Fresh Firewood

Split it now, seasoning time does not start till it is split and stacked so air can get to it.

I hate splitting gum, it seems to vary from tree to tree but I like to split it green, I have found that if I let it sit the fibers get even worse, for sure no way to have a nice clean split with gum wood no matter what you do. I stack mine and have let it sit for 2 years stacked and it will not rot, even at 1 year it is very low moisture good burning wood, just doesn't last as long as other hardwoods.

Throw the gum into the woods and get the rest split and stacked while the weather is perfect for it.

Babaganoosh said:

Throw the gum into the woods and get the rest split

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LOL I'm too far north for gum but we have enough varieties that are just awful to split, even with a splitter. If it dries so fast, at least you don't have to split it small. Just split it so it will fit into the stove.

Get your wood split & stacked as soon as possible. Most species will start to go punky if left set in the round too long.

You'll need a strong hydro splitter to bust sweetgum. Those 5-ton bench top toys won't faze it. We burned a lot of gum over the years. Felled, bucked, hauled, split & stacked. I found that gum seems to split cleaner after the rounds have set a few months. They didn't split any easier, mind you but they didn't shred, at least. Start by slabbing off the outside of the round and work your way in. Green off the stump, gum doesn't split very well. Rather, it mangles and tears.

Will burn after a year stacked; two years is better. Gum has a high resin content and should be fully dry before burning. It really doesn't heat all that well and leaves a lot of ash. We don't mess with gum anymore. Too much work for too little heat output.

FireRod said:

Okay everybody, the wood that I thought was gumtree (because someone thought it was I was with) can not be gumtree. I think the wood that was put in my trailer is poplar. It splits much too clean! I did notice some poplars growing in the area where the wood was. I'm not crazy about poplar.

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I don't want a ton of poplar in my stack, but, some of them are just too much wood to turn down. Easy to process, too.

Glad you scored a good scrounge. A few notes about poplar: It's so strange to me that poplar is such a flop of a species for wood heat. I love burning poplar scraps from construction debris. It burns super hot. I also like using poplar for moldings and paint grade built-ins. That said, I've cut split and burned poplar from the woods and it's like a different species. It really sucked as a source of heat. Maybe that was just my experience.

dafattkidd said:

That said, I've cut split and burned poplar from the woods and it's like a different species. It really sucked as a source of heat.

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I've tried burning Poplar (eastern Cottonwood) straight and you might as well not even start the stove. Even dry and split small it burns lazy and cool and the house won't warm up for hours.

Mixing EC with another lesser quality wood like Boxelder seems to work well. It must create enough heat and turbulence to really get it going and throw some major heat, though for not very long. Both species are in abundance in the river valley here and I burn a lot of it this time of year. I don't hunt for it but since everyone considers burning it taboo a lot of it gets dumped. It's keeping it a steady 74 in here at the moment.

"Poplar" in New jersey probably means Tulip Poplar, which is a fairly good firewood and easy to split. It might also mean Aspen, which is really nice to split and although it is very light, it is worth keeping if you already have it cut to length.

I'd split whatever you have now. If you have a wood that rots quickly, splitting it quickly is even more important. Once it is split it will dry and be much less likely to rot.

There are a large number of trees that fall into the poplar species. I burn a fair bit of poplar because it grows fast, straight, splits easy, dries fast and burns hot & fast. Yes, it rots fast if you don't keep it dry. It's a joy to work with but not for long burns.
I would rather burn all oak but whatever grows on my property goes into my wood pile.

I got a lot of tulip poplar for free this year and it makes wonderful kindling (split down to kindling using a cheap 5T electric splitter) - a few poplar kindling splits + newspaper (+quarter supercedar but I suspect that's not strictly necessary), and your top-down fire is served.

Tulip or yellow poplar ain't bad firewood. Not good for long burn times as was mentioned but it does burn well and clean. Seasons fairly quickly; don't leave it lay in the round as it can go punky in a hurry, too.