Trees for wood

[cherami]

I am interested in anyone who has a first hand experience on planting popular Trees for the production of wood for wood heating and if the popular will stand coppicing.

[Totally Scrambled]

Morning,
I've tried burning poplar but it's not the best wood, a slow burn but not a huge amount heat. There's a lot of poplar out the back of our house, as windbreaks for the orchard, that they cut back a few years ago and have grown lots of sticks but not much in the way of thick stuck for burning.
have a look here should give some idea of the best burning wood
Dom

[Mo]

Google doesn't help much. I've heard of willow being planted for biofuel but Doms link says willow doesn't burn well. So maybe it depends whether you burn it as logs or chipped into pellets.

[Totally Scrambled]

The only bit of an old poem about wood for burning I can remember is, " Alder, elder and willow wood, oft make the fire look sick."
Ps Never burn Laburnam as it gives off poisonous fumes.
Dom
PPS Have a look Here for info on trees to coppice.

[lancashire lass]

" Alder, elder and willow wood, oft make the fire look sick."

That's interesting. I have elder in my garden that needs to be cut back severely every other year for a good crop of berries but I'm always aware of a pagan saying:

"Elder is the Lady's Tree, burn it not or cursed ye be"

have a look at THIS LIST for ideas of burning qualities of different wood

[cherami]

The first thing I notice is contradiction on the Ash tree in the two links posted one saying best burnt when green and the other saying seasoned is best.

It's good to have a list though even though most of the wood mentioned will take forever to grow and of course whilst Ash is a good wood (Sear or green fit for a queen) it takes also a long time to grow and one needs vasts amount of land.

We do have a system here in France for getting cheap wood but it's very hard work and cost for equipment, but you can buy for the sum of 7€ a sqmt. I was hoping to plant some popular as hedge breaks which would then be used later for firewood.

We seem to use wood far more in France than the UK I am not sure if this is in fact true but it would seem that way, anyway thank you for your inputs one and all.

[manda]

Poplar will burn really quickly and doesn't kick out much heat.

Quick growing windbreak would be willow or poplar but neither burn that well and would both take a long time to dry out ....they will get a the fire going but you need something more substantial to burn after.
Hawthorn and blackthorn are horrible to deal with but would give you more consistent heat.
Ash best burnt seasoned ..takes a long time to dry out though.

If you want to grow trees for firewood...if you can get them grow some eucalyptus nitens = commonly known as shining gum....grows quickly here (don't know what the difference in growth rate would be in europe).

The best thing to do would be to have a chat with a local arborist and ask them what they would suggest for your local conditions.

[cherami]

Thank you for that Manda but I think this tree would not do so well in the European area's as it is from Australia and there are also some doubts as to the toxicity of this tree being a possible cause of some cancers.

The main tree grown in most of France is of course Oak and Charm (Hornbeam) but both of these take a long time to grow. This is one of the problems of being a downshifter in that prices are so high now for basic goods, an example in that Oak used to be almost free and the same with Charm. This we find is a never ending problem in trying to buck the system, do you remember when cheese and corned beef were the poor man's food well not any more of course. This means that if you want to become a self reliant person/family you have got have some good resource's behind you like cheap fuel. This will be severe problem in the coming years.

[lancashire lass]

I suppose all trees will take a long time to grow. I have a number of fruit trees in my garden and although I'm only trimming branches, it never ceases to amaze me how much I have to take off every year (especially the cherry) What about hazel? The tree in my garden was meant to be a source of nuts and also the odd straight sticks for using as alternate to bamboo canes and I found the tree grows quite quickly considering it is not ideally located (surrounded by trees etc - or maybe the "competition" makes it grow quickly?)

[cherami]

Lancashire lass
Are you not getting the nuts or the straight pieces of wood? Are the nuts very small or just not growing?

[lancashire lass]

Lancashire lass
Are you not getting the nuts or the straight pieces of wood? Are the nuts very small or just not growing?

A couple of years ago I managed to get a fantastic crop of hazels (not big but still lovely) and I think it was pure luck that I had got there before the squirrels because since then, it's been a little disappointing. As for the straight pieces of wood, I've got several (about 8 feet + lengths) to cut back ... I just need to set aside some time and get in there to saw them off. It's only a single tree so my expectations are probably too high LOL

[cherami]

We have some but they too disappear and as I would not wish harm to Squirrels (Red ones here) I would like some nuts. We also have some fruit which we could make marmalade out of but have never done so they are called nefler or meddler fruit. The big problem is that if you want to downshift one must find ways of getting rid of the use of electric from the grid and in our case that means wood for heating.

Of course it is not always possible for others to do this because it depends on the size of property etc etc. What is the price for wood in the UK for burning?

[Totally Scrambled]

Don't know about up her way but round here 1 cubic meter of kiln dried hard wood would set you back between £90 - £120.
Dom

[cherami]

Wow that's a terrible price to have to pay.

[HazellB]

It's only a single tree .....

Sorry, only just looked at this, months too late as usual!

Hazel is something that needs to be planted in groups to crop well, like sweetcorn, as it's wind pollenated. It's also a mix of male and female shrubs in some of it's varieties, not both sexes on a plant. So you really need either five plants to ensure both sexes are present or a great deal of good luck!

We grow bio-willow and it's nothing like normal willow for burning. It's espacially bred to grow at a shocking rate and burns okay so long as it's seasoned for a minimum of 8 months. I cut in spring before leafbreak to burn the following late autumn. It burns fairly fast but gives off loads of heat, so is perfect for the eveings when the fire's not lit for long like autumn and late spring. I peel the bark off when it's first cut, though you don't have to. To be honest, I enjoy peeling it and the horses enjoy chewing it, plus it looks pretty stacked barkless, though it's frankly a pointless task!

Having said all that, true bio-willow is something we shouldn't be growing off agricultural farms. It's not GM, but it is licenced (meaning those who invented it deserve royalties for their work) and it's unlawful to just propogate for our own benefit (a bit like making fake DVDs). So I would suggest you find a farmer growing it legally and ask if you can get his advice (and a cutting or two )