Question ? if a tree is dead

Well you have a good head start since it's been dead for a long time. Once it's split and stacked it will really begin to season. I never noticed dead wood to season faster just that it's drier when it's finally processed.

I mostly go after oak and I have found standing dead red oak to be a lot drier at the top than at the base but it all seemed to season faster then live trees.

BTW I have no facts to back this up because all my wood goes into a rotation not to be handled again once stacked for at least three years.

Yes how much faster, depends on a lot of things.

Keep in mind the the upper range of a moisture meter's accuracy is in the mid thirties. Beyond the mid 30's wood fibers will be saturated to the point where the electrical resistance will not change. With a reading of 33 it is quite possible that the wood that you poked is considerably wetter. Read up on the fiber saturation point or FSP if you want to know more.

Moisture leaves a particular species of wood at the same rate no matter how long it has been dead so the answer is NO to drying faster - the real advantage is MC at the starting point and then all the other factors like split size, relative humidity, wind, heat, etc...

bill2500hd said:

Hello all, I just had a big tree cut down as I go into my woods. Its been dead for a long time. Checked the moisture and its 22-33%. Will a dead tree loose its moisture faster than a fresh cut one. IM thinking about the same. I was told it was a maple

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Read question wrong, a dead tree has allredy lost some of its moisture, and would be ready to burn sooner than a live one

Soft Maple dries pretty fast but that looks like a Sugar, which is gonna need a couple years in the stack.

The tops of a standing dead tree are most like already very dry and ready to burn right away. The closer to the ground, the more moisture you'll likely find still in the trunk. That has been my experience with oak, anyway. I've cut down water oak that I know has been dead for two years that almost flowed with water where I made my felling cuts.

To the OP, get that wood off the ground and split and stacked as soon as possible to avoid rot.

because the drying process, unless you're kiln drying, requires the wood cells to die first order to release moisture, standing dead trees season faster bc most wood cells already died, allowing the moisture to release much faster after splitting.