Quickest Maine hardwoods to season

[joecool85]

For last season and this current season my wood piles have consisted of (basically in this order): pine, willow, fir, birch, apple. Pine and willow make up close to 75% of the wood though I'd say.

Obviously this is less than ideal, but it was all free stuff I had access to - just my time to cut, split, haul. Also due to lack of space and time, these woods were great because they season in 6 months to a year quite well. Pine is also the best (in my opinion) fire started when dried properly.

Now, I'm trying to get some wood with more btus in my stack for next season and again, due to lack of space and time, am interested in which woods season the quickest. These are the hardwoods available (didn't list Oak because I know it takes 1/2 an eternity to season).

American Beech
Black Cherry
Grey Birch
Paper Birch
Yellow Birch
Red Maple
Sugar Maple
White Ash

Which of these woods would you folks rank as quickest to season?

 

[Wood Duck]

I think the Red Maple and White Ash will be the quickest to season. I'd continue to get pine as well, if you have access to pine. Black Cherry, Gray Birch, and Paper Birch should be close behind the maple and ash, with the other birches, sugar maple, and beech a little slower.

 

[Standingdead]

Maple, ash, cherry under optimal conditions (single stack with sun and wind) can definitely be seasoned in a year. I know some who swear by the birchs ( my favorite is yellow, then black) but whenever I tried I could only get the Moisture down to 20-25%. In the past I didn't burn much beech but plan on in the future cause I have a lot of beech trees. Those are all great choices. Don't forget you can mix dried pine with some 25% moisture hard maple or oak and still have a good fire. I think dried pine and poppel are so underrated! GL!

 

[firefighterjake]

Ash
Red maple
Cherry
White birch
Gray birch
Yellow birch
Beech and Sugar Maple

 

[TimJ]

Then, keep getting the lower BTU stuff if that is what you have alot of and start mixing on a regular basis
redmaple X pine
Ash x willow

 

[joecool85]

Great, thanks guys. And I will be continuing to get the pine and fir, maybe some willow (depends on wether I decide to tromp through my swampy land to get 'em). But now I can aim to get some harder woods in there too. I think I'll be poking around my parent's lot to see if they have any ash, red maple or cherry around. I'm almost 100% certain they have a fair amount of red maple, no cherry and very little ash, so it'll probably be red maple in the stack for next year. I figure if I cut, split, stack it by february it should be fine for next heating season.

 

[midwestcoast]

As Jake has it, although I don't have experience with Grey Birch or Yellow Birch.

 

[scotvl]

Great, thanks guys. And I will be continuing to get the pine and fir, maybe some willow (depends on wether I decide to tromp through my swampy land to get 'em). But now I can aim to get some harder woods in there too. I think I'll be poking around my parent's lot to see if they have any ash, red maple or cherry around. I'm almost 100% certain they have a fair amount of red maple, no cherry and very little ash, so it'll probably be red maple in the stack for next year. I figure if I cut, split, stack it by february it should be fine for next heating season.

Sounds like a good plan except for the willow part. I would take pine over willow even if the willow was dropped off for free, the stuff I had last year but like paper and threw less heat.

 

[bogydave]

Ash
Red maple
Cherry
White birch
Gray birch
Yellow birch
Beech and Sugar Maple

+1 with Jake's list

Good plan
Pictures help the wood dry faster too

 

[joecool85]

Sounds like a good plan except for the willow part. I would take pine over willow even if the willow was dropped off for free, the stuff I had last year but like paper and threw less heat.

I didn't mind burning willow really. You do have to make sure it's fully dry though, and split on the finer side to get more heat. It doesn't last long, but it's better than no wood...which was my other option.

 

[firefighterjake]

I didn't mind burning willow really. You do have to make sure it's fully dry though, and split on the finer side to get more heat. It doesn't last long, but it's better than no wood...which was my other option.

I've burned it before . . . a good wood for the shoulder season or for those days when you're just sitting around the house and don't mind loading up a little more often.