Poplar firewood?

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blthomas

Member
Oct 14, 2006
34
Culpeper, VA
Being a overall newb, I want to know is Poplar good for burning?

The ad I posted in the wanted section is just a few miles from my house, thinking of starting to pile up some wood to split. It's all been down since March.

Poplar good for burning yes or no? If no I have plenty of down red and white Oak to get from the family farmlands.

Thanks,
Blair
 
Oak is much better then Poplar, there is nothing wrong with Poplar, it just burns real fast, its good for burning in the Fall and early spring, but Oak is by far more superior for those cold winter nights.
 
no! not if you have access to oak. it will burn but the btu output is much lower than the oaks.
 
As my best friend says, "it'll all burn". I wouldn't go out of my way to get it, and I certainly wouldn't pay for it. We have a bunch of poplar trees, they die off in large numbers and have to come down. The wood is not very dense, it's at the very low end of hardwoods. It is like a sponge- it will re-absorb water at an incredible rate. But once dried properly, it will burn just fine. We usually save it for bonfires, but it will do in a pinch if you don't mind loading more often. It also rots quickly, so keep it dry and off the ground.
 
Thanks guys.

FWIW, I wouldn't be paying for the poplar. If I buy anything it'll be Oak from one of the good ol' boys local.

The Poplar is downed from a guy about 10 miles away who is building a pond. It's in log form.

However, I have tons and tons of Oak at Grandma's and Mom's already downed, some is already limbed, just waiting to be bucked.

I'll just concentrate on that, I can buck and pile until I'm blue in the face and split at a later date.

Thanks again,
Blair
 
blthomas said:
Thanks guys.

FWIW, I wouldn't be paying for the poplar. If I buy anything it'll be Oak from one of the good ol' boys local.

The Poplar is downed from a guy about 10 miles away who is building a pond. It's in log form.

However, I have tons and tons of Oak at Grandma's and Mom's already downed, some is already limbed, just waiting to be bucked.

I'll just concentrate on that, I can buck and pile until I'm blue in the face and split at a later date.

Thanks again,
Blair

Good Choice, Don’t waste your energy on the Poplar, if there is Oak around.
 
Greg123 said:
Good Choice, Don’t waste your energy on the Poplar, if there is Oak around.

I'd put the poplar closest to the street, so it gets stolen first! :smirk:
 
Ditto to what everyone else has said. Actually it is not terrible wood for taking the chill off a room on the early fall / late spring days...times when you don't want a full blown heating fire. It won't burn worth a cent when it is wet. Dry, each log will weigh about 2 pounds and smell like newspaper when it burns.

Corey
 
I'd pick the poplar up. You will burn through it fast, but you will also keep one of your oaks growing for another year. The poplar is only going to rot. You might as well get some use from it.

Matt
 
Hah!! Hi again Blair! ''Popple'' is a subjict near and dear to my heart, a la Warren and his infamous ELM----we got tons of it free in the spring----it's easy enough to process and actually dries relatively fast, but also burns fast and doesn't exactly ''cook you out''. While re-stacking The Boyscout's rush-job, I find that a good percentage is rotted even being off the ground and the coals aren't hot enough to get my cherry going. But since it's free and we have the space to let it dry we'll mix it in and/or save it for mild weather.
 
BrotherBart said:
Dylan said:
Roospike said:
http://chimneysweeponline.com/howood.htm
&
http://mb-soft.com/juca/print/firewood.html


Just as a reminder, the poplar genus here means aspen and cottonwood.

In Culpepper, VA where the OP resides it means Lirodendron tulipifera or tulip poplar. We have a bunch of them suckers here.

Same here BB. I came across some big rounds of Lirodendron tulipifera mixed in with the pile the wood guy brought. That must have been the "extra" he said he threw in. Definitely more dense than the Populus tremuloides (quacking aspen/popple) that grows here.
 
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