How long to dry softwood??

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CJK440

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Oct 4, 2008
25
Southern Connecticut
I took down a number of 40' tall evergreens from my property in June. I don't know the species but more branches than needles. I cut logs to length and stacked under my sunporch. I expected the wood to take a while to dry and was going to get some hardwood to supplement until then.

Today I poked thru the stacks and was amazed how light the logs were. After looking at them they are starting to show small cracks all the way to the core. I imagine they will pop pretty easy when splitting. Will try tomorrow.

Is 4 months stacked under a roof too early?? Or since it is cracking all the way to the core will I need that hardwood to temper the fire??
 
You'll correctly hear it from just about everyone on this site...get a moisture meter (even a cheap one) and check a fresh split. 20% or less and you're good to go.
 
so they haven't been split yet? you can dry softwoods over the summer months ONCE they have been split.
 
Yup. Spruce drys real fast for me once split. The smaller branches, under three inches in diameter I run my chainsaw down the branch lengthwise cutting away one blade width of bark.

Everything I had split by May 15 was dry for me this fall. Zipped or striped branches cut to 16" length and under 3" in diameter, also dry. My 3-4" branches with all the knots in them that got unzipped but not split are going to need a wee littel bit longer, but ought to be dry as a tomb after two years in the sun.

When you wear out your first Moisture Meter you may not need to buy a replacement, but definitely wear one out.
 
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Cedar dries in 6-8 months in SE USA with hot, humid summers. This is AFTER splitting.
 
I had two huge eastern white pines taken down about two years ago. Since I could not process all of it at once, I stacked some of the unsplit rounds up. Those had already nicely dried through the ends quite a bit when I finally split them about 10 months later. I checked a few pieces, moisture was 25 to 30%. Definitively also less messy as you will have less pitch and sap. I would recommend checking them with a MM. They may not be dry yet but no too far off.
 
I've found most western softwoods including some of the harder ones like western larch and doug fir dry pretty fast once split and stacked. I typically quarter rounds greater than 10 inches and halve round less than that and after a summer of drying I consistently see moisture levels below 25%. However I also live in an area where my relative humidity is quite low in the summer months (below 40%).
 
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My general rule is split and stacked under a roof for 6 months for softwood. It dries pretty fast once it's split.
 
Not very.

Generally you cut CSS in the early spring and burn it by winter.

Most of the time people here don't cut green wood so 3 month is all that's needed.
 
Depends on if it's Poplar, or Pine _g

I just checked some poplar I CSS 4-5 months ago. Pulled the bark off one piece, and it still had standing water under it _g <> The rest is still reading too high on my MM for me.

All the pine I had stacked outside since April is looking goooooood >>
 
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