Apple Trees

[MANIAC]

Did a quick search and didn't see much. If I missed a string talking about this I'll say sorry in advance.

Anyway I was at a friends house the other day cutting up a half dozen Locust trees and he looks over at row of about 8 Apple trees and says "You want those too?". Their probably around 15"-16" in diameter at best but looks like it would still cut down to a decent amount of wood. I know pretty much anything will burn but are there different varieties of Apple trees that are better or worse to burn?

 

[zzr7ky]

Hi -

All Apple I've run into burns well. I can see any variation by variety. However there are smaller newer grafted "Apple trees that produce apple but the trunk is not and apple tree trunk! Apple has more heat (mass) than Cherry in my estimation...

I save some for firing the smokehouse... Cheese in the winter, Hams in the late winter, Salmon in the Summer!!

ATB,
MikeP

 

[Corey]

That was my thought, take the wood - it's right in the oak / hickory / locust range for BTU/cord at about 26.5 million. Save a big pile for the smoker though!

Corey

 

[jpl1nh]

Can be somewhat of a PITA to cut up since they tend not to be tall and straight but its awesome firewood with a really nice fragrance to it. Get all the apple you can!! There's a guy selling it by the cord on Craigslist in our area at $275 per. Most expensive wood I've seen listed so far but for its qualities I'm not surprised.

 

[MANIAC]

I knew it was very popular for smokers I just wasn't sure about heating with it. How does it dry?

Definately is a lot more wirey than those locust poles I was cutting.

 

[kjklosek]

I burned some apple last year and it was great. Smells good, burns hot and leaves a good coal bed. I picked up about a cord of trimmings from my local orchard.

It is quite spindly but you will like it. It is also very hard and dense. Good for wood turning if you have a lathe. Also used for tool handles like hand saws.

Because it is so dense you will need to let it dry about 2 years if leaving it in the round. When the bark starts to peel off on its own it will be ready.

J.P.

 

[kd460]

I just picked up a cord of apple as well. Some dry and burnable, some not. It is nice stuff and burns hot. I would rather split oak though. Because it's so knotty and twisty, plus it is a really hard wood. So you get a good work out. You will like burning it, not like splitting it. KD

 

[JBinKC]

Apple is a great high BTU firewood with a pleasant aroma but it has a much higher value in smoking meats particularly poultry in commercial operations hence its very high value per cord. Not too many wood types work well with poultry but Apple is one of them.

 

[DavidV]

burns well, cooks well, and if you can get straight flat pieces makes great furniture.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

By all means, do not be afraid of burning apple. Some rate it higher than oak for btu. As for drying, it will dry about the same as most hardwoods. Give it a year to season well.

We've burned apple for a long time. Not a lot but we just mix it in with the rest of the wood we cut out of our woodlot. The worst thing about apple is all the trimming you have to do (kind of like a pin oak) and the fact that there aren't too many straight logs (at least ours are awfully crooked).

 

[jpl1nh]

By all means, do not be afraid of burning apple. Some rate it higher than oak for btu. As for drying, it will dry about the same as most hardwoods. Give it a year to season well.

We've burned apple for a long time. Not a lot but we just mix it in with the rest of the wood we cut out of our woodlot. The worst thing about apple is all the trimming you have to do (kind of like a pin oak) and the fact that there aren't too many straight logs (at least ours are awfully crooked).

Agreed, the trimming and crooked logs are the only drawback to apple. My brother in law built a new seasonal home in Nobleboro Me off of Damriscotta Lake. He has two heirloom apple trees at the top of his sloping 4 acres of property called Catshead apple. They are well over 125 years old and over the years the apples and seeds have made their way down the hill towards the lake and grown in competition with ash, cherry, red maple, birch and pine. They just thinned out the woods between their house and the lake to the extent Maine law allows and set aside the firewood for me including 8-10 apples that grew straight up trying to compete in the woodland. Its really unusual to get 15' lengths of nice clean straight apple. Yummy!!