I've been burning a good size poplar tree that came down last December and split most of it last March.Man this wood is giving me good heat no excellent heat and I'm getting all night burns from it.I won't take this wood lightly ever again.It's ok in my book.
Poplar is ok
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No it's not the best but dry it is at it's best. Burning some right now and have no complaints. Poplar helps me keep my best woods for the times I really need what thay have. But then I can say that for spruce and pine and boxelder too!
schlot said:
yes
Populus deltoides – Eastern Cottonwood (Eastern North America)
Populus fremontii – Fremont Cottonwood (Western North America)
Populus tremula – Common Aspen, Trembling Aspen or Eurasian Aspen
There's a bunch of Tulip (Yellow) Poplar around here. I'd like to get some dead standing split up soon for dry kindling to use next season. I'm using Red Pine now but I'd rather burn non-pitch wood in the stove and use the Pine for outdoor fires. Not that I'm real concerned about it...
They're burning a Liberty at a local stove shop. I can see how you could get an overnight burn with that big boy. I doubt I could with my 1.4 cu.ft. box.Rich L said:
Rich L said:
We went through two cord of popple this year for the shoulder season, I agree if you have room for it take it.
zap
zapny said:
Ya Zap since it went down in my back yard it made it's own room.I got about a cord and a quarter out of the tree and burned about 3/4 of a cord since October.I split the rounds down to splits like yours nice and thick.My fiskars worked through the rounds very nicely and the wood dries really fast.If I ever get a tree lot I will be growing poplaron some of it.I'll be burning this wood into December then I'll hit the Maple.locust,Oak, Ash,and Elm.I'm real happy with this experience.
cptoneleg said:
Your right on about getting it bone dry.When it's dry it burns great.I was surprized how it did due to the negative reports of the wood.Experience is a great teacher.
Why not get a bigger stove.If the size of a stove will allow popular to burn all night that says a lot about the benefits of a big stove.Woody Stover said:
babzog
Member
Cave2k said:
I've got a metric ****pile of the stuff in my bush against which I've declared a holy jihad. Had one snap off last April and crush some evestrough that I was saving to put on the shop. Few people want it - I have enough of a hard time giving it away (got rid of probably 6-8 cords last spring). Dried, it does burn alright and it's perfect for this time of year (to save the good wood) but I can't say I'd want much softwood lying around in my woodpile. 2-3 cords per year is plenty to get through Oct-Nov-early Dec and April. Any more and it'll just rot. It throws off very good heat, but doesn't last. Like paper, it flares up, burns hot and dies out. Only had a couple of overnighters with useful morning coals... normally, I have nothing left but ash (which is usually okay early in shoulder season).
Anyone wants poplar, you're welcome to come and cut. Take it all. I'm located south of Ottawa.
I'm only heating about 720 sq.ft. in the main room, plus another 270 sq.ft in the bedroom which we keep cooler, hence the smaller stove. The small cat stove also allows a long, low burn which is great in the shoulder season. We're not yet burning 24/7 here. I can now get 12-hour burns with med-high heat woods like White Ash and Sugar Maple, at low burn. I haven't run this stove in the dead of Winter yet but with the high-heat woods I've got, I'm pretty sure I'll be able get 12-hour burns with higher heat output, even though the fire box isn't very big.Rich L said:
Rich L said:
So, Rich, is this popple, aka aspen or is it the tulip poplar, aka, yellow poplar. Zap burns the former as I doubt he has any tulip poplar there.
Backwoods Savage said:
Man Sav I wouldn't know the difference except a tree guy said it was I think Aliantus or something like that.Have you ever heard the term?The laymen like myself call it poplar.It grows like a weed and I will snatch it if it's available.It's one tree that can survive and thrive in the concrete jungle of the city.
WoodpileOCD
Minister of Fire
+1 on all the virtues of Poplar. I collected and split this last January and have been burning it since my first fires in Oct. This and the pine I collected have gotten my through to this point and haven't had to touch my 'good' wood. I scoffed at this and the pine to begin with but decided after living here in this forum for awhile that any wood is better than no wood or unseasoned wood and this would season quickly. Easiest splitting wood I've had too except may a very straight red oak. I'll not hesitate to take any and all that I can find from here on out.
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weatherguy said:
Liriodendron tulipifera is the scientific name Tulip Poplar. Without getting my hugemongous Woody Landscape Book out, I really don't think they're in the same family.
There are 'true' poplars like Cottonwood (Populus deltoides I think), Quaking Aspen (populus tremloides) Bigtooth Aspen (populus grandidentata), and several types of hybrid poplars. These are all in the genus Populus and pretty similar both in their appearance and in their wood, in my experience. True poplars are not closely related to Tulip Poplar (Liriodenron tulipifera) and the wood isn't all that similar either. I think Tulip Poplar is called a poplar because it grows straight and tall like some poplars, not because it is in any way related. Ailanthus, or Tree of heaven (Ailanthus altisima) is not related to either true poplars or Tulip poplar.
