10 massive poplars coming down today

[sportbikerider78]

This is at our lake house. These are all at least 50-75' tall. There are 2 more groups not in this picture.
This will be nice campfire and home heating wood. Can't wait to see it all dropped by the end of the day.
I'll be stacking and splitting in the next few weeks.

 

[Sodbuster]

Nice haul

 

[Adabiviak]

Have you burned poplar before? Poplar includes a number of different species, and the local ones smell bad... like the wood core itself actually reeks. I'm curious if that does too. Plus the local ones are a nuisance to split because they don't crack apart properly... I get these fibrous flaps that keep the splits together that I need to hack apart.

When I finally got several years ahead in my wood pile and could start to be choosy about my wood acquisitions, poplar was the first off the list.

 

[sportbikerider78]

Yes..I have burned it many times. It doesn't stink here.

 

[Sodbuster]

Have you burned poplar before? Poplar includes a number of different species, and the local ones smell bad... like the wood core itself actually reeks. I'm curious if that does too. Plus the local ones are a nuisance to split because they don't crack apart properly... I get these fibrous flaps that keep the splits together that I need to hack apart.

When I finally got several years ahead in my wood pile and could start to be choosy about my wood acquisitions, poplar was the first off the list.

That sounds like Elm around here minus the smell

 

[kennyp2339]

I to enjoy burning poplar, we have some big tree's over by me that I'm eyeing up. My normal poplar routine is to split a little thicker (6" diameter) It dry's out fairly fast, and burning real nice, I like using it when I have a lot of coals to burn down, or in the shoulder season.
Whats crazy is the amount of water the wood holds, green poplar rivals green white oak, but when it dry's out it becomes ultra lightweight.

 

[sportbikerider78]

I to enjoy burning poplar, we have some big tree's over by me that I'm eyeing up. My normal poplar routine is to split a little thicker (6" diameter) It dry's out fairly fast, and burning real nice, I like using it when I have a lot of coals to burn down, or in the shoulder season.
Whats crazy is the amount of water the wood holds, green poplar rivals green white oak, but when it dry's out it becomes ultra lightweight.

It is true. When you split this, the water pours out.
Of course, the trees live 20 feet from a lake. I'm sure they get all the water they want.

 

[Manly]

Have you burned poplar before? Poplar includes a number of different species, and the local ones smell bad... like the wood core itself actually reeks. I'm curious if that does too. Plus the local ones are a nuisance to split because they don't crack apart properly... I get these fibrous flaps that keep the splits together that I need to hack apart.

When I finally got several years ahead in my wood pile and could start to be choosy about my wood acquisitions, poplar was the first off the list.

One man's stink is another man's aura. It almost sounds like black locust you describe. When it's fresh it smells like gorilla urine. Tough to split and very fibrous. Once it dries it is the nicest burning wood I can find. Poplar in this area is a middle of the road wood. I take any wood I can get for free including pine.

 

[snojetter]

Call me crazy, but I like burning poplar (quaking aspen is what we have here). There's something gratifying about a warm house from a tree often considered a waste of time to process. Don't get me wrong, I have way more oak ad ash in my piles than poplar. But I keep every stick of poplar that I cut and it goes in the stove at whatever time of year I happen to pull it out of the pile. Splits beautifully and I think it smells good, too.

Now boxelder...I usually avoid that stuff - primarily because of the mangled trunks. Guess I don't treat all trees equally.

 

[Adabiviak]

I think what I'm dealing with here is 'italian poplar', which looks (and presumably handles) differently from our other local riparian populus members. Our local quaking aspen, for example, is pretty nice.

 

[LocustPocust]

Debark some of it if you have some time.. it should come off pretty easily with a flat head screw driver. It might turn a neat color.

 

[Alpine1]

I think what I'm dealing with here is 'italian poplar', which looks (and presumably handles) differently from our other local riparian populus members. Our local quaking aspen, for example, is pretty nice.

Italian poplar? That’s new to me. We have black poplar (populus nigra) and white poplar (p. Alba). Both are lightweight and show a propensity to dry in strange ways: some do get dry in a few months, others develop mold and seem to never season properly.

 

[saewoody]

One man's stink is another man's aura. It almost sounds like black locust you describe. When it's fresh it smells like gorilla urine. Tough to split and very fibrous. Once it dries it is the nicest burning wood I can find. Poplar in this area is a middle of the road wood. I take any wood I can get for free including pine.

Which of course begs the question: How do you know what gorilla urine smells like?[emoji6][emoji23]


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[billb3]

I've only burned all poplar once (big tooth aspen more precisely, but that's a poplar) . From a tree cut down in the yard. Stacked alone to sample. The only part that smelled a little bit was the brown stringy fibers between the bark and sapwood. Took 2 years to season though. Burned like wet wood the first year. Was OK shoulder season the second but I found pine burns a lot hotter. I did burn it all. I only had about a half of a cord.