Downed Red Oak

I found a red oak today down in my brush pile from when i had 3 acres cleared back in 07. The tree is still whole and is only touching the ground at the base of the tree the rest is laying on other brush. It is about 14 inches in diameter and noticed when i cut the first log from the base that the heart was gone a couple feet up in the tree. Should this tree be seasoned by now or should still have to let season after i CSS.

Its definitely dryer, but needs to be split & stacked. Check in a year, maybe you'll get lucky.

Even after all that time, if not split, Red Oak will hold lots of moisture. Maybe it will only need a year, but it won't be ready now.

so, from everything i'm hearing from u guys. a down tree almost never means seasoned wood?

Correct, with the exception of maybe a standing dead. I suppose any wood if standing or down off the ground, bark falling off and not punky yet could be extremely close to ready. Oak its just a whole nuther breed of wood.

Nope. I'm no expert, but I just split some yellow poplar that has been down 18 months. It was sopping wet. Also some black cherry that came down with the poplar. It was still wet too, just not as wet as the poplar.

Maybe if you coma across some Black Locust that has been down a while with no bark on it.

Have to agree with the others, maybe in an area with minimal rainfall but not likely in NC.

Cut some logs up in the spring that had been down since january of 09. They were still solid in the middle, only punky about 1 inch on outside. Red oak and white oak. Cut and split in april of this year and stacked in full sun in my back yard. We had a very dry summer here. I checked some of the wood in october, split several pieces to get a new edge and my moisture meter still showed 28%. Oak takes a long time to dry out.

Standing dead tops & smaller limbs are sometimes dry enough to burn, trunks even off the ground generally require some seasoning. I've never found a "stove ready" Oak. As others have said, it gives up it's moisture grudgingly. A C

Any tree can be knocked down. If it was very dead before it was downed then it could be seasoned.

going to pull the rest of the red oak out of the gully today with the 5203 john deere will try to get some pics for u guys. Going to be a fun day LOL

Here is some pics of the work so far today, I got a good size poplar log that has been down for a while laying on some small trees. It was really green!

Nice Deere Plowboy!

I would be willing to bet it is "off the charts" in regards to moisture. The only time I ever found an oak tree that was still whole, and ready to burn when I dropped it, was when it was standing dead for at least 25 or so years, and all the bark and sapwood had long rotted off of it. It still probably was in the 22-24% MC range, but it was good enough to burn (not to mention I love the smell of that white oak both split and burning) so it when right into the basement from the woods. That was last winter.

You'll be needing at least 2 to 3 years to make that wood optimal, I would be willing to bet. But sometimes miracles happen. Best way to tell is for you to cut, split, and test it. If you put a split of it in the stove and she sizzles FURIOUSLY, you've got at least two years of seasoning in order.

thanks bow, shes been a good one

NO! One should never assume a fallen tree or even a dead standing tree is ready to burn and doubly so with an oak. In the past when we had to we did cut dead standing elm to burn right away. We cut the elm after all or at least most of the bark has fallen from the tree and find several benefits from this. Mainly the fact that it will split decently rather than splitting into a bunch of stringy mess. Then what we found with this elm (it does not get very big here before dieing) is that most times we could burn the top half or at least the top third of the tree right away. The bottom part of the tree would almost always be loaded with moisture so that had to wait a year before burning.

Well u guys hit the nail on the head with this red oak. I split several pieces and found it to be really green. It going to make excellent firewood in a couple seasons.

I cut down a stove ready oak a few weeks ago.....but the entire interior of it was gone, so there wasn't much to it. It was just a hollow shell full of carpenter ants nesting. Cleared it out, split the exteriors and have been using them as my first add after getting a good fire with kindling. Not much wood, but certainly nothing to wast. Actually thought about trying to seal em up with some polyurethane and slapping some glass on top for a coffee table. Also thought about making some homemade drums for my kid, but the wife was opposed to both.

Unless its been laying down for 20 years as most of my dead oak is it should be split and stacked. Or you could try to sneak a split or two in with some dry stuff like I do and see what happens