On my opinion aspens are pretty nice firewood - lightweight but nice to process, dries well, burns hot. I haven't cut much Cottonwood. Tulip poplar is a little more dense, also nice to process. Ailanthus is a smelly wood to cut or split, the tree is an invasive weed, and I haven't burnt any so i can't say how it burns. If I had any I'd cut it and burn it ust to get rid of it (or I'd girdle it and treat the stumps just to kill it)
On my opinion aspens are pretty nice firewood - lightweight but nice to process, dries well, burns hot. I haven't cut much Cottonwood. Tulip poplar is a little more dense, also nice to process. Ailanthus is a smelly wood to cut or split, the tree is an invasive weed, and I haven't burnt any so i can't say how it burns. If I had any I'd cut it and burn it ust to get rid of it (or I'd girdle it and treat the stumps just to kill it)
Last year I heated with firewood that the PO had cut and left stacked in rounds on the property. It had been there so long that the bottom and top courses were pretty much useless, but the stuff in between was the best firewood I've used. I had learned to call that stuff poplar, but was told that true cottonwood (balsam poplar) doesn't grow this far north. So assuming it was aspen. Too late to i.d. it now--I've destroyed the evidence.
Our options are limited here in interior AK, and made more confusing by the various names that wood goes by. We have wood here that folks call cottonwood--that I thought was cottonwood, but that isn't, according to the forestry dept. We have aspen, and some people call that aspen, some poplar. The big three here are birch, spruce, and the whatsit wood (aspen/poplar). I'm burning birch and spruce this year. My birch was cut in May, and it's burning, but leaves a lot of coal and isn't holding the overnight fires like I'd expected. The spruce is a bit temperamental--sometimes a hot dry burn, sometimes a sullen smolderer. I miss my dependable, steady aspen. Or whatever that was. And I miss the easy overnight burns.
I've got a few piles of that stacked and cut for next year, and plan on being more aggressive about collecting that next year. It's seen as garbage wood here, so sells cheap. As stated above, it's an easy split, as well.
Our options are limited here in interior AK, and made more confusing by the various names that wood goes by. We have wood here that folks call cottonwood--that I thought was cottonwood, but that isn't, according to the forestry dept. We have aspen, and some people call that aspen, some poplar. The big three here are birch, spruce, and the whatsit wood (aspen/poplar). I'm burning birch and spruce this year. My birch was cut in May, and it's burning, but leaves a lot of coal and isn't holding the overnight fires like I'd expected. The spruce is a bit temperamental--sometimes a hot dry burn, sometimes a sullen smolderer. I miss my dependable, steady aspen. Or whatever that was. And I miss the easy overnight burns.
I've got a few piles of that stacked and cut for next year, and plan on being more aggressive about collecting that next year. It's seen as garbage wood here, so sells cheap. As stated above, it's an easy split, as well.
We have quite a few of the Eastern Cottonwoods over at the cottage on Lake Champlain. Back in the 1920s when they layed out the lots, they planted the Cottonwoods to mark the property lines, and since they layed out 50 ft x 100 lots and there are hundreds of lots, well a bunch of trees. And as they are now 90 years old, they are huge, many 3+ ft in dia. at chest height. They're also getting brittle and dropping lots of good sized limbs. Even with the big storms and hurricane Irene, none have toppled, good root system I guess.
I do notice that when you cut a live one, the water just oozes out, but they do seem to then dry fairly fast. I also find the cottonwood splits better when the rounds have been left to dry for awhile.
I do notice that when you cut a live one, the water just oozes out, but they do seem to then dry fairly fast. I also find the cottonwood splits better when the rounds have been left to dry for awhile.
woodmiser
Feeling the Heat
Wood Duck said:
That is correct. Tulip Poplar isn't poplar at all. It's in the Magnolia family.
http://plants.usda.gov/factsheet/pdf/fs_litu.pdf
Rich L said:
Do a Google search on aspen then click on Images (on the left hand side of the page) then do the same for tulip poplar and you'll see there is a huge difference. Shoot, I never even saw a tulip poplar until one time when I went to PA. Those were used extensively in lumbering many moons ago and I suspect they still are.
EDIT: When you google aspen, search quacking aspen rather than aspen and you'll get better pictures. You can increase the size of the pictures just by holding the mouse on the picture. You'll notice there is a huge difference in the color and shape of the bark.
I'm with you on taking all I can find and how quick it dries.Your stack looks delicious.WoodpileOCD said:
Backwoods Savage said:
Thanks Sav for the biology lesson which taught me that my tree was neither Aspen nor poplar but Aliantus.So my thread should be correctly titled "Aliantus is ok.
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