathJ
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Growing Trees for Firewood

Post by KathJ »

Does anyone have experience on trees to grow for burning in the log burner? We're looking for something that grows fairly quickly and can be coppiced on a regular basis once established. I thought we'd settled in willow but I've read good and bad things on different websites and now I'm confused >dum< I think we've missed the boat to plant anything this year now anyway }hairout{
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wildlifemad
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Re: Growing Trees for Firewood

Post by wildlifemad »

I have no experience of growing trees for firewood but I know Ash grows quickly as we have a large one on our allotment & lots of seedling which grow rapidly. We have a log burner so when our neighbour had their Willow pollarded we had the wood from it, it dried quickly but burned quickly as well as its softwood. Its weighing up the initial outlay & maintenance against buying logs which seem to keep going up in price. We used to get a free supply which was great but that dried up when they realised they could sell them! We do burn pallets my hubby gets from work (clean ones with no chemical treatment & cannot be re-used as they are non standard size) but supplement with logs. I suppose you have to weigh up how much space you have to grow the wood. A site I've looked at previously is www.willowbank.com it may help you decide what to do. Good luck!
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saint-spoon
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Re: Growing Trees for Firewood

Post by saint-spoon »

Ash is quite dense and burns slowly by all accounts.
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manda
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Re: Growing Trees for Firewood

Post by manda »

Sorry didn't see this one Kath...so I don't know if you've already sorted something.

Asked my husband (who is an arborist) and he said Ash as well...burns slower but produces the most heat. The other thing he said was grow to a decent size and pollard rather than coppice...might be you let some grow to a decent size if you have the room.

Coppice trees are more Willow, Poplar, Hazel but they aren't going to create decent amounts of firewood...you don't normally coppice for firewood production.
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Mo
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Re: Growing Trees for Firewood

Post by Mo »

This poem sums up the folk knowledge
But ash green or ash brown
Is fit for a Queen with golden crown

Of course that is talking about open fires.
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Richard
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Re: Growing Trees for Firewood

Post by Richard »

I'm a shocker, I'll burn anything in my old rusty trusty Rayburn, mainly dead wood from the Wood opposite.

Secret in the Rayburn is to let the log or wood get going before you close the front and top up or you get smoke seeping through the doors like a scene from 'The Fog'.
Also, not to close the top altogether.

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KathJ
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Re: Growing Trees for Firewood

Post by KathJ »

Thanks Manda, that's helpful. To be honest we've had that many other projects on the go recently this has gone on a the back burner (excuse the pun {rofwl} {rofwl} ) for the time being. We had to cut down quite a few trees when we moved in to make room for the chicken run so we'll probably have enough wood to keep us going to a couple of years anyway. It's probably something we'll start to think about again over the winter when things quieten down a bit.
Kath xx

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RIP my beautiful Ranger, Roxy, Bluebelle, Poppy, Speckle, Daisy and Honey xxxx
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Re: Growing Trees for Firewood

Post by Freeranger »

I know what you mean about being given conflicting advice. The truth is (we think) that if you season whatever you grow until it's very dry, then you can burn about anything. Sappy woods can clog stoves if wet, and denser woods give more heat for a given size of log, like ash as everyone said. Willow is light so you need more of it but it burns perfectly well when seasoned, and its very wet when cut so it can take longer to dry.

We were also told to grow trees closely together initially - 1/2 recommended spacing, so they grow up for the light, but then thin them later so you have something to burn, then replant. I suppose a bit like succession planting a salad. That's a lot of work, though. Pollarding sounds easier and more sustainable.
